Practice Learning Hard Things

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In my last post, I wrote about pushing ourselves outside of the comfort zone in order to be better teachers by becoming better learners. I ended that post with:

In the new year, let's resolve to become better teachers by making learning a habit, the kind of learning that stretches us and feels uncomfortable. I believe this is the most important and vital thing you can do to become a better teacher. 

What will you learn?

I thought I would share two small, personal experiences with learning outside my comfort zone in the past year, as well as some reflections on how it impacted me as both learner and teacher.

First, I went to a Dance Trance class. This might not seem like a big deal, but you will have to take my word for it that this type of choreographed dance class is WAY far out of my comfort zone. It was extremely challenging, and, despite wanting to flow with it, I was absolutely awful. It is like I have a disability in this area.

Encouragement Leads to A Feeling of Possibility
I reflect on this experience, thinking about students I teach for whom reading and writing do not come naturally, just as learning choreographed dance moves does not come naturally for me.

What did I need in that situation? What would motivate me to continue to practice? What would help me overcome my difficulty and get better? What could the teacher have done for me?

No amount of critical feedback would have been useful for me at that point. I was trying very hard. What I needed was encouragement. 
The most helpful thing that a teacher could have offered to me would have been to notice and point out what I did right.

Encouragement leads to a feeling of possibility. At the outset, the most important thing for the struggling learner is to be motivated to return to this difficult activity and try again. A beginner is not helped by critical feedback. That comes further down the line. Grading my progress would not have been helpful at all. I already knew I wasn't getting it. What I needed was encouragement and a vision of myself that included possibility that I could actually learn this.

The Power of Practice

The second thing I learned out of my comfort zone in 2013 was to read Torah. I began this process right around the same time as the dance class. I had the same initial feeling of being overwhelmed with both activities. The difference was that with the dance class I only went once, whereas with the Torah reading, I continued to practice, taking it in small chunks and returning to it again and again. Ultimately, I was successful at learning the Torah portion.

What is interesting to me was how my enjoyment of the activity evolved as I began to become more competent. When something is highly challenging for me, I start out with timed practice. I force myself, using a timer, to practice for 5 minutes, then 10 minutes. As I experience the success of learning, that feeling
becomes its own motivation for returning to practice.

I also had a "due date" of my daughter's bat mitzvah by which I had to be prepared to share my Torah reading publicly. I think this helps as well in motivating practice.

Frustration and Struggle
Frustration is part of the learning process. We have to learn to stop fearing and fighting it. By continually pushing ourselves we come to understand what it means to try, to practice, to learn. Doing what is easy does not create the deep satisfaction that comes with true achievement.

Getting in touch with the challenges of learning makes us more compassionate and effective teachers.

In 2014…Leave Your Comfort Zone!

In a previous post, 9 Tips for Teaching in the Wild, I wrote:

Be the lead learner. ... If you think you are going to push kids to grow and take risks, ask yourself when was the last time you took a risk and tried to learn something new and challenging.

You are already good at many things…staying in your comfort zone is…well, it's comfortable. As humans, we like being comfortable. It feels nice. But GROWTH requires a step outside of that zone. 

We've all seen this:

But one of my teachers explained it to me like this:

There is a range, between the comfort zone and the "panic zone," where we are open to learning. In describing Habit 1 of his 7  Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey uses a similar graphic, with "area of influence" in the center and "area of concern" in the outer ring. Proactive people focus on their area of influence and, by so doing, that circle actually grows larger. 

I believe it is the same with learning.When stepping outside the comfort zone becomes habit, the learning zone increases. We become more comfortable with the feeling of growth, so that it fails to bring on panic. We become better learners.

Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can't Ignore You, calls this deliberate practice. He says that deliberate practice, which involves regularly stretching beyond one's comfort zone is what distinguishes the good from the great. 

"If you just show up and work hard, you'll soon hit a performance plateau beyond which you fail to get any better…Doing things we know how to do well is enjoyable, and that's exactly the opposite of what deliberate practice demands…Deliberate practice is above all an effort of focus and concentration."

