At Home with Math

In getting ready for conferences tomorrow I was trying to prepare some simple math games that I can teach to and send home with a few families so they can help their children with math skills at home. I came across this great site called At Home with Math. My favorite part about the site is that the information is presented in the exact same format in English and Spanish (yay!) which is terrific because one of my students who struggles in math has a mom whose primary language is Spanish and this saves me the work of translating the documents. They will contain the same images as the documents in English which is important when sending information home in more than one language. The documents, although written in different languages, should look the same and one should never be of a lesser quality than the other.

This site offers 10 activities (with extensions and alternative versions) that parents can do with their children at home. What is great is that the math activities incorporate typical household activities and materials such as cleaning up toys, junk mail, coupons, and sharing which makes them easy to incorporate into daily routines.

I always feel conflicted about giving families extra "work" to do at home, but often I find that parents enjoy these kinds of activities and are very interested in helping their kids and they appreciate suggestions. Often parents want to help but may not know how or what kinds of skills they should be helping with.

I am going to print out packets in both languages to have ready for a few of my kiddos tomorrow. I think when informing parents about what skills their child needs to work on, it is always helpful to provide examples of how to practice and to give parents materials to use so they can go home with a plan!

Metabolic U-Turn Diet

Although most of my posts are about teaching, I did intend for my blog to touch on fitness as well since staying physically fit and healthy is a big part of my life. 

Every summer I work with a wonderfully talented trainer named Daniel Iverson. Daniel is a certified personal trainer who owns Portland Adventure Boot Camp for Women. Daniel is hardcore and his camp is fun and extremely effective. With all the rain and crummy winter weather in Portland I always put on some weight during the school year and then hop on the bandwagon to fitness during the summer. Daniel helps me get in great shape and I am always thankful to him when I do my back to school shopping!

Daniel introduced me to the metabolic u-turn diet which is a great way to drop some extra lbs. This is a diet that lasts for only 7 days which I use when I have gone overboard in the indulging area so that I can get back to my baseline weight. Here are the rules:

• Eat a minimum of 4 meals a day
• The daily total for active carbs (total carbs minus fiber) should be less than 20 grams for the whole day
• Eat 15-30 grams of protein at each meal
• There is no set limit for fat/calories. In fact, eating fat at this point HELPS the process
• Try to eat a lot of fibrous veggies
• Drink a TON of water
• Take a multivitamin daily
• Take one gram of fish oil (in capsule form) with each meal

Foods you cannot eat:

• bread
• sugar
• alcohol
• certain nuts (peanuts & cashews)
• fruit
• pasta
• pastries
• crackers
• starchy foods

Foods you can and should eat:

• cheese
•  chicken
• eggs
• fat/oil
• fish
• lobster
• pork
• shrimp
• steak

Carbohydrates that are okay:

• asparagus
• broccoli
• cabbage
• carrots
• cauliflower
• celery
• cucumber
• garlic
• lettuce
• mushrooms
• onions
• peppers
• radicchio
• radishes
• raw brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, walnuts
• spinach

My typical daily meals are something like this:

Breakfast: Premier Protein chocolate shake (from Costco) & Light Babybell cheese

Lunch: 1/2 can of chicken with 1 tsp. mustard in endive cups, 1 light string cheese, additional vegetable like baby carrots or edamame

Snack: 1 cup lowfat cottage cheese

Dinner: 5 or 6 large sea scallops sauteed in 1 tbs. butter, 2 vegetables such as zucchini, mushroom & spinach, mashed cauliflower with garlic and butter, or broccoli & cheese

This is not a diet that I adhere to all the time. Rather it is a food plan that I follow when I feel like I need to get back to being a healthier eater.  I have done this a few times and even with some cheating (gasp!), I have still be able to drop a few pounds. After having a houseguest last week and eating out at restaurants almost every night, I was not feeling too healthy. I started the metabolic u-turn on Monday and have dropped about 4 pounds since then. I know my weight gain was temporary, but this diet plan helps me to make sure I get back on track and don't keep that extra weight on for too long.

Parent Teacher Conferences

This Friday I have 9 parent teacher conferences. This year, the format is a bit different and we were only given one day to conference rather than two. This means that rather than conferencing with all parents, we had to select only the students that we have concerns about and invite their parents in for conferences. The rest of the families are invited to come in and visit the classroom during an "open" time that goes from 2:00-3:50 with the stipulation that if they arrive and the classroom teacher is already speaking with a parent they should wait outside the classroom.

Since this format is new, I am not sure how it will go. 

I always find it challenging to speak with parents about concerns and student issues. As a professional, I always strive to mention positive aspects about a child before mentioning anything of concern or anything "negative."  I won't say that I beat around the bush per se, but I do think that when I describe misbehavior I work too hard to soften the blow and as a result the parents don't take the matter as seriously as I do because of the way I present it.  When you are facing the people in the world who love this child the most, it is hard to say something that makes you feel like you are criticizing their pride and joy.

