Read it Again!

 Season's Readings! It's cold and stormy here, and I can't wait to take my insulated mug of tea and climb under a fluffy blanket with my new book, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. My book club will be discussing it next week, and I am hoping that it will transport me away from the memories of the book I finished just this morning. I haven't stopped longing for the fantasy world inside that last one.

My mind is wandering back to all the read-aloud, class novels, and lit circle (book club) books that have filled my teaching life for so many years. When I open a copy of Tuck Everlasting or Gifts From the Sea, I am immediately transported back, not only to the world of the story, but also to my painted rocking chair and the engaged and precious faces in front of me. We felt all the feels together, and made some precious reading memories.

Everyone must have at least one book or story that never gets old, and is a different pleasurable experience every time it is reread. When I was ten years old, my little brother was an insatiable fan of Dr. Seuss. To this day, I can still recite Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat by heart. As soon as the book ended, my brother would joyfully shout, "Again!" I won't tell you how many times I've reread Second Star to the Right. Ok, ok, at least 12 times. Maybe more. Really, do you ever tire of visiting Disney Land or World? The familiar feels like home, and there is always something new that you may have missed or forgotten. My copy of The Velveteen Rabbit is worn and loved as much as the tattered main character. The images of the rooms in the ancient rooming house of Second Star to the Right can be called up at will, especially the top floor. (You'll just have to read it. I hear you have a little vacation time just ahead. Since there's more than one book with this title, here is a link: 

My classroom application of all this reminiscing would be to have a "sweet memories" book club. (Create your own title if that's a little too sugary for you.) Ask your students to write on a ballot the titles of three or five or whatever number of books that they would love to reread and discuss in a book club with classmates. Tally the ballots and put a few groups together. I can't imagine a more delicious lit experience than this! My head is literally spinning with the idea of discussing my all-time fav (above) with others who have read and loved it! 

If you decide to have a sweet memories book club experience, please please please comment below or email me and I'll enter you in a drawing for a $10 TpT gift card! I would love to hear all about how it went!

For resources to help you make this happen in your classroom, try these resources from Rainbow City Learning!

Wishing you and your students Season's Readings, and a sweet holiday season!

 

For more December thoughts and tips, be sure to check out the posts of my blogging friends.

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts

that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials (to make your teacher life easier) at TeachersPayTeachers.com.  For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

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Enough at Holiday Time

Our family has a reunion every year at Thanksgiving time. We are scattered all over the country (actually all over the world) now, but each year as many as possible try to meet up for a banquet cooked by professional chefs (yay!) rather than by any of us. We meet in a hotel back where I grew up and spend several days just enjoying each other and loving on our newest generation. It takes me back to my childhood, when most of the meals were home cooked, certainly at Thanksgiving, and when most of my extended family hung out together all the time. We were there for so many of the milestones in each other's lives, sometimes because they were official and came with an invitation, and sometimes because we just happened to all be there. We were all always there, either at my parents' house, or my grandparents' house, known simply as "down the house" (In Pittsburghese, "You gon' dahn the hause?" Or, "See ya later dahn the hause.") We never said yinz in our family, but we sure pronounced words like dahn and hause just that way. It brings a tear. Sigh.

Our Thanksgiving celebrations through the years always included the long table for adults and the kids' table. I believe I sat at the kids' table until I graduated from college and was married with a tiny apartment table of my own. It was a good place to be, and a great place to grow up.

We hosted a brunch at our house recently, and my favorite grandson (aka only grandson) asked if we could move the kids' table to the end of the adult table so that it would be just one long table and we all could sit together. What a brilliant idea! I wish I had thought to ask my grandmother the same question. Her kids' table was seriously all the way in the living room. We always felt that we were missing something over there! Brunch was so much fun that day, and the furniture arrangement just might have had something to do with it!

Thoughts of Thanksgivings past and future also brought me to the thoughts of the season of excess, which seems to start earlier and earlier each year. I thought I had finished all of my holiday shopping yesterday, but thought of several items that I wanted to add today. A tiny voice in my head said, "Enough!" The voice was right. I took some time tonight to think of all the things that I have enough of. I certainly have enough clothes to last forever. Six bags are ready for donation right now. I have a precious family to love, and I know they love me, so enough love. I have probably far more friends than any one person deserves, so enough friendship. Since I've rekindled my love for dancing and exercise, I am mostly blessed with good health. I do request that you stay away from me though if you have not had your flu shot. Learned that the hard way. Enough food? Probably too much, given my never-ending struggles with the scale.