In the new year, let's resolve to become better teachers by making learning a habit, the kind of learning that stretches us and feels uncomfortable. I believe this is the most important and vital thing you can do to become a better teacher. 

What will you learn?

Teaching with the Daily 3

I have adapted the Daily 5 structure for my 4th/5th grade language arts class from five to three. I also read aloud almost every day to my classes, so they do listen to reading as well.

A few reasons I LOVE Daily 3:

• Modeling- I followed the careful plan outlined in the book for creating anchor charts with students and modeling the correct and incorrect ways of doing each component. Normally, because time is such an issue, I find myself skipping steps. I expect things of students that I may not have carefully modeled. The modeling for Daily 3 takes time, but it is time well-spent. Everyone knows what to do and they quickly settle into productive activities. 
• Choice- I believe in giving students choice, as much as possible. Freedom within form works. Some students need more guidance with their choices, so I help with that. Other students have the maturity to manage their time and are able to be highly independent. 
• Personal Learning-This goes with choice. Motivation happens when we are fueled by our own interests and pushed to grow in accordance with our own abilities. It is a lot of work to be a coach and guide, to retain the flexibility and responsiveness to push each student. Despite the challenge, I can't imagine that one size fits all would do the job. 
• Authentic Literacy- This word "authentic" is starting to sound buzzwordy to me. I understand that we all have different definitions of what this means.  Authentic is the opposite of schooly. I am willing to bet that when offered the challenge of choosing five books for a desert island, it is a very rare individual who would choose a basal reader. Where the notion ever originated that canning and condensing the art of children's literature was a good idea could only have been from those who were poised to profit. However, I am amazed by the number of teachers who believe that they can't properly teach without the guidance provided by the accompanying materials. To those teachers I say, "read."

Daily 3 from Andrea Hernandez on Vimeo.

Uses for Google Forms

In her post, Getting Started With Google Forms, Catlin Tucker shares some interesting uses for forms in the classroom and asks for examples of other creative uses of Google Forms. Here are a few of mine.

Job Application: My 4th/5th grade students may apply for classroom jobs and, once "hired" they keep their jobs for approximately one month after which time they can apply for a new job or reapply for the same job. Jobs are optional.

Choosing our read-aloud book: I narrow down a list of possibilities to about 5 choices. When I share the form, I also share the links to the reviews of each book on Amazon. Everyone can vote privately for the book they really want without any peer pressure.

Daily 3 timesheet for accountability and self-monitoring:
I also tried using Google Forms to make a timesheet for students to record their Daily 3 choices. Since we rarely have time to do all three every day, I wanted them to make sure that they are choosing each activity over a week. I also wanted to have a way to see what they are doing, so I had them make a place on the form to record what they actually did during the time.

I demonstrated how to make the form, then had them make their own which they were supposed to share with me. It was a total failure for many reasons.

Because the Google form was such a pain and really didn't work, I decided to use an "old-school" paper graph with my other class. In some ways that one worked better, but overall I think the whole D3 accountability thing is not really working. 

Vocabulary via Twitter = Finicky, Frantic, Fabulous Fun!

9 Tips for Teaching in the Wild

Yes, I think I may have subconsciously borrowed "in the wild" from the title of Donalyn Miller's new book (which I haven't yet read), Reading in the Wild. I have the sense that she and I are on the same page (haha, pun intended) when it comes to teaching.

So, if you are a new reader, I will tell you that I am fresh back "in the classroom" after many years as an instructional coach/tech person, etc. I changed hats so often I lost track of my job title, but at the core (I only now realize) I was trying to change the culture of schooling to be more of a natural learning environment. After being told again and again why my ideas wouldn't work in a real classroom, I began to question myself. After all, the last time I had been a full-time classroom teacher was in the last century! So, when the opportunity presented itself to teach my favorite grades (4th/5th), my favorite subject (English language arts) and to pilot a brand new 1:1 iPad program...

I was scared. And it's been hard. And totally amazing. Now, with three months under my belt, I'm starting to really see the benefits of creating a "wild" learning environment. 

