Barbara,

You are right on topic for the types of discussions that need to be
taking place.  I think of the nature questions you asked and some of
the have been the recent focus of Nature and Nova on PBS, yet do
children watch these shows?  Hopefully next year I will get my
students to actively take control at home in getting their parents to
watch these types of shows with their children.  My special ed.
students often did as I peaked their interest in the natural world
with all I brought in.

I had a real interesting revelation this last week that surprised me.
In researching postings with a colleague who wants to leave the
regular classroom, I saw a posting for a K-5 RSP position at the only
school in my district that is in walking and biking distance of my
home.  Being close to my work is important to me, having commuted for awhile in the beginning of my career.  It was very tempting, but only briefly. In talking with another teacher that afternoon I was able to
readily verbalize my feelings and realized the decision I have made
this year to step back into the classroom, and first grade at that (an
age I never considered when I was younger), is absolutely where I want
to be right now.

I do not want to go back to the known and where my competency has been
been proven even though the need is quite high.  I want to go back
into the classroom and apply what what I believe are best practices
and see how well I can work that into the current constraints other
teachers are facing.  I can only begin to really advocate ideas of
change and application to my colleagues and expect it to have true
validity if I apply it now into what they face day to day.  Maybe then
I can again step out in a year or two to a different position of
leadership and have their perspective more clearly in mind in a way
that they can relate to. I think there is a very real possibility that
I might discover how to have fun in teaching this grade despite all
the barriers teachers currently have that I may not want to change out
of the position and rather continue to expand what can be done with
what teachers are being dealt.

I was fortunate to attend a writing workshop this week that was geared
down to K and 1 yet still was encouraging pushing the envelope. I was
able to take back some ideas the next day and applied them in my small
groups with their writing. I was trying to get them to tackle
something that is very hard for them and I am working with the lowest
students in first.  It really helped to break down the task so the
children were not overwhelmed and were still tackling a really
challenging task of a descriptive narrative essay on topic that used
both factual and fictional details with a strong topic sentence and at
least 3 descriptive supporting sentences (I may try to add a
conclusion as well, yet this is really pushing them).

I have used my recent trip to Maui for creative purposes with them and
added in our travel buddy, Phokey the California sea otter they adore.  It was so cute seeing some of the students get up and look at the
world map I have up and actively discuss and mention the various
oceans and other details (mind you this wasn't part of what I was
directing) yet they are making applications across.  I always try to
use books, both factional and fictional, that have a lot of natural
history in them and I like to get the ocean in as we are not close to
it and I want the students to get that perspective early on of a world
beyond the narrow experiences many of them have had.  They are
learning how to make it relevant to their experiences, they were able
to think about how sand feels between the toes, how the ocean wind
might feel, and so on. Of course I have brought in things to help them
see this including a snorkeling mask and flippers and a flip chart of
fishes, and so forth.  I manage to get this rich, deep, exploration
into the context of their reading and writing that I align with grade
level standards and set the bar at the high end of the grade level,
not the low, as my objective in the long run is that this group will
reach the proficiency standards of a 3 or higher in their writing
sample in a few weeks, and over 16 and 18 in reading. Some may not, I am dealing with four first grades, yet I am optimistic that the
majority might. Who says that it can't be interesting in the process?

Have a great Sunday,

Cheryl Vitali
Reading Recovery Teacher (until June)
Former RSP, future first, then?

Time to take a Sunday walk... the day beckons..