Kaizena From Google

I was perusing through some on-line articles this evening and I came across information on a very cool program.  It's call Kaizena and you access it through your Google account.  Forgive me if you know about this-I did not.  This program is basically a super cool way to give students feedback on their work.
How many hours have you spent hunched over a stack of assignments, pen in hand thinking to yourself that you have spent an enormous amount of time sitting at your desk that you will never get back?  Well, I dare say that this might actually save time, and you might actually enjoy giving students feedback.  With this program you can add voice memos, and videos as feedback devices for your students.  You can also save your resources so that if you see the same error in several assignments, you can access your resources from the program, and don't need to re-open or return to a different window to do it.  I would imagine that students would be able to use the program themselves in the same way and assess their own work. I am just dying to try this out!
Below is a brief video tutorial for how to use the program.  The tutorial is an example of how you might use it in a secondary setting, but I know it's applicable in elementary and middle years as well.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you would use this program in your own class.  

Keep Calm and Stick to Routine

I feel the buzz at school and I talk to my students about it all the time. When they are starting to disconnect from me I tell them they are like sand in my hands, and they're starting to slip through my fingers.   Then I ask them to come back to me, practice self control, and help me review our chart that tells us what independent learners do. 

As the year starts to come to a close, it can be tempting to relax our daily routines and expectations. Don't do it!  Dig deep for those last few weeks because we all know how it goes: the days can feel so long, then you blink and the week is gone. You might as well make it so that the days that are left are as pleasant as they can be, and the best way to do that is to stay true to all the hard work you've put in with the students to develop, understand and adhere to routines and expectations.  That way, maybe you'll walk out of the door that last day instead of run!  ; )

Where Do Students Keep Their Stuff???

If you have had a chance to look at my previous post, you would see that there aren't enough desks in our room for all of the students that are in the class.  But Ashley, where do the students keep all their stuff????

I know.  That was the first question that arose when I decided to change our space.  

This is a picture facing our Listen to Reading station.  Here, students have access to audiobooks and their companion books.  I have found that many students who are not at a level where they can read chapter books or novels love this station.  They simply track the story in the companion book.   But I digress...

The part I would really love to draw your attention to are the bins you see in front of the table.  At the time, I had 18 students.  I would have loved to allow each student to have their own bin for them personally, but I just couldn't afford it!  So I settled with giving the students a bin buddy, which I decided wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

The smaller bins are used to keep pencils, erasers and pencil crayons.  That is it.  Any extra materials they have are kept in their pencil cases in a drawer they can access easily if they need it.  The larger bins keep their notebooks which have all been labeled according to subject.

The small bins have been numbered 1-27, and the large bins have been marked the same.  But there are only 2 students for every bin.  In other words, there are no students assigned every third number.  I did this in case I had another student come later in the year who would need to be assigned a bin number.  Also, I have a couple students who I wanted to have their own bins, mostly because I knew that they are not the organized type, no matter what I do.  ; )  

When it is time for students to get their materials, one of the bin buddies is responsible for getting books and materials.  They take turns doing this throughout the day, but figure that schedule out themselves.  The bin buddy who does not get the materials is expected to say thank you, and the students hold each other to that.

This is also a great set up for when a student is missing.  Right now I have the bin buddy putting papers right into the books of the missing student.  While this is ok, it's not the most efficient.  In the future I envision doing homework folders, or something of that nature instead, and giving the folders a table where the bin buddy will make a quick note about the class(es) the student missed and what the assignment was.  All papers would just go into the folder.  (That's been in my head a while.  Better make an actual note about it...)

We started out in this new space with the bins set up exactly like this, and it wasn't long before we realized that they could not be so close together.  In fact, one of my students came to me and said, "Um, you know what we should do?  We should move those bins around the room so we aren't so crowded.  It's a little crazy trying to get our stuff."

I told her she was absolutely right, and that I would take a day to think about the best place to put them.  Then she said, "Yeah, probably we should put them here along this wall (as she pointed by the whiteboard at the front of the room), and there by your desk."

So we did.  That recess.  And they sit there still.

Some people have asked me about time.  How long does it take for students to get their materials and sit down.  Really not that long.  For the most part, only half the students are going to the bins to get materials, the other half are already sitting in our Instructional Space at the front of the room.  (You can read more about that space here.)  And since we've spaced the bins out around the room, it actually takes even less time for them to grab their things.  We have also worked hard to learn how to move quickly and efficiently during transitions, but sometimes, a little friendly competition is needed, and nobody wants to be the rotten egg!  I have thought about getting enough bins for every student to have their own, but I'm thinking now that I might have more problems with transitions if I do, not to mention I'd have to use precious space for more bins!  We'll see...

