Letter to Staff

Dear Understanding Fellow Staff Member,

            If you are missing a small timer, I may have it.  It is rectangular, mostly white with green letters, and beeps when the time is up.  

            In early January, a student brought it to me describing it as a gift from him to me.  An investigation followed revealing that another student found it in the bathroom, and- unsure of what to do with it- gave it to this boy.  A conversation on honesty, responsibility, and integrity followed.  I told the boys that they were old enough to know what the right thing to do is when you find something that doesn’t belong to you.

I got back to my favorite thing which is to actually teach academic material, and forgot the timer on my table.  The next day I needed to time a student’s trip to the bathroom.  Instinctively, I reached for a timer.  “You have 2 minutes, or else you are using the Kindergarten bathroom next time.”  I grabbed the lost and found timer because a substitute had left the building with mine in December.  (I know because I saw him later that week.  “I have something I need to bring back to you,” he said.  “Yeah, my timer.  I know.”  He never brought it back, and our school has not brought him back.)  Later in the day I needed to progress monitor students’ reading, an activity that demands time keeping.  I grabbed the timer, and that was it.  Using it as my own became a habit.

This past week we discussed the implied “you” imbedded in command statements.  We used sample sentences such as, “(You) Make good choices.”  “(You) Do the right thing.”  “(You) Be sure to live with integrity.”  Every time we have conversations like this – every time I find that a student is being less than truthful with me and I want to preach honesty and trust – I hear that timer’s weak but serviceable beep somewhere in my subconscious telling me that time on the lease is up.

So, there it is.  A month later I am trying to do the right thing.  If you lost a timer – white with green trim, counts up and down – I may have it. I have used it, and allowed students to use it.  I have even lent it to other teachers, and tracked them down to ask for it back.  If it’s yours, please let me know, and please know that I am sorry it has taken me this long to get it back to you.

Sheepishly yours in time,

Mr. Mikula

3rd Quarter Goals

I was asked to create goals for the thrid quarter.  Setting goals for students has always been tricky for me.  Is that too easy?  Will that be impossible?  How will I measure this?  What if we don't meet this?  But, I've gotten better.  I think they key is to set the bar high.  Students perform up to your expectations.  Here are mine.

Math and Reading Goals

My goal for reading and math is that each student will have achieved 1 year’s worth of learning gains by the end of the 3^rd quarter as measured by STAR and/or Galileo testing.  According to the latest results from both of these tests this will be challenging with some individuals, but is definitely within reach.

Meeting the Goal in Reading

I have reorganized my reading groups for this week.  I am excited because students who have shown a lot of improvement will be able to receive more appropriate challenges.  I will work with the lowest 11 students in my class daily.  We will work on vocabulary and site word recognition for a majority of that time. All groups will have book club style conversations before, during, and after reading.  We will record these conversations – podcast style.  We will continue to read a healthy mix of fiction and nonfiction.  I am changing our word wall this week to make it more student friendly.  Words we know will be sorted by parts of speech up on our west wall.  The bulletin board will be a place for children to add unknown words that they come across in their reading (and a brief definition) for which they need to determine the meaning.  I’m excited because I’m organized.

Meeting the Goal in Math

Again, groups have been reorganized.  This makes it easy for me to pull groups from centers and target specific skills.  However, I have decided to back off of centers a little bit.  The bottom line is that for all students to make the growth I want to see, they need to be proficient in all operations.  Right now, we’re not there.  So, this week we will do many whole group, small group, and partner activities.  I have extensions designed to challenge higher students who will likely finish some of the practice activities more quickly.  I have time built in to the schedule to pull the lower groups.  Once more activities are taught, and students become more confident in solving situations, then it may be appropriate to utilize more centers for practice.  But, I feel there is a lot of teaching that needs to happen at this point.

Character/Leadership Goals

My goal is that students will utilize their talents to fulfill functions necessary to our classroom.  Their leadership will be evident when they are able to complete these tasks independently of my help.

Meeting this Goal

Every student has applied for a classroom job.  After conducting interviews for some positions, all students have been hired.  All students, with the help of our real estate agent, have found a neighborhood, or table, where they can afford to live.  Students who are not performing their role adequately – or make poor character choices – may lose their job, and will need to find a way to pay to stay in their house, or else sit on the floor.  But, I don’t see that as a likely scenario.  I am hoping that their need to be a productive citizen helps them make good choices, and that their talents will enable them to be creative, innovative, and successful in their employment.

February is coming up.  The said neighborhoods are all named for areas around Washington DC.  As we look closely at certain historic heroes - famous women, presidents, African Americans, and Chicano Americans - our projects will be exhibits for the nearby Smithsonian.  Bonus.

It is beautiful when what you want to do, what is in the curriculum, and the strategies you are using to meet your goals all overlap.

The Marathon

I was talking to a teacher friend about a marathon she recently ran.  She had a great run, and felt fantastic about it.  She ran the 26.2 miles in 5:23:00.  You would think that it was brutal.  I’m sure it was.  Then, she compared it to teaching.  Actually, she said the marathon was easier.