Yes, enough. I am so sure that I have enough that I have no holiday wish list of my own. The days ahead might just be a good time to consider with your students and children or grandchildren, nieces, and nephews - whoever is important in your life - what exactly each of you has enough of. And then, you might want to extend the conversation to ways you can reach out and share with others who might not have enough. Some examples (some that I've talked about in previous blog posts) might be:

• Adopt a family to gather and wrap holiday gifts for.
• Pack winter comfort bags for the homeless.
• Visit an elderly residence and play board games or sing. 
• Plan an act of kindness to do every day (or even once a week) for someone else.
• Share your holiday spirit by learning more about winter holidays celebrated by others in your community and around the world.

An amazing book that I've just discovered is I am Enough by Grace Byers. It is a lovely way to remind our children that each of them is a precious gift to the world.

For resources to make your teaching life a little easier in the days ahead, and to learn about winter holidays celebrated by others, click here! Winter Holidays with Rainbow City Learning
For resources to emphasize Gratitude, click here! Celebrating Gratitude with Rainbow City Learning

In the days ahead, I wish you a seat at the table surrounded by those you love, and the most precious of gifts to open: friendship, caring, and awareness of the needs of others.

For more November thoughts and tips, be sure to check out the posts of my blogging friends.

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts

that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at    TeachersPayTeachers.com.  For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

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The Beauty of the Buddy Bench

When I was six years old and walking to my new school where I didn't know anyone, I heard a voice from across the street: "Hi! My name is Gloria! Will you come to my birthday party tomorrow?"  My new very outgoing little friend introduced me to all of her friends, and all the anxiety of starting at a new school vanished! We became fast friends for many years following.

When I was a junior in college, my sorority decreed that we ALL needed to attend a fraternity party that we were invited to as a group. Nervous and somewhat annoyed at being forced to attend, I walked into the party with my friend Susan. The most adorable boy greeted us, took my arm, and said, "Didn't I meet you before?" It was a corny beginning, but we celebrated our fifty-first wedding anniversary this year!

Each time I began teaching at a new school during my teaching career, there was always a smiling face in the next classroom, or across the hall, ready to become a lifelong friend, and to teach me the ropes of a new, unique situation.

Entering a wedding shower for my friend's daughter, she told me to "sit anywhere". I looked around the room, and whispered (I thought) to her, "I don't know anyone here." Immediately, a sweet and adorable cousin of my friend (someone I had hadn't met yet) appeared at my side and said, "I'm Terri. Now you know me. Sit with us!" Terri is one of my favorite people to this day!

At funeral this week for a dear friend, my husband and I were sitting alone and really feeling the sadness. The man in front of us turned around and started making jokes with us. I said, "Do we know you?" He said, "You do now. I'm Jack, and this is my wife Pat. Now we're friends."

This week's funeral encounter made my mind travel back to all the other times in my life when I was sad or alone, and a stranger became a friend. As a teacher, I always tried, and sometimes struggled to make this magic happen for my students. I knew that, for kids, friendship doesn't always come just by getting them together at recess or in collaborative groups. That's where the Buddy Bench reports for duty.

The Buddy Bench
What is a Buddy Bench? This concept has been around since 2013, when a second grader came up with an idea for lonely kids at recess time. The Buddy Bench doesn't even have to be an actual bench, but it does have to be an agreed upon meeting place. When a child sits on a Buddy Bench, it sends a signal to others that he/she/they would like to interact with someone. This could mean just talking or joining in a game. It's a great way to promote inclusion and to build empathy. I'm all for anything we can do to build kids up from the inside out. The Buddy Bench is relationship and SEL magic!

The secret to success with your Buddy Bench is to discretely teach what it's all about and to model using it. When we installed one at my school, I discovered that the very kids who needed it most in order to find companions at recess were the kids who lacked skill in interpersonal communication. (Anyone surprised?) That's when I developed a set of cards that could be laminated and left at the Buddy Bench to serve as conversation prompts. You can make your own or find them for outdoor use here and in classroom use here, but the important thing is to practice using them. Select a topic and try a model discussion. The topics on my cards all center on finding some common ground on which a friendship may be built.  What are your favorite kind of movies? Music? Ice cream? What do you like to do best at recess? What's your favorite joke?  You get it!