So that's it.  Bins.  I guess that would have bin the short answer.  Sorry.  Couldn't resist.  It's bin a long day.   Ok.  Now I'm done.  

Change is Good

I remember the moment well.  I was attending a conference in Saskatoon.  The Two Sisters were sharing their knowledge about Daily 5, CAFE and the new Math Daily 3.  For the first time in a long time this year I was feeling excited.  The topic at this point in the conference was classroom environment.  We were being shown images of classrooms that were centered around the Daily 5 model.  I was oohing and aahing over them, but I also found myself at a crossroads.  These were exactly the spaces I wanted to develop in my own classroom.  I wanted a reading nook, and a love seat, and rugs, lamps, small tables-I wanted it all!  But how?!  I only had a regular size space.  To do all that, I would need a huge classroom.  Wouldn't I?

Then it happened.  One of The Sisters said,  "Now I know what all of you are thinking.  You're thinking, 'How big is your classroom?!'  But I'm going to tell you that to make this work, we have half as many desks as we do students.".  That was it.  The lightbulb went off and I knew that I was going to be able to transform my classroom environment.   In the week that followed I put in long hours to change the landscape of that space, and the changes that happened in seven days blew me away.

In a previous post, I wrote about how my classroom started out and why a traditional classroom set up didn't work for my students and I.  You can find that post here.  Today, I'm going to share some images of the new classroom environment, and tell you a little bit about how it functions.

This is the closest to a full room view that I was able to get.  If you were able to look at the images from my previous post about our classroom environment, you would know that this is leaps away from the classroom set up that existed previously.  These changes were all made based the Daily 5 classroom model.

This space has been set up with a plan, and we have dubbed the work areas around the room to be Good Fit Spaces.  The table that you see in the foreground of this picture is the "Listen to Reading Station".  Students use the laptop, desktop and a recently added CD player to listen to audio books as they follow along with the companion book.  This allows something very cool to happen; students who may not be at a reading level for chapter books or novels are able to read them and enjoy the story as they are essentially listening to someone else read.  At the end of their reading session, they are asked to recount some of the details from the book they are reading in a binder.  

If you haven't yet, you will soon notice that there are only 10 desks in classroom.  This is not because I only have 10 students.  I have, in fact, 17 students in my class.  I know! The first question that I am asked every time someone new sees this space is "Where do all the students work?".  The answer is that they are allowed to work anywhere they like, and interestingly, only a small handful of students ever choose the desks, even though they are allowed to work there at any time.  The pods were created, for the most part, as a space for me to organize guided groups, and to help students improve on common strategies.

In the middle, right hand side of the picture you will see a small coffee table that I picked up from a local thrift store, and bumped up against the table is a small shelf consisting of three cubes.  The shelves hold materials for word work and classroom books.  The small table is the perfect size for my students to sit at and work.  

The large open space at the front of the class is first and foremost an instructional area.  Ideally it would be defined by a large area rug, but I only had so much time!  When I am teaching, this is where I do it.  Students are asked to sit in that space, close together.  The general rule of thumb is that they should have just enough space for themselves, and almost be touching knees with the person sitting next to them.  In this space, the person they are sitting beside becomes their elbow buddy.  I deliver short lessons, trying to maintain a 10 minute lesson maximum before letting students choose their Good Fit Work Space to practice the skill just introduced.  In the times when we are working as a group in this area (usually for Math using whiteboards), students are allowed to have a bit more space, but in general, they sit and work fairly close together.  Teaching lessons in this space this way has had a profound impact on classroom management.  There have been almost no interruptions to instructional time.  Let me say that again.  There have been almost no interruptions to instructional time.

Recently, a student told me that she preferred the classroom the way it was before.  When I inquired as to why, she said because I didn't notice when people were fooling around as much.  She also said they didn't have to pay attention as much.  I said, "Thank you for your honesty, but I think it's best for our  learning if we keep the room set up the way it is."  Mental fist pump!

I'm sure you have noticed the love seat in the classroom.  That is our designated reading area, although students may choose to work there as well.  The key to this, and any space in the room, is that students have to learn what is a good fit space for them.   I will talk about how to help students find their Good Fit Spot in an upcoming post.

The above picture is the classroom space to the right of the Listen To Reading Station.  The small table behind my desk provides extra space for students to work.  I have significantly downsized the Teacher Shrine area and became more organized and efficient in this process as well.  (To see what it looked like before, check out images from this post.).  It is important to note that students are also allowed to work at my desk from either side.  The table butted up against the wall in front of my desk is at our math station.  Students have access to learning tools and manipulatives that they can use at any time.  The counter on the right side of the image is extra space for students to work, and has become a popular area for them to go when they work independently.  (I think it's because this ledge faces the window, and it's a sunny spot to work.)