I know that it is my responsibility to inform parents of what goes on while their child is at school because if I don't tell them they have no other way of knowing, yet there is a fine line with regards to what can be said. You cannot just blurt out anything, you have to craft your description to make the parents feel like you are on the same team, rather than judging them or working against them. You don't want them to feel as though it is their fault that there is a problem or that you think there is something wrong with their child, yet at the same time you want to be open and honest about any problems that exist.

This can be especially difficult if a child is experiencing a really tough time with academics, particularly when it comes time that you are requesting permission to evaluate the student for special education services. 

As a parent, would you rather have your child's teacher tell it to you straight, even if it might be negative/hurtful/embarrassing/rude/blunt or would you prefer a teacher that is tactful even if that means you may not get the most accurate picture of what is happening in the classroom as the teacher tries to spare your feelings?

Book Club

I started a book club at my school as a way to build teamwork and comraderie among our staff. Although we really enjoy choosing new books to read and discussing a variety of texts, we mostly enjoy the time to get together on Tuesday afternoons, enjoy some snacks, and chat with other adults! 

We have shared children's literature and read:

• Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
  
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Dicamillo and Bagram Ibatoulline
  
• Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison
  

We just finished a book called The Zookeeper's Wife which is based on the true story of a couple/family living in Poland during World War II who own and operated a zoo. The story was really interesting and provoked many deep discussions relating to the horrible discrimination against jewish people during WWII and the unspeakable horrors they dealt with. Not only is it horrible to think about what happened to the jewish families, but just as bad to realize the impacts on the defenseless animals.

Today, for our last meeting, we viewed the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." I highly recommend the film. It was not based on a true story, but was very touching. 

"Set during World War II, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences."

The coolest part of our book club is that we can run it as a one credit graduate course through Portland State University called "Teachers as Readers" and we only pay $50.00. Technically, there is an instructor, however we are on our own to decide what we want to read, when we want to meet, and how much we read each week.  We run the class in accordance with the trimesters at PSU and typically meet 8-10 times for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes each week. The class is fun to take and there is no pressure if someone has to miss a meeting or doesn't read all the weekly assignment. I more often find that group members read MORE than the required reading because they are so into the books!

In a profession where individuals are isolated in their work, spending most of the day with children/students, it is so refreshing to have time with adults and time to focus on professional development and the personal enjoyment of reading great books. Happy reading!

Books Books Books

I have been reading a lot of about culturally responsive teaching as well as diversity in education and have gotten some new books from the paperbackswap.com. These are books I am currently reading (I always seem to be reading 3-5 books at once) and I am really enjoying each of them. I actually already finished The Glass Castle and it was a terrific story that provided me with a lot of insight with regards to what the home life of the kids I teach might be like. I feel like sometimes I have a disconnect with my students because I can't relate to their situations, but this book helped me to have an idea of what makes some families tick. It was a quick read and I finished it in about a day because it was so good. 

The other books are professional development type texts that I enjoy reading to gain different perspectives on my students and my teaching strategies. I am trying to become more culturally aware and sensitive so that my instruction meets culturally and linguistically diverse student needs. 

Oh Happy Day!

If you are a teacher, surely you will understand when I say that there are days when I go home feeling like a failure. Whether the kids are a little too squirmy or you can hear the crickets chirping after asking a question, every teacher has those days.

    

 Today was not one of those days. 

I invited one of my students to eat lunch with me because I know she needs extra attention. We chatted about High School Musical and she made good connections about friendships when I asked her if she would rather be friends with Gabriella (the nice character) or Sharpay (the not so nice character). I know that she enjoyed the experience and it made her feel good. So it made me feel good.

I started teaching my class how to tell time today and we worked on telling time to the exact hour. The kids were excited to learn about time and they ALL got it. Even the kids who struggle with math got the correct answers and it feels great when that happens! Tomorrow they are going to make their own clocks to use individually because they love to have something in their hands to work with. I will post pictures and instructions (tomorrow?)

My coworker and I are planning an incentive for kids to practice sight words over spring break and we are putting together some game packs that the kids can take home to practice their words. We are going to have a lunch party for all the kids who practice their words daily (or most days) during the time off from school. We are using gallon size plastic zip lock bags and including some sight words on card stock, directions for many different games, internet sites with additional games, a letter to parents explaining the incentive, and a calendar for the kids to check off when they practiced.  I am having fun planning how to make learning sight words fun and exciting for kids and I am looking forward to seeing their improvement!

After school, our EBIS (Effective Behavior and Instructional Support) team met to discuss the kids who are struggling in reading. Most of those children are in my reading group because I teach the lowest group. I was SO PROUD to see that 4 of my students who were not meeting benchmark in January have gotten over the 20 correct words per minute benchmark in oral reading fluency. A couple were even in the 30's! Woo hoo! My class works incredibly hard and it is such a wonderful feeling to see that all the hard work is paying off and their scores are improving. Most of all, I want to instill in my students a love for reading, but we have those necessary benchmarks we have to meet as well and it is great to see them getting closer and succeeding!!