What I learned at school today

I remember having a conversation with my son when he was in grade 9. His teacher had given him a self directed project to do. He got to choose the topic and the format for the presentation, he even got to create the rubric for assessment. What a great opportunity right? He didn't think so and neither did many of his friends. Ï remember him saying "It isn't fair. We have NO IDEA WHAT THE TEACHER WANTS. How are we suppose to do the right thing if he doesn't tell us what he wants?" Instead of being happy about the freedom he had been given he felt frustrated, afraid and very anxious. It isn't surprising either. Up until that point he had been taught that school was about creating a product that conformed to a series of guidelines determined by the teacher. He was told what was important to know, he was handed the information or guided to the information sources and he created very tidy projects to represent the learning he had been asked to master. He had le

To start off our shape unit the students and I read "Tout le Monde est en Formes" by Ed Emberley. After reading the book we went on a hunt for shapes with the Ipad camera. We had a great time looking around the room and the playground for shapes. We discovered that there are circles, squares, triangles and rectangles everywhere! When we got back to class we decided that we wanted to make our own pictures just like the ones in the book. We used the scraps from our scrap paper bins to create our own pictures using squares, circles, triangles and rectangles. Here are an online shape games we played when were were done our project. Apprendre les formes What did I learn at school today? Shapes are a lot of fun and students have a great time playing with them. What is your favorite shape based project? How do you introduce shapes?

Dear Parent of the Average Child, I'm sorry. Your child is wonderful.  She is always at school on time, does her homework most everyday, works well on her own and is patient with those around her.  I really wanted  to go tell your daughter how proud of her I was of the work she was doing today. I was about to but you see I had a young girl  over in the corner crying because she hadn't had breakfast. Another was tromping around the classroom in winter boots. It's May. When I asked her to change she told me she didn't have any other shoes. I needed to send them and my CEA down to the office to see if we had some food and any extra shoes in lost and found.  Oh and over in the other corner there was a  boy screaming at the top of his lungs because, well no one is sure why. He is on a list to see a specialist, they hope to have a plan in place for him soon. Of course it has been 3 months, but the specialist teacher is overworked and only at our school a few days

We had a happy accident happen in Mme Hawtree's grade 1 class this week.  We have special guest come and speak to us about our feelings and thought and the words that we say. She used thought bubbles and speech bubbles to show the difference between the things we say and the things we think. Later that day in science we were talking about predicting.  I asked the students to pick 3 items in the classroom and predict if they would roll or slide or do both. After they had made their prediction they were suppose to test the item and then record their prediction and what actually happened in their science journals. One of my bright stars had a suggestion... "We could use thought bubbles for what we think will happen and speech bubbles to show what actually happened!"  Many of my students ran with this idea.  It became very clear for me and the student what was their guess and what was their prediction. Using bubbles to show thinking Predicting is often a tricky

Q: What is the difference between a fish and a piano? A: You can't tuna fish.    source:  http://www.jokes4us.com/sportsjokes/fishingjokes.html I recently had the opportunity to participate in sessions led by some of the the Instructional Leadership Team   in our district including   @ c_durley     @ OvelsonRhonda   @ michellerelova .  I initially agreed to participate because I was promised coverage and time to work with my teaching partner on a project of our choosing. Every session followed the same format and began with something the team called an Activate. Initially I was frustrated with the process. Why am I being blindfolded and asked to put a puzzle together? I thought I was here to collaborate with my partner. It quickly became apparent to me that the team was trying to model good lesson design. I remember being told when I was a student teacher that every lesson should have a hook. I also remember being told by experienced teachers that no teacher has the time t

I was watching NCIS last week and heard a line about Gibb's famous rules    It got me thinking about my "rules" in my classroom.  I'm not talking about the "Raise your hand"  or "Speak French" types of rules but more about the rules that define the culture of a class. The values I expect my kids to live by. So I started thinking about what my students would tell you were "Mme's Rules".  What are the things that I am always telling them, hoping it will guide them in their learning. Here is a few I think/hope I would hear: Mme Hawtree's Rules Rule 1:  Work hard Learning to read and write is HARD WORK. Learning to do it in French is even harder. My kids know that it is just part of the deal. Rule 2:  Do YOUR best. The rule is do YOUR best. Not do the best. Not be the best. Do the best you can do in any situation. Rule 3:  Do MORE. I always give kids a line but I always encourage them to do a little more... to push th

