Princpals' Princples

How hands on is the principal at your school?

Principals have different leaderships styles which means not all principals are stopping by classrooms on a daily basis checking in with teachers and students. When I was part of an interview committee last year in order to help select a new principal for the school I was working at, all of the candidates emphasized how they would be visible in the school, how they would greet students in the morning, and how they felt it was important to be in and out of classrooms throughout the day. I was pleased with their statements and ambitions because I really do think the visibility, familiarity, and presence of the principal are all very important.

The principal where I work now is wonderful. He knows the names of students so that he can greet them personally. He teaches the students' IT class, so they interact with him in a learning environment every single week. He also fills in for teachers when they are sick. This morning one of the teachers whose room I work in was absent and the principal was there filling in for her. His commitment to the school, teachers, and students is really evident in the way that he can easily take over for teachers. He has classroom management skills and he has a great repertoire with the kids that is not reflective of them being intimidated by an important person they barely know, but a true respect for an adult they know well and like a lot! I think it is extremely important for administrators to maintain an understanding of what it's like to be the teacher in the classroom with 20-30 students.

All too often, administrators get far removed from daily classroom life and lose the ability to relate to the hustle and bustle that can sometimes be a bit chaotic (especially in elementary school). I really appreciate the fact that this principal is playing for the same team as the teachers and shares in the responsibility for teaching the students. Of course principals have many responsibilities that require them to be away from the building or in their offices, however I am so happy to be at a school where the Principal's door is always open and he is routinely popping into classrooms and circulating throughout the building. A quality of a good leader is leading by example and my principal truly does that.

What kind of leadership does your principal demonstrate?

If you are a teacher, do you feel supported by the principal in your building?

Would you feel confident leaving your students in the Principal's hands if you were absent?

Done!

I just finished my unit plan for my global literature class, submitted it to my teacher, and now I am officially done with fall term 2009!

Woot woot!

I am not going to know what to do with my spare time for the next few weeks before we go on break from school and hubby and I head to CT!

Online Shopping

I finally started my holiday shopping today. After rethinking my plan to leave all my shopping for December 20th-23rd once I am in CT, I decided to order dabble in some online shopping because it will make my life so much easier.

I am so thrilled to be able to shop for my niece this year, because buying stuff for little girls is oh so much fun! My sister in law mentioned some good options, so I began hunting around online this morning before my meeting. One of the things I was looking for was at Pottery Barn Kids so I was browsing their fantastically adorable products. Little did I know how much "play kitchens" have improved since I was little. I think of the little plastic Fisher Price kind of kitchen, but no, Pottery Barn offers this:

And let me just say for the price, it ought to come with a little slab of granite!

Maybe play kitchens like this one turn little ones into the next Rachael Ray!

Pretty fancy, huh?

I also fell in love with some of the little fabric food items they have for sale!

Again, expensive, but SO adorable!!

Check out these puffy cookies. I would assume those cookie cutters are not sharp since this seems meant for little little ones.

And how about these totally charming puffy cups of hot cocoa complete with puffy white marshmallows? Love it! Putting those marshmallows in those cups also offers good dexterity practice!

These two items are sold separately, but I would probably have to get both because I can't decide which is cuter! Puffy cupcakes or a puffy three layer cake. So fun!

I did have a special request for some Melissa & Doug wooden play food, so I didn't get any of this stuff...this time.

Also, because the item I was hunting for at Potter Barn was backordered, I came across these as an alternative. Make sure you look at all the choices because they are SO cute. I am not going to say which one I chose on the chance my sister-in-law reads this, but I would love to know which one is your favorite! I actually like these ones better than the ones available at Pottery Barn because that selection was quite limited, yet there are so many choices here. Not to mention, I was excited because shipping is free with Amazon, so I was able to get all of my niece's Christmas and birthday gifts for reasonable prices and free shipping. When I get home to CT, they will be waiting for me.

No stress. No fuss. No crowds.

I love online shopping!

Thanks!

Thanks for all the comments on which course I should take next term. It was pretty much unanimous that I should go for the course about teaching struggling adolescents in reading. I agree that I will learn more from that course as opposed to another course about teaching English Language Learners (even though I do think those skills/strategies are extremely important). Since it's almost 1,000 dollars a course, I just want to make sure I am getting the most out of each class and I have already taken a lot of courses geared towards ELL's. I am currently working with about 5 middle schoolers who struggle with reading fluency and comprehension. I am excited to learn some good strategies and challenge myself to come up with some ideas as to how I can work with them more effectively.

***

One of my students was absent today, so instead of just wasting that 45 minute period, I went to one of the third grade rooms I used to assist in, since they still do not have a new assistant (even though I switched positions a month ago) and offered to help out with whatever the teacher needed. She asked me to take two ELL students and play a game with them on initial consonant blends. They had played the game before, so they were familiar with the rules, but I noticed right away, they were playing the game and using strategies, but they weren't really getting a ton out of it. The object of the game was to match consonant blends with word endings to see if a real word can be made. Each player has a pile of word endings and in playing the game, they land on certain spaces that allow them to take three blends and see if they can make any words. The point of the game was to make as many words as possible.