The Permanent Buddy Bench  

Your Buddy Bench will be a fixture on your playground. Our PTA even added a second one right outside the office for indoor recess. Kids will use it to signal that they would rather not spend  recess alone, and other kids will join them. They will find something something to chat about, and may move on to a soccer match, a jump rope game, or a race around the track. They may even find a quiet place under a tree to read a book together. As a teacher (or recess supervisor), you need to kind of watch the bench out of the corner of your eye. If a kid has been sitting there for too long, either encourage a child (that you have pre-arranged a buddy position with) or go and sit there yourself. Start up a conversation. No one wants to put himself/herself out there as being all alone, and then stay that way.

My favorite nine year old told me today that the Buddy Bench at his school is just a place to throw your coat if you get too warm at recess. He went on to say that since everyone at his school is already such good friends with everyone else, the Buddy Bench isn't used anymore. My dad had an expression for that which, in translation, means, "It should always be so." I swear I heard his voice telling me that when I heard about this repurposed Buddy Bench! My wish for you is that yours becomes a coat holder as well!

In any case, your Buddy Bench should become a familiar sight and a familiar concept to your students. It's their signal to be good people and to include others whenever possible. How lovely to sit on the Buddy Bench on a perfect Spring day and chat with a new found friend! Sigh.

From an unknown source, here is a testimonial to the beauty of the Buddy Bench:

Wishing you peace, friendship, and a classroom full of good people!

For more fall ideas, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! 

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts

that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at    TeachersPayTeachers.com.  For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

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Five Tips for a Smoother September

 Did you blink? Summer is over! Everyone I know is finally back to school. The last round went back to school in Michigan this week! So many changes, new expectations, and new habits for a new school year! If you can stand one more piece of advice about smoothing out your September, mine would be to add just one new procedure at a time. Here are a few that I believe will make a difference in your year!

Start with the one that tells your students: Welcome! You are in a safe and accepting place, and everyone here is glad that you are here with us. Here's how I would get that started. (It's not too late to add this in for the current year, even if you've already started. Revised script follows here!) Close the door after all are seated and busy with whatever your morning work is. You: "Ok, I have something to share with you. The office has just discovered that they made a mistake. They placed all the BEST students in our grade right here, in this room, with me!"  Them: "Gasp!" (Gazing at you with wide-eyed wonder, as if to say, "How'd that happen?") You: "I know! Right? So how are we going to keep them from figuring it out?" Them: (Offer some ideas.) You: "Well, the key thing is to remember not to tell anyone in any of the other classes that this has happened. We have to kind of keep it low key and just act like we usually do, which is pretty close to perfect!" Them: (Looking around room, and knowingly smiling.)  This is not a fantasy. I have done this and it works.  You are telling your students that they are the best, and in most cases, they will try to live up to your faith in them. Want the best class ever this year? Just believe in that idea together. Send that idea out into your school, community, and the universe!

Use music for transitions, entering, exiting, and some of your writing time. Have certain songs that you play for lining up, for coming to morning meeting, for coming to the carpet for mini lessons, for starting center activities, and for cleaning up. Try keeping a playlist on your computer desktop for easy access when needed. Kids will respond by falling in step with the desired activity as they learn the music that is directing them to begin. I used a few of the Bullyproof Music tunes for most activities, but Seger's "That Old Time Rock n Roll" was a favorite cleanup song. "Got Your Back"(Bullyproof) is a great one for entering and lining up to go to specials, lunch, recess, etc. We loved "Gift" (Bullyproof) for coming to carpet for lessons because it made us think about how special the time we had together really was.

Try some tinker time. I have ALWAYS been a fan of project based learning, invention, and just plain old tinkering with stuff, long before STEM, STEAM, and saving Fred. Long before Genius Hour too! I would love to see you carve out a block of time wherever you can manage it each day where kids can interact with ideas and stuff and just set their imaginations free. Every classroom, science or not, can and should have a Maker Space, in my opinion. Here's a free Guide to Getting Started, if you're ready! The experiences that kids have with tinkering in a leisurely way will spill over into writing, discussions, and even test taking. It's great exercise for their brains. Try it and see!