Tagxedo does everything that Wordle does... and  a little more. It allows you to  use shapes and words to create word clouds with a little extra style. There are many preset options for quick creation but everything is editable and customizable too. You can save your work in a variety of formats or share online. My favorite Tagxedo feature allows you to upload your own images and lets you create word clouds using them.  Here is my Twitter profile picture that I made using Tagxedo. Aren't I lovely? Kids could us this feature to make an "All about me" style poster using key words. Or they could use a picture of a famous person or animal and use words to describe them. Looking for an idea for a great mother's day or father's day card? You can use one of the many built in shape templates to make a word cloud full of compliments. With my grade 1 students we have done this as a group activity. We have brainstormed words for our fathers and picked a few shapes a

Don't get me wrong. I think what those young boys did in Nova Scotia was amazing. Standing up against bullying takes guts and they did make a difference that day. If you don't know the story you can read about it here :  Inspite of this I have a real problem with the what Pink Shirt day has become. I want to tell you a story about what I saw last year in my school.  It was Pink Shirt day. Students were all decked out in there pink gear (many shirts had been bought specially for the occasion) one of my little guys came in to my class a little late, looked around and looked down at his shoes. I watched as everyone turned and waited for him to take off his jacket so they could see his pink shirt. He wasn't wearing a pink shirt. Suddenly he was surrounded by 4 or 5 students. "Why aren't you wearing pink?"  "You have to wear pink today!"  "Don't you care about bullies?" The Pink shirt message had not gotten through with those kids.  

I'm a big believer in partner talk time. My students get a chance to discuss new ideas, teach each other new vocabulary, read with a partner and work together often during the day.  With little ones making partner groups can be tricky. Ask 6 year olds to find a partner and you will quickly see who is friends with who, who no one wants to work with and who really really wanted to work with someone who doesn't want to work with them. I tried pair generators on sites like the one on Superteachertools   and they can be great at times but give you very little control of your pairs and also are a little boring for the kiddos at times. One of the best ways I found to create truly random pairs (that I can still control a little) is match-up cards. Match-up cards are sets of things that come in twos. Students have to find the person who has their match-up card pair. That person becomes their partner. Examples of match-up cards: Uppercase and lowercase letters  (I have A

I was a terrible artist as a child.  I couldn't cut, stay in the lines or make anything that looked anything at all like what the teachers and other students seemed to be making.  I was terrible at art and I didn't much want to do it. It wasn't until university that I discovered the cookie cutter reproductions of teacher created projects wasn't what being an artist was suppose to be. It was about exploring and playing and creating and making a mess and getting better at it a little at a time. Every year in September when we go to do out first art project I look around and know that somewhere in the class there is someone who just KNOWS they are terrible at art. Someone who dreads taking out the paints. Someone who would rather be doing anything else. That is why every September I read "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds to my students. If you don't already know that story you can listen to it here: I always tear up a bit when I watch Zoé pass on her te

Todays #Kinderchat prompt is One resolution for 2014. @Math_Johnson asked the same thing a December 29th. At the time I had posted "Have a meaningful one on one interaction with each student every day" @Math_Johnson  had responded with "Great One. That is the heart of good teaching."   He is right, connecting with our students is important for good teaching. It isn't always easy though and it requires some thought and effort on my part. The question is how do we do it effectively? What does a meaningful one on one interaction look like? How do we find time to do this on a daily basis? Also, as a second language teacher is it harder to make connections when you can only speak to students in the target language? One thing that I try to do everyday is to meet every student at the door in the morning. This is something I learned from Harry Wong's "First Day of School." I stand at the door and greet everyone as they come in.  It is a

I saw this tweet this morning It lead me here:  http://www.kinderchat123.net/2014/01/introducing-2014-january-post-day-blog.html As I read the post I could hear my inner Barney Stinson say "Challenge Accepted!" So I took a look at the first assignment. Easy enough 1. Wordless Wednesday "A photo to represent 2013" Well actually not as easy as you might think. Here is my contribution. it is one image file... so what if it is a photo collage! Don't judge me! As for being wordless... well as these words don't count. Not really. Right? What did I learn today? Wordless blogging and symbolic pictures are hard for me. Are you planning on blogging more in 2014? Check out the #Kinderchat blogging challenge. Do you know of any other blogging challenges for teachers out there?