So, here are some tips I have for creating a natural environment where learning grows and flourishes.

1. Wait for it.
Nothing happens overnight. I started off with a million (seriously!) ideas. I wrote them down in a big book and then, I admit, I tried to make them happen as quickly as possible. When you plant seeds, they do not grow in one day. But they do grow. Have patience, little grasshopper!

2. Believe in it.
I have nourished and nurtured and developed my learning philosophy over years of reading, experiencing, growing, changing, watching and basically being passionate about what I do. I have a philosophy and I believe in it. This is not to say that I don't seriously question myself at times. But being rooted in a philosophy of learning is the soil in which the whole thing grows. The kids come to understand it and feel safe in the consistency of the environment.

3. Find your people.
There is no "I" in wild. Ok, so there is, but in my experience, nothing great happens without other people. I am blessed with phenomenal colleagues, a supportive administrator and many wonderful classroom parents. I also have developed a "PLN" that has developed me and continues to challenge me, connect with me and, at times, remind me that I am not crazy.

4. Trust kids.
I think that one of the biggest reasons that "student-centered learning" fails is that people are loathe to trust their students. After all, they are children, and they are going to make mistakes. And their mistakes might make me look bad as a teacher. Cultivating a student-centered mindset takes time (see #2), but it pays dividends. I have given my 4th/5th graders the keys to the castle, so to speak. It is a relationship based on trust and responsibility. I act as a coach and guide, but I also trust them to co-create the learning environment with me.

Exhibit A : This is their Twitter account, not mine.
They are logged in on their own iPads, decide who to follow/unfollow
and what to Tweet. A 4th grade student also designed the avatar.

Exhibit B: One example of what happens when you create the environment
and invite students to be co-creators of the learning. 

5. Be the lead learner. 

Everyone responds to passion. You can not find learning in the wild if you don't live there or at least visit often. Canned materials seem to offer comfort and structure, but they fail to ignite passion, nor do they meet the needs of diverse learners. The ONLY WAY you can discover all the opportunities for authentic teaching is to be an active, engaged, reflective learner. I also believe very firmly that you can not teach something that you do not practice.

Let me repeat, it is not enough that you graduated college and passed 4th grade way back when. If you teach reading, you must read. If you teach writing, you have to be a writer. If you think you are going to push kids to grow and take risks, ask yourself when was the last time you took a risk and tried to learn something new and challenging. 

6. Begin with the end in mind
Know the standards. Where are you trying to take your learners? What does growth look like? How you get there should not be predetermined because there are many paths. Flexibility and a spirit of exploration will enhance not detract, as long as you know where you are going.

7. Imagine it!I think the best teachers are blessed with abundant imaginations. Whether this comes from nature or nurture, I'm not sure. But I do think imagination, like every other trait, can be developed. We live in a time of abundance, where other people happily and freely share their own imaginative ideas for teaching. Pinterest offers a wealth of ideas.

8. When opportunity knocks, open the door!
When you hear about that great project, idea or learning opportunity, banish that little naysaying voice in your head that whispers, "There's not enough time" or "It's too much trouble" or whatever else it says. If it sounds like a great opportunity for your students, check it out. You know what learning looks like, right? Try something new. Even when things don't work out as we plan, there is always an opportunity for learning.

9. Enjoy the journey
You're allowed to have fun.

Real Reading: The Global Read Aloud

I'm thinking of writing a series of posts about making reading real. My definition of "real" (as opposed to schooly) is to use the kinds of activities and habits of mind that naturally and genuinely engage readers. My first post in the series (if, indeed it becomes a series) is a reflection on the Global Read Aloud or GRA. The Global Read Aloud is an amazing project started in 2010 by Pernille Ripp, a 5th grade teacher from Wisconsin.

Who Has the Time?
First of all, I had planned, before school even started, to participate in the GRA with at least one of my two language arts classes. But with so many Jewish holidays early in the school year and so little teaching time, I felt tremendous pressure to show evidence that my students were learning. Since I do not give traditional homework, nor do I use many traditional assessments (like weekly spelling lists, etc), I feel that my job is more challenging, as there is sometimes a basic lack of trust that educators are educating without constant (and often meaningless) data.