Write every day. Journals, Interactive Notebooks note taking and responses, math word problems requiring longer answers, quick writes, or just free writing in a writer's notebook to be used at a later time. Students should write in the company of others, and they should see you writing too. Try writing your own journal using whatever projection method you use (I used Elmo, and in the olden days, an overhead projector). The writing that you model should be pen to paper though, not keyboarding into a document. Show that you are happily putting the same effort into your writing that kids are putting into theirs. They will learn much more from watching what you do than from just listening  to what you say about writing. As you develop a new Interactive Notebook lesson, be sure to project what you are writing so all can see it. Writers who write in the company of other writers have far fewer cases of writer's block.

Read together every day. Have a read-aloud going, no matter your grade level. Humans love to be read to. Don't just assign reading to be done at home. Let your kids read in the company of other readers. It will raise those reading levels much quicker! They will notice new books they'd like to try, see examples of others enjoying reading, and enjoy it themselves more and more each day.

Five habits for September. If these five things are in place by the time you and your students arrive at October, I'm guessing that you will say it's been a good month! Happy sailing through the days ahead! Take care of yourself, and enjoy these fresh new moments with your new friends!

For some fresh October ideas from Rainbow City Learning, just click below!

For more ideas as you dig into your new school year, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! 

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts

that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at    TeachersPayTeachers.com.  For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

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How is it August Already?

 This post has been featured on the TpT Blog! That was soooo exciting for me, and I hope that you may have noticed it there! The blog fairies have been here and thought that I should write a post about how to ease into the new school year, but honestly... Today is a huge wedding anniversary for my sweetheart and me, and I told the blog fairies to kindly visit someone else today. I decided to take my own advice as detailed below, and squeeze every last drop of summer pleasure into my heart and into my memories. I hope you enjoy reading this oldie but goodie post, and get a little more summer under your belt to last all year long!

Aaaaahhh....August! August is the Sunday night of a teacher's year. We are looking forward to our learning and teaching days to come, yet longing for just a little more summer. We are making plans, thinking about setting up our classrooms, and yet feeling the need to sink our toes in the sand once more, watch just one more Netflix binge, or read one more beach book. It's a feeling that I still get as a retired teacher. I feel the butterflies in my stomach, find myself wondering who is on my class list, and when I can finally get into my room to work. Those feelings never go away, even as I realize that those days are over for me.

So teachers, as we move through August together, I think I know a little of the approach-avoidance feelings you are experiencing. As memories of August past flood my brain, I hope I can offer a few ideas to make your transition back to class easier! Of course, if your district has already returned for the new school year, you probably have a tip or two to offer us already. I hope you'll share in the comments!

Just because  the stores are shelving school supplies earlier and earlier each year, that doesn't mean that you have to spring into action and start gathering. The shelves will be restocked and more and better deals will appear as we get closer to the actual opening of school.

Don't be so anxious to get into your room. It will still be there if you choose to spend a few extra vacation days with friends and/or family. It's usually a struggle to gain access early in August if you are a Labor Day district like ours, so why not wait until the school is actually ready for you to dig in and transform your space?

For years, I stayed away from Labor Day gatherings, choosing instead to make my desk name tags, type up my revised class list for the twentieth time, and pack "Welcome to my Class" bags. Looking back, I think I could have enjoyed the Labor Day fun and still had a great first week.  Savor every last delicious moment this year and then retrieve it to recall on a long and cold winter day.

AT HOME

Have you stressed out over what to wear to school each day? Consider spending a little August time cleaning your closet, donating items you never wear, and shopping for a "capsule wardrobe". The idea of a basic wardrobe of fewer pieces that can be mixed in multiple ways really isn't a fad. It's been around under many names since the 70's. You can trust me. I was there. I didn't heed the advice, but I heard it. Looking back, I realize how much easier my mom life and teaching life could have been with this teeny tiny change in habit. If you have a sparse closet filled with mix and match pieces that you love love love, getting dressed in the morning will be snap!