I immediately saw that one student was simply using the "self correction" clues on the back of the cards to see if she could make a word, without sounding out the words or thinking about the meaning of the "correct" words. It is so interesting to me how students learn "survival skills" when they are navigating activities and lessons that don't really make sense to them.

After I noticed the "strategy" that was being implemented, I encouraged both students to tell me the sound the blend made and then sound out word made by adding the blend to the word ending, whether or not a real word was made. I tried to encourage them to think about the words and decide whether or not they were real words or nonsense words rather than just checking the back of the card and seeing if there was a word listed that began with the blend they had.

Let me tell you, this game was not for ELL's. Nonsense words are supposed to not make sense, however many of the real words were so abstract, I had a hard time explaining the meanings, since they didn't come across many words they already knew.

There I was trying to explain the words slack, grim, clam, flush, and trot without any additional visuals or supports. I tried drawing pictures on the whiteboards and using the words in sentences, but these words certainly were not familiar to the students. At the end I switched gears, because although it is fun to play games, when the necessary learning is not really taking place, they aren't really that useful and effective as teaching tools. I started to show the blend cards one at a time and had the students take turns saying the sounds. Then I asked them each to come up with a word that began with that blend. They came with the words like star and play that meant something to them and practiced actually verbalizing the blended sounds which they were not doing during the game.

Had I actually planned for this activity, there are so many other things I would have/could have done, but I was just spontaneously trying to help out a friend since I know the workload of those teachers has increased since I switched positions.

It feels good to be nice. :0)

advice?

I just talked with my advisor on skype and we discussed which courses I will be taking next term. I am going to do 3 courses (11 credits). He teaches two of the courses and I want to take one more that is a WEB course and completely online. My first two choices for the WEB course were a no go. The class called American Culture was restricted and the class on Minorities was full already. Boo!

So I am left with two more choices:

Teaching Struggling Adolescent Readers

or

Literacy Instruction for ELL students K-12

I can't decide and I definitely don't want to do both because it's expensive and 11 credits is definitely enough.

Since I am now working with several older students who are struggling readers, I feel like that course would be very applicable to my current job. The drawback is that it is more aligned with SPED and not necessarily so much with culture or multicultural education which I am trying to focus on.

The other course on teaching reading to ELL's is more applicable to my program and my overall course of study. The drawback to that one though, is that I did a whole ESOL endorsement already and I am not sure if it will really introduce a lot of new knowledge and ideas.

I am leaning towards the class geared towards middle and high school struggling readers because it is different than other classes I have taken and I have always taken classes focused on elementary students rather than older students. I think it would be good to take a class that only focuses on older students.

Which class do you think I should take?

school is expensive

I just found out that I have an outstanding balance of $41 on my school account even though my tuition for fall term was paid in full three months ago. I called the Accounts Receivable office to ask them why there was a hold on my account (preventing me from registering for winter term) and why there is an outstanding charge in the amount of $41 after I already paid.

Apparently, this is a new charge, documented as a "Rec Center fee" which students now have to pay each term to subsidize the new buildings that are being constructed on campus.

I didn't sign up for that.

I definitely understand the need for suitable learning environments, but that will be an additional $164 a year that I have to pay on top of the already costly tuition. I guess it's just a bitter pill to swallow because at this point, I am not even setting foot on campus because of my remote learning situation. hmph!

I guess it's a necessary evil..paying for the upkeep of the campus, but for some reason I feel like that money should not come out of my pocket or any students' pockets.

Here in Germany, university is free. Well, there are some nominal costs involved, but it's not at all like handing over several thousand dollars every few months.

Doesn't it make a lot more sense for learning to be free!?

***

On a different note:

I worked in my friend's 7th Grade English class today and she was using a great writing strategy she just learned about at a conference for international schools in Hamburg last week. The acronym STAR is used to help students in the revision process. This teacher used a piece of chart paper with the letters S T A R written across the top, each with its own column underneath.

The letters in STAR stand for

Substitute/Replace

Take out

Add

Rearrange

When I came in, they had already been working on this strategy and had listed different examples under each category. The goal is for students to get rid of boring useless words that don't serve a true purpose in their writing and add vibrant, significant language that is powerful and has an impact on making their writing meaningful and entertaining.

She had also written on the board:

Rule #1

Don't fall in love with your first draft.

This strategy comes from a book called Teaching Adolescent Writers by Kelly Gallagher. I only know what I saw/learned today, but it seems like a great strategy that I would enjoy learning more about. It is really important for writers to understand the value in editing, revising, and working on a piece of writing until it is ready for publishing.