After my day, I saw her point.  I planned an after school floor hockey program, creating lessons, finding resources, sending the lessons to my supervisor, accepting feed back, making changes- improvements.  I set up folders for my 11 most struggling students.  The folders included all recent test information.  I identified patterns in areas where students were struggling.  Turns out we have some work to do with “applying and interpreting the concepts of multiplication and division as inverse operations to solve problems.”  I also packed the folders with 100 sight words the students have struggled with, and the order in which we will study, practice, learn, and internalize these; 5 words at a time.  I also picked the books that we would work through beginning next week, packing corresponding vocabulary activities into the folders along the way.  I created 4 story problems and strategically ordered them so that the students will do one on their own as a pretest, 2 together, and one later to hopefully demonstrate that they have mastered the strategies to tackle these types of situations independently.  I called two students’ parents, filled out the 2^nd quarter academic awards, started my weekly newsletter, and emailed our school leaders about a piece of equipment that had been damaged during the day.  I graded math assignments in order to plan who I would work with during tomorrow’s centers.  I made copies, touched up lesson plans, and neglected things I needed to do for my self.

My own 5 and a half hour run began at 3:00… after an 8 hour day in the classroom.

Quotes

I have seen people begin and end pieces of writing with a quote since I can remember.  High school teachers used to eat that up. 
As I have grown I have become more appreciative of quotes and the power that they hold for an individual.  I am not writing papers anymore, and am reading literature that is more relevant to my life as a professional.  I continue to grow more and more passionate about teaching, and everything I come across is automatically related to my life in the classroom.  I have found that quotes– sometimes accompanied by a vignette that explains back story– help me reflect, provide words to live by, and even drive my teaching.  So, here is my current list of favorites.

“God will see.” – Michelangelo, when asked why he was spending so much time on a corner of the Sistene Chapel that few would ever see.

“Real life is only one kind of life– There is also the life of the imagination.” – E.B. White, when asked whether his stories were real or make believe.

“Tenacity is a virtue, but it’s not always crucial for everyone to see how hard you work at something.” – Randy Pausch

“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” – Atticus Finch

 “The last of our human freedoms is to choose our attitude in any given circumstances.” – Viktor Frankl

“If what you did yesterday still looks big, you probably haven’t done much today.” – John C. Maxwell

Winter Holiday

My wife is a teacher, too.  About 3 weeks ago she wanted to know what I was getting my students as a gift.  "I'd like to get them each a book."  (In the past I have gotten every student a book at the dollar store.  One year I got them all at a thrift store.)
"I'm on Scholastic,"  she said.  "They have a dollar section."  She started reading titles.
"I'll take 3 of those... 7 of those..."  Next thing I knew I had placed an order for 37 books for a class of 24 students.  We narrowed it down, and placed an order that arrived just in time. 
On Wednesday, I wrapped each one while I deciding who would appreciate the story.  There were chapter books and picture books.  I didn't want to offend anybody.  I didin't want to give kids books they wouldn't ever read.I worried about some of these choices.  I was more sure of others. 
On Thursday, I placed a candy cane on each present, set them at each students' seat for the next morning, and hoped for the best.  On Friday, the students arrived.  They were excited for the upcoming break, the half day, and the news program they had planned, written, and would perform .  There was a piece of me that felt the wrapped gifts at their seats would contribute to excitement overload.  Then, it crossed my mind that an unexcited reaction to book presents wasn't ideal either.
What happened next was awesome...  The kids' eyes widened.  Most of them took their seats gift in hand, waiting for their cue to unwrap.  The room buzzed as paper was removed and discarded, and each student discovered his or her book.  And the buzz became a hum of reading and sharing.  I was relieved that everyone seemed happy with their book.
One thing that you don't often get are genuine "thank yous" from students.  There are 3 ways that students typically display this perfunctory politeness.  There's 1) just saying the words, 2) just saying the words so that everyone can hear that you're saying the words, and - this is almost always followed by - 3) the parrot thank you where 15 students shout it at the same time because they were reminded that this is what people do in the given situation. 
But, not on this day.  "Mr. Mikula?" a student approached me while all others were reading.  "Thank you for the book.  I know I'm gonna like it."  I told the student how I appreciated the way he expressed himself.
It was a great day!  That scene replayed itself several times throughout the morning.  The kids finished holiday projects independently, and synergized to prepare the Holiday News Program.  The show went off without a hitch.  We even taped it... and not on the cleaning tape.

The Cleaning Tape

About a month ago my students concluded an author study on Mary Pope Osborne, writer of the Magic Tree House series, with a whole group project.  Every student played a part in the creation of a talk show, and then played a role during the production of the show.  The synergy among small groups and individuals was amazing, the end result was a 25 minute long show that included guests, emails, phone calls, and a commercial.  Parents filled the studio audience and the video camera was rolling (that was actually an IT inclined student's responsibility).  Few mistakes were made, and those that did occur were professionally and inconspicuously brushed over.  When I think of the proudest monents I have had as a teacher, this is in the Top Ten.
Well, that was conference week, typically one of the busiest weeks.   It is my first year teaching 3rd grade which means that not only do I not have any lesson plans ever for the following week, but  I still haven't figured out what the best way to introduce, practice, and assess certain concepts.  I am still building thematic units that effetively incorporate standards across the various subjects.  Viewing the show would have to wait.
Two weeks later things calmed down.  I hooked up the camera to my issued lap top in order to upload the footage.  I needed adminstrator rights.  Okay, so it has to wait again.  I submitted an IT request.  Remotely our IT guy set that up.  Again, I tried and failed to upload the video.  I assumed the problem was with the software.  Our IT guy actually came out to the room, and tried to pull the video.  He had trouble, as well, and said he would be back later in the week with his own lap top.  Then, he resigned.  Another week later, a different regional IT staff member was in the building.  By now, the assistant principal was looking for the camera.  When she realized I had it, she sent him down to help me.  He was there no more than five minutes when he opened the camera.   "What tape do you have in here?  Is this the cleaning tape?"
Well, at least I took some good pictures.