Will you miss your summer gym time? Bike rides? Long walks? Yoga class? Make a plan now on how to make exercise a part of your school day. A lifestyle modification that worked for me was to go to sleep an hour earlier than I would have liked to so that I could get up an hour earlier to work out. When my children were really young, I made this a two hour difference so I could be up in time to exercise for an hour, shower and shampoo, and be dressed and ready to leave for work before waking my girls. Decide what you would like to accomplish in the morning and work backwards to adjust your bedtime. Adjusting to an earlier bedtime is a life-changer!

Worried about having great family meals ready after working each day? The Instant Pot is a miracle machine! Dinner ready in no time at all! (Unless you choose a recipe that uses the Instant Pot as a slow cooker. I did this once - the first time I used mine. We ended up waiting 3 hours for dinner instead of 30 minutes! Hahaha! Now I check the cooking times before getting out the ingredients!) Use a lazy August evening or two gathering recipes to try in the fall.

Stressful to pack lunches in the morning? Make a plan to batch pack those meals in a quick weekend hour. Snack boxes, bags, mason jars, and bento boxes make great containers for pack ahead meals.

AT SCHOOL

Does your room have to be Instagram perfect before the students arrive? Why not ask for their ideas on furniture arrangement and groupings? Have some basic bulletin boards to set the stage for students to contribute their work. I have found over and over again that students who feel a sense of ownership  in their classroom will show much more respect for the rules, materials, and equipment.

Would you like your Meet the Teacher event to run more smoothly? Have a few activities ready for kids to complete, like an All About Me page to display for the first day of school. Have a brochure ready for parents describing your philosophy and plans for curriculum, along with contact information. Keep it as simple as possible. I loved using a trifold brochure. Try really hard not to plan a heavy room setup work day on the same day as Meet the Teacher.

Here's a bulletin board idea: Make signs with FAQ and answers and post them all around your classroom. Very helpful for parents and for students. Less for you to explain over and over as the first days roll on.

Will you use more Project Based Learning? Would you like to try Math Centers or a Maker Space? What's your plan to build your classroom community? All of these ideas and more are soooo much easier to contemplate away from the scene of all the excitement. Do a little reading about the top item or two on your list. Subscribe to a professional journal or blog related to the topic. Join a Facebook group of like minded teachers who are going to try out the same new practice. Start small and grow your practice as you feel more comfortable.

I can't say enough about how the simple act of writing quietly for fifteen or twenty minutes each day will bring balance and serenity to your life. It will provide insight later to what happened on a frustrating day and will provide memories that will bring a smile to your face for years to come. 

When I started my journal writing at the very end of each school day, my students were wondering what I was up to. Was I writing about them? Was it good stuff? You could hear a pin drop and minds working as my sweeties got all reflective in their own journals too!

Get together with your teaching besties at lunch or at the end of the day to just laugh out loud at some of the outrageous, cute, or even challenging things that will be a part of every day. Try laughter instead of commiserating as often as you can. Humor feels much better than frustration and anger every time!

Some teaching besties and I have started getting together (from across the country by phone) each Sunday night to laugh about some of the things that have stressed us out as teachers. It's the best cure ever for the Sunday night butterflies. We have had so much fun laughing at ourselves and the overwhelming tower of things we have taken soooo seriously that we decided to start a podcast! We hope you will join us by listening and by interacting with us on our Facebook page We Teach So Hard. Because we know that you teach so hard too! I hope this teaching year is the best one ever for you!

We Teach So Hard is currently available on several platforms. As an iPhone podcast addict, I of course am THRILLED to see it on iTunes. Meanwhile, meet up with us here:

Podcast on iTunes   Podcast on Anchor   Facebook Group  

    

For more ideas as you start your new school year, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! 

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts

that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at    TeachersPayTeachers.com.  For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

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Summer is Almost Here

Summer is almost here! Can you feel it just ahead? This is the time to pack up your room, pass out your Super Summer Kits, collect your fabulous teacher gifts, and collect lots of hugs, smiling through your tears. Don't cry. I'm here to tell you from the other side of your teacher life that your students loved you and appreciated all you did for them this year. When they look back on their school years, the older they get, the more they will realize what you did for them. Many of them will even find ways to tell you. I promise. 

As teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe once said, "I touch the future. I teach." As
you close up shop for this year and start to plan for next year, never forget that in all you do and say and plan, you touch the future every day. What an awesome superpower to have!

Reaching out into the future, you may find an idea or two in this bundle from Rainbow City Learning. The Summer Activity Calendar is a must! Lots of ideas for other add ins. 

