News and other things

Things are coming to end and soon another year at the middle school will be over. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by...

On the public library side of things, it's been good. Probably because I've cut my days there. I never knew how important it was to have a weekend off to just do things that I want, like rest. Also, it actually frees up my time to focus on things for school!

On the school library side, things are excellent. I signed on for another year and there are enough changes that I am not feeling unchallenged. I am teaching 2 new courses, a SCRATCh class, this summer and a Tech Leadership course next fall. I am nervous about both. I might also guest instruct a class on audio and video in relation to journalism. It's funny, I ran into one of our upper school kids and he reminded me that I taught that class 2 years ago! Time really flies in a school.

Things I am brushing up on and reading:

• Cataloging - RDA specifically. Can we make the book at least a little humorous?
• The Silence of Our Friends by Mark Long, Jim Demonakos and Nate Powell (graphic novel)
• Dead to You by Lisa McMann

Also, taking that feel CS 101 class through Stanford. It's so cool. Unfortunately, I need that kind of direction when learning. I wish I could just be disciplined enough to do things on my own...but at least, I know that about myself.

I've Got Spirit! Yes I Do!

Today was Spirit Day. It's funny. When I first started here, I never really took part. I'm not really a school spirited type of person. I mean, I'm a Banana Slug for one thing... But the last couple of years, I started dressing up a little bit. I'm still much more reserved than some of my coworkers.
But this year, I thought, let me do something fun. I love dancing so when the opportunity came where I could be part of the pep rally with some of my favorite people at work, I said "Yes!" So, today, was the day. I totally messed up. I lost count at times but it was so fun!
We did a flash mob and danced our butts off first and then slowly the kids started joining. We had teachers and students planted in the audience and before you knew it..everyone was up and dancing. It was so great to see everyone having so much fun. One of the great things about working at a middle school is that you can dress up like a clown for spirit day, help lead a dance and then just have fun because it is all part of the job. I think, that is one of the reasons I really like this job. I can actually be as silly as I want to be and it's all okay. The bosses laugh, the kids laugh and of course, I laugh.

Happy Friday! and GO WOLVERINES!!!

Thinking about blogging...

Blogging Research Wordle by Kristina B (flickr)

I was reading an ...And This is Why Teachers Should Have Blogs post by George Couros that someone tweeted. And it has be again thinking about a post that Anil Dash wrote titled, "If You Didn't Blog It, It Didn't Happen." That post from Anil Dash started a pretty interesting conversation amongst my friends about blogging, our own blogging habits and its importance in our lives.

I agree with Couros that having a professional blog is important and is a great tool to reference what you did in the past or what one's thoughts are on trends in the field. I have been trying to be much better about posting here. However, one of the concerns I have is the fact that these blogs, which can be both personal and professional, can be taken out of context and used against you in court. (Read MizzMurphy's post here).

I have 2 blogs. Both are fairly public and I try to keep my personal one as separate from my professional one as possible. However, I struggle with that decision, which is probably one of the reasons why I hardly blog anymore. It is difficult to divide those 2 parts of me. I find that sometimes this blog just lacks personality. I always wonder how those people out there balance the two? Do you have a super secret blog? That's password protected, invite only? Or do you just write about it all in one place?

I do find that keeping a blog helps me re-evaluate my school year. And helps me think out loud things I am struggling with as a teacher. However, if this blog could possibly be used against me...why should I do it?

This year, I am trying to start a class blog but that has its challenges. I want to open it up but at the same time, I wonder about how we are affecting our students "digital footprint." I do have issue having students creating accounts even if there is approval from administration and their parents. Do teachers who have their students blogging think about the digital footprint they are creating for their students?

Communicating With Parents

I am currently reading From Fear To Facebook by Matt Levinson and this struck a cord with me.

"[Coach] Bob Knight said that if the chemistry teacher at IU was making an impact

on a student and if Knight was struggling to reach the same student, he would go

talk to the chemistry teacher to find out what was working. Parents need to do the

same. They need to swap stories of success and failure, so they can find the right

catching point with their child" (p.78)

The last couple of years, I have had some great students with challenging traits. I have had students with ADD, ADHD and even a form of Tourette syndrome. I am so grateful that we have deans who help deal with the situation as well as parents who are willing to help us out. I am still not comfortable talking to parents but I am working on it. I have learned some valuable techniques and I can say