So, I seriously considered NOT participating.

And what a huge, huge mistake that would have been!

The only reason I did participate was to honor a commitment I had made (through the overwhelmingly large group on edmodo) to two other teachers.

The Book: Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
I think the biggest reason for the success of the GRA in my classroom was the excellent choice of book. Right from the beginning, my students were hooked. The characters were either lovable or detestable, and the main character, Melody, touched our hearts and made us think deeply about people with disabilities.
The spontaneous connections and conversations that evolved in the classroom were a language arts teacher's dream.
Would you rather be Melody or August from Wonder? 
At the end of every session of reading, my students would literally groan and beg me to continue reading. It was the high point of my day, every day.
Several students couldn't wait to find out what would happen and finished reading on their own. Other students who told me at the start of the year that they do not enjoy reading, said that this is their favorite book ever.

The Connections
We kept our connecting fairly simple. Our class tweeters tweeted, using the #GRA13OOMM hashtag. We Skyped twice with 5th graders at the Seattle Hebrew Academy and once with 4th and 5th graders at Talmud Torah in St. Paul.

We commented on each other's blog posts. We discussed the book in a backchannel chat, using Today's Meet.

A snippet from our backchannel discussion with SHA

We also had one or two surprises. When Jagger wrote a personal reflection about people who are "different" I tweeted it. A teacher in Australia assigned her class to comment on Jagger's post! He was amazed and reflected on his blog,
"This has been a world wide post and I am really glad about this."
We had some other students comment on our posts as well, which is always appreciated.

Real Readers Do It

First of all, I am a HUGE advocate for reading aloud. I have personally experienced the myriad ways that listening to reading strengthens comprehension, vocabulary, fluency and, most importantly, love for reading. Reading aloud leads to non-contrived discussions of character, plot, literary devices, and comprehension strategies. Real readers love to talk about what they're reading. Real readers connect around stories, characters, problems and ideas. The more we read aloud as a class, the greater our shared history of books and characters from which to make text to text connections. 

Reflection

The Global Read Aloud was a very worthwhile use of our precious class time. I would do it again in a heartbeat and would highly recommend it to other teachers. Reading this book aloud would have been worthwhile without the global connections, but the global connections definitely amplified the students' interest in and opportunities for discussion. Finding one or two other teachers/schools to connect with was perfect for us, and tweeting with the hashtag brought some surprising and welcome connections. I am excited, as are the students, to choose together our next read aloud book. It will have to be excellent to follow this one. I would love to continue the GRA idea and find one or two other classes who are interested in reading the same book on the same schedule and connecting to discuss. 

Empowering Students Through Meaningful Jobs

Alan November's "Digital Learning Farm" was the inspiration for my classroom jobs. The idea couldn't be more simple: people are empowered through meaningful work. Children used to be, in the times of farming, useful and necessary contributors to their families' farms and other livelihoods. Once children's work became going to school full-time, that feeling of usefulness and importance faded. Most teachers understand the importance of giving kids jobs to do, and many traditional classrooms do designate roles such as "line leader" and "pencil sharpener"to fulfill these needs. Digital tools offer the possibility of exciting upgrades to these jobs, allowing students to learn through doing while making authentic contributions to their communities.

I am experimenting with how to best structure this so that it becomes a deep learning experience for students. I introduced the jobs to 5th grade a few weeks ago, then introduced and started with 4th grade. I decided that students would need to apply for the job and, once "hired" would have a tenure of about one month.


Classroom Jobs from Andrea Hernandez on Vimeo.

Available Positions:
Global Connectors : Tweet, look for and organize possible learning connections, manage maps

Researchers: Research information in response to questions that arise

Official Scribes : Take notes, write weekly summary post on classroom blog

Documentarians : Photo and video documentation of the week’s activities

Kindness Ambassadors: Make sure that all community members are included at lunch and recess, remind community members of habit of the month, model and recognize kindness, give appreciations and remind others to do so

Librarians: Keep classroom and virtual library shelves in order. Add books to class GoodReads shelves, keep GoodRead-Alouds wall updated, set appointments with Mrs. Hallett

Graphic Artist/Designer: Design things for the classroom and class blog- graphics, bulletin boards, displays, etc.