What was the Super Summer Kit? It was simply a large ziplock bag or white 8 1/2 x 11 envelope filled with an activity calendar, a list of books "Recommended in Rainbow City" by other students, a goodbye letter from me filled with memories of our year together, and hopes I held for them as they grew up and away, fun writing suggestions like nature observations and different ways to make fun books and journals, a list of fun local day trips and summer field trips, and a summer bucket list brainstorming activity called "I Would if I Could". Kids used these throughout the summer with no future deadlines or pressure. Some even took them to camp for some downtime suggestions to share with bunkmates. I made a colorful and personalized cover page for each one, and loved having this unique gift to greet them on the last day of school as important as the backpack bags I greeted them with on the first day!

Since I have now have evidence that so many are hugely successful adults, and since those who looped with me or returned to a classroom of a teaching friend that I could check in with came back refreshed and even smarter, I have to conclude that the Super Summer Kit was enough. The thick worksheet books that parents used to clamor for at our local book shop every May and June seemed daunting and uninteresting to me. What kid wants an assignment to complete every day all summer long, in  the interest of "keeping skills sharp"? Kids need their vacation and down time just as much as we adults do to refresh, recharge, and renew our interest in learning. I always found that the activities that I selected for that kit (most found right here in this bundle) were a "just right" approach to summer learning.

So, if you are lamenting the end of the school year, even while looking forward to your own summer plans, and want to send your babies off with a fun and learning filled kit for their summer, I hope you'll check out these summer resources from Rainbow City Learning for a happy slide through summer and into the next school year. And don't worry, they're still making more! (Love and kisses to Joanie, now in Heaven. She always told me not to cry on the last day because they were making more (kids) and when they were ready, they'd send them!)

For more summer inspiration, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! This is our last linkup until August. Posts in this linkup are limited to Teacher Talk member bloggers only.

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at TPT. For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

                                         

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Spring is Blooming in the Classroom

Spring has arrived in Michigan y'all! Ok, so it's going to snow next week, but right now, I'm lookin' at eighty degrees and lovin' it! 

"When the flowers bloom, so will the children!" was a favorite piece of advice offered by a favorite principal of mine! She always promised us that success will come for even the most frustrated or frustrating student. For many of them, all that is needed is the gift of time. 

While you're watering and encouraging those tiny sprouts all year, did you ever wonder what it's like to be a student in your class? I often mused over that question. Sometimes I would sit in a student desk after they had left for the day to get a different perspective on our learning community. It was a very interesting activity, and I highly recommend it! Sometimes it takes walking around a block or two in the sneakers of a student to begin to understand, and hopefully to come up with a change in teaching strategy. (One more reason that it's IMPOSSIBLE to submit lesson plans for the full year in advance. Teaching is as much art as science, but you already knew that!)

As you consider these blooming possibilities, I'd like to suggest a few ways to watch yourself bloom this spring, right alongside your students. Could be humbling, and exhilarating all at the same time! 

Have some reluctant writers? Try writing in your own journal right here in class, during journal writing time for students. I wrote in my journal and projected what I was working on right up on the SmartBoard in real time. My students loved it! I had lots of markers, glitter pens, and stickers to add illustrations as I went, and could really see growth in my students as they tried to do what I was doing. 

Reluctant readers on your roster? Try reading something in a genre that you yourself don't normally pick up. For me, it was Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. I don't usually read nonfiction with quite so much detail when I select books for pleasure reading. My usual choices are romance, thriller, science fiction, and a sprinkling of historical fiction. Caste was much stickier to wade through, and helped me to see strategies that I needed to use to get myself from one chapter to the next. The same encouragement can be given to students who need a gentle push to keep up with their book group.

Word Work avoiders in your midst? Try some word games like Scrabble, Perquackey (vintage, but you can still find this amazing game in some online selling sites), or SCWORDLE (find it here at Rainbow City Learning!) When we associate working with words with game playing, our interest in the work that follows increases! Have you tried online Wordle yourself? Humbling, I promise!