This is our classroom space in a nutshell.  These pictures were taken in March, a week after I attended the conference.  (I told you, I drank the Kool-Aid at that conference, and I'm so glad that I never looked back.)  A few more changes have been made to this space since these images were taken and I will share them with you in the future, but overall, the layout of the space has not changed significantly.

I will say that I love this new space.  My students are excelling in it, and I frequently have colleagues come in and sit with me on the couch in the mornings and after school to talk about it.  I can tell that it's the beginning of a wonderful journey that will link environment to student learning, and I am thrilled to finally be doing it.  I have also heard from several other teachers who work with my students that they have also noticed a positive change in them.  They have told me that they are more focused, they are problem solving better and they start working faster and stay working longer.  All these great things from changing our classroom environment!  

Writing Strategies with Morning Message

At the beginning of the year, we religiously completed a morning message.  The students seemed to enjoyed this time, and I noticed that it even helped some of the students come out of their shells. It helped to create a safe place to share ideas, give suggestions and practice speaking in front of each other. 

As the year went on, this routine fizzled out. I take full responsibility for that one. I can't say that, as a general activity, it was really missed by the students. Sure there were a few who asked about it, but the students weren't on my case demanding a Morning Message. 

When I reflect on it though, I have to say that Morning Message holds a lot of value, and in the future, I'm going to make more of an effort to ensure we use it on a regular basis.  This time was spent on more than your basic fill-in-the-blank activity. We covered a lot of ground in 10-15 minutes. 

I was able to model writing for them on a daily basis. When we were learning to write letters, I wrote one to the students every day. It gave me a chance to focus on letter format, appropriate greetings, and I gave examples of different formal endings.  Sometimes the letter was up on the board before they got in, and some days I wrote it in front of them.  We focused on mood and voice. We tried to challenge our vocabulary by using interesting words. 

In general, we talked about spelling and letter sounds. All the time.  We focused a lot of the time on "tricky" words, like when a c makes an s sound, or when gh are silent partners making an i say it's name.  We talked about synonyms and homonyms. We talked verbs, adjectives and nouns. We experimented with punctuation and capitalization. We talked about simple and compound sentences. And then it all just fizzled out like a glass of soda turned flat. 

Why?

To be honest I can't really nail down one reason in particular. I think it has to do with a group of reasons. 

1.  I was writing every day, and some days I felt like "we did this message already". I guess there's a boredom factor. 

2.  I would have preferred to write up the next day's message at the end of the school day, but I'm officially done at 1:50pm, and I didn't always stay until 3:30pm. That left me feeling like I just added another item to the To Do List in the mornings.  

3.  Some days I had major writer's block. That was not fun. 

4.  There was definitely the classic "time factor".  Some days I just felt like there was too much that we had to do, and in those crunch times, Morning Message was the first thing to go. 

Off the top of my head, I guess those would be some of the hurdles for me. But as I look at them now, I see that there are some places where I can make changes. 

1.  Boredom. My students didn't show they were bored, and never commented how the messages seemed the same so I guess, suck it up lady!

2.  Time table. That's one I can't change. Let it go. 

3.  Writer's block. I could have some pre-prepped pieces ready to go. I could also have students write the morning message. 

4.  Time. Let's get real. Sometimes it's out of my hands. There are definitely those days, or even weeks, where time flies out the window and there are never enough hours in the day and you're doing whatever you can to stay afloat. It might be certain points throughout the year that affect educators in general (finals and exam times, report cards and activities happening in school for example), but sometimes your personal life takes the front seat and that's a different kind of crazy for everyone and is simply unpredictable.  However...

Sometimes, the "no time" thing, is definitely my fault. I can be a procrastinator.  Usually it's small responsibilities that stack up and eventually take over my desk and my life. If I would have just dealt with them for 5 minutes, it would have been done. But I have to admit that I tend to think like this, "It's only 5 minutes, I'll do it tomorrow".  Before I know it I have a list of 5 minute items to contend with, and suddenly I have a project. (I never seem to learn...).  The lesson here is that I need to ditch the procrastinator in me. She's no help anyway. 

When I weigh the pros and cons, I see how valuable Morning Message is.  It's a great opportunity to have mini lessons around writing conventions, sentence fluency, voice, ideas, organization and word choice. I get to spend about 15 minutes a day doing focused lessons for writing, and that is definitely time well spent. 

I Have a Dream

I have a dream that my classroom reflects the ideas that I have about teaching and learning.  It accommodates many different learning styles, encourages collaboration between students, and allows me to moves seamlessly among them to guide them on their individual learning paths.  My dream begins with a classroom that is comfortable.  It is inviting.  It doesn't look like this...

There are probably many of you who are looking at this picture and saying, "But Ashley, there isn't really anything wrong with this.  I have seen many classrooms like this."  