Job Requirements:
Previous experience is helpful but not required. You will be able to learn on the job. Most important qualities:  proactive, self-motivated, desire to learn.
All classroom work must be up to date in order to be considered for a job. 

Read, Respond, Relate: How Authentic Literacy Builds Relationships

As teachers, we have an overwhelming number of tasks that are part of our work.  Because time is a limited resource, we have to sometimes pick and choose, to the extent that we have choice, which tasks are most vital.
Being responsible, in large part, for a child's developing literacy is no small thing.
The foundation of teaching is relationship. Teaching is, in itself, an ongoing conversation between teachers and students.

In the old days (not the "good old days") I was an advocate of the interactive journal. Students wrote. I read and responded. It took so much time. Every Friday I carried home a heavy box filled with spiral notebooks. I spent a good portion of my weekend learning about my students, understanding what they understood, learning about their hopes, their families, their pets.
At one point, in an attempt to lessen my workload, I offered that turning in journals for my response would be optional. I had not one student opt out. And, even though my workload remained hard, I was happy. I knew it was the right use of my time.

Blogs are, at least physically, a lighter load. No longer do I have to lug a box of notebooks home and back. Although the medium has changed, the task itself and the benefits it conveys, is basically the same. It is important to me to carve out regular time to visit each student's blog, to read and to respond.
It is hard to quantify the value in terms of building relationships, modeling quality writing and ongoing assessment of students' thinking and writing. (This is not a post about grades, but this is another reason that I find grades stifling. How does one grade an ongoing conversation? )

Seedlings- What's Going Well?

I got this idea from a new-to-me blog I'm really enjoying, Read, Write and Reflect.  From the post "Seeds:"

It amazes me how little time I feel that I have at the beginning of the school year. I feel that I’m constantly racing to get things done only to stop at the end of the day and see everything I didn’t do. This year I’m making a conscious effort to look for the seeds that show what is going well and marvel over them. 

This is me and not just at the beginning of the year.  I have a habit of focusing on how far there is to go. It is what compels me to strive, work hard, and push forward. However, I rarely take time to notice all that I have accomplished.
What's going well?
That is the question. And I've decided to answer it using artifacts.

Jagger wrote a really great blog post in response to the book,  Out of My Mind, which we are reading for the Global Read Aloud. Here is part of his post:

In Melody’s class there is a girl named Maria who has Down syndrome. She is always happy. This connects to me because my sister, Sydney, has Down syndrome and she is always happy. I really feel offended by knowing that people treat people with disabilities very poorly because even though they might be disabled or act differently doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings; they do and they care. Every time my sister gets a piece of candy or something it’s “Jagger too, get one for Jagger too” so they do care, they can learn. They are more like us than different. I want you to really think of that next time you see someone who appears to be “different.” Comment in the section below telling me if you have met someone different. Also, if you really want to make a difference go to a place like Hope-Haven and help out or donate to organizations that help kids with disabilities like DSAJ (Down Syndrome Association of Jacksonville).Wait don’t leave I have one more thing to say I haven’t been meaning to say different whenever talking about kids (or anyone really) with disabilities because like I said before, we are more alike than different.

I've started to introduce classroom jobs to 5th grade.  There are three students sharing the job of global connector. They are doing a great job tweeting from the class Twitter account.

Emily is one of the class documentarians. She is doing an amazing job taking photos without being distracting or disruptive. I have already seen a big improvement in her photos and the way she is using them to tell a story and document learning. Here are some photos and a Pic Collage she emailed me this week.  

             

I love how she showed the different jobs with this collage.

In 4th grade, we discussed the importance of taking time and effort to do quality work.

Students learned how to edit their own videos using the iMovie app, and they each filmed and edited a book talk. 

Kingdom Keepers from MJGDS Classrooms on Vimeo.