Attitude issues? Try something new that makes you feel a little awkward or unsure. Then use what you learn to help smooth out the edges of some of those in-class attitudes. Sandra Bullock tells us that "The rule is that you have to dance a little bit in the morning before you leave the house because it changes the way you walk out in the world." We dance in the mornings in my house, and you might be dancing in yours, but can you say for sure that all of your students are doing the same at home? Of course not! So when you have a brain break, don't just turn on the music and sit down. Get up and dance! Everyone, including you, will have a whole new attitude about learning when the music stops! 

Hope you have found a little inspiration for springing into the last quarter. Here's another favorite post of mine packed with spring ideas! 

Happy Blooming!

For more April inspiration, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! Posts in this linkup are limited to Teacher Talk member bloggers only.

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at TPT. For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

                                   

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Waiting for Someday

Do you ever tell yourself "someday" when thinking about something you'd love to do, or should do? 

 How many times have our students heard, “Someday” when they ask, “When”? Max, a little anthropomorphic beaver in the picture book Someday by Denise Brennan-Nelson, wants to spend some special times with different members of his family, but keeps hearing, “Someday”. He checks his calendar to sadly find no “Someday” anywhere. 

Here's a lesson that I loved creating, loved teaching, and loved even more when I saw the results of the student responses! This lesson is perfect for grades 3 through 6.  My friend Cindy and I, two newly retired elementary teachers, were so lucky to still have contact with kids every week, thanks to our wonderful teaching friends who invited us into their classrooms. We used this lesson with fourth graders. It met the standard for Writing: Text Types and Purposes (3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, 
and clear event sequences.) It met a much higher standard too - absolutely melted our hearts when the responses were shared!

The plan:
 1. Read and discuss the book Someday Is Not A Day of the Week. 

2. Talk about the special people in our lives and some of the special moments we've shared with them.  Encourage students to discuss in groups, adding lots of description and details about how that special time felt to each of them.

3. Use a graphic organizer for each student to brainstorm for the narrative writing piece. We compared that special time together to a gift that can be wrapped up and saved forever (the gift of time!). Here's the organizer we used, but your students can also draw  their own:

4. Using the graphic organizer as a guide, students write a narrative about that special time with that special person. The narrative can be between one and three paragraphs. It's meant to be a "snapshot" of a time, not a long writing piece. The most important part to stress here is the way the child felt during this time, demonstrating how much the experience meant to him/her. 

5. Students cut, decorate, and fold a little box to contain the memory writing piece. Here's our template, but actually any small cardboard box from home would work. Students can decorate the box or wrap with actual wrapping paper and ribbons. (When you see our results below, I think you'll want to use a card stock template and let students decorate with their own drawings!)

6. Students fold the writing piece small enough to fit in the box, holding the top closed with a sticker or very small piece of tape. 

7. If you decide to share responses in class, have some tissues ready! (for you!) 

Tissue Alert:

In two of the three fourth grade classes we visited, a child told us that the story was about a special time with Grandpa, who has since passed away, and the box containing the story was going to be a gift for Grandma! (Are you crying yet?) Melted my Grandma Heart!!! 

Cindy and I looked at each other, and our eyes filled with tears. We told each of those sweet grandchildren that we could imagine how that is going to be the best gift in the world for their grandmas. 

Some pictures from our lesson:

 

This lesson is a small part of a Bullyproof Rainbow unit all about

Gratitude. The amazing song "Gift in This Present" by the gifted Lessia Bonn is part of the unit. You might want to take a look at the unit if you loved this lesson!

                                     

Don't wait until "Someday" to stock up on some great resources from Rainbow City Learning on TPT! If you click on "Resources that Build Character and Bring Success", you will find all of the amazing Bullyproof Rainbow Resources that I worked on with Lessia Bonn of "I Am Bullyproof". 

The TPT Spring Sale will run this year on March 28 and 29. All of Rainbow City Learning will be on sale for 20% off - even already reduced bundles! Use the code FORYOU23 to save up to 25%! 

Wishing you spring happiness and sunshine ahead!

For more ideas to try this month, please check out the fabulous bloggers of Teacher Talk! Posts in this linkup are limited to Teacher Talk member bloggers only.

If you would also like to be a part of Teacher Talk, we are a group of teacher bloggers who share posts that are heavy on the ideas with just a little selling of our educational materials at TPT. For more information about joining The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative, go to https://bit.ly/3o7D1Dv.  Feel free to email me at retta.london@gmail.com if you have any questions. 

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