This is my Grade 4 classroom in March of this year (2014-2015).  I can only say that I never felt completely comfortable in it.  I'm about to walk you through this space and tell why this does not work for me, and more importantly, why it doesn't work for my students.  

Desks and Desk Arrangement.

I entered into this space at the beginning of every day, and the first thing I saw without fail was books or pencils or papers or scissors or garbage or shoes or erasers sitting on the tops of the desks, and I became instantly annoyed.  Not a great way to start the day.

Every student had a desk where they were responsible for keeping their materials.  The thing about a desk is that students have everything they need right at their fingertips, and in theory, it is a very good thing.  In reality, it's a nightmare because they have everything at their fingertips.  I would frequently lose instructional time because of problems with classroom management relating to desks.  Students would have their hands in their desks, or would be fiddling with something on the top of their desks, or they would be distracted by each other.    

Pods can be great.  I love giving students the opportunity to work together so they can learn and teach each other.  The thing about pods is...students sit in segregated groups spread around the classroom, and it can be very difficult to monitor all of the students and keep them focused during instructional time.  As a result, I was forever trying to strike a balance between effective instruction and the perfect pod group for all students (which doesn't exist by the way).  My favorite phrase quickly became, "Ok Grade 4, I need everyone to practice self-control".  

The alternative I had to pods was desks in rows, which I hated and my students hated, and which all but stifled any collaboration between them.  As a result, I opted for pods.  It was the lesser of two evils for me.

One Environment Does NOT Fit All

When you look at the picture above, you can tell this is a homogeneous environment.  There is a desk for every student to sit and work in.  Knowing this, I would often find myself wondering why one student or another was always out of his or her desk.  While there were some students more than others up and out of their desks, all of my students did it at one time or another.  My spidey senses would tingle because I knew that this environment was not conducive to what my students needed.   The classroom needed to be more dynamic, but how?

The Organization Illusion

You would think that, if every student had a desk, and every student had a locker that keeping a classroom organized would be easy.  Well think again.  Part of the problem is that desks are very hard to keep organized.  Those little people have a lot of materials to cram into that little space, and if they are not explicitly taught how to keep it clean, it is likely they will not be able to.  I can't count the number of times that I thought my own desk was not big enough, so I can empathize with my students here.  This brings me to the next issue...

The Teacher Shrine

I love that term.  I heard it at a conference I attended this year led by The Two Sisters.  It's hilarious because it's true.  I consider myself a very organized person.  I like to have a clean, clear, well ordered space, but you'd never know it by looking at this picture...

If you can, look past that student desk that is giving me an instant migraine just by looking at it, to my area behind.  Just look at all that space designated just for me!!  It's embarrassing.  As one of my nearest and dearest goals is to create a student-centered space, I think it's safe to say that I was moving in the completely wrong direction in achieving that environment.

I'd also like to say that the cabinet behind my desk is full of "stuff", and almost none of it was useful to me.  The only items I kept in there that I used frequently were my scarf and mittens.  What a missed opportunity for organization!  Some of the "stuff" was mine, most of it was not.  Looking back it would have been prudent to clean it up, and put in all those binders and teacher resources I had sitting on the counter to the left of that cupboard.  I guess hindsight is 20/20.

Colors in the Classroom

As you can see, I covered the bulletin boards with basically every color in the rainbow.  Oh boy.  Here's the thing about this: I know better.  I know about color.  I think most people do.  There is a reason that schools are painted that ghastly eggshell color.  While it's nobody's favorite, I believe it does serve a purpose, and that is to ensure that the space for learning is not overstimulating to students.  Thankfully, there has been learning in this area and we've found out that natural, neutral colors have the same affect as "eggshell".  Alleluia! 

Again, here I am doing the exact opposite of what I know to be true.  I know that pink, and lime green backgrounds, used with orange and white chevron boarders (I know, even I couldn't look at it for long), are not the best use of color to create an environment that encourages calm and collected independent learners.

The good news here is that in order to do better, I had to start somewhere.  In my next post, I will share the transformation of this space, and trust me, there's a difference.

Never too late...

This is my very first post on my new blog dedicated to learning, teaching, and learning as a teacher.

I have chosen this title ironically for a couple of reasons:
1.  We are fast approaching the "end of the school year", and it seems a little silly to start a blog about learning and teaching so close to the end.  In doing this I am either incredibly early, or incredibly "late".

2.  It's 12:30 in the morning.  Again, early or "late", depending on your perspective.

I hope that you are patient as you wait for me to make this new project something special, however, I will be adding new material immediately (immediately after a 5-7 hour sleep, depending on when I actually get to bed and when my nearly-two-year-old decides its time to wake up in the day).

I hope you find and use this blog as a tool for your own personal growth, and for the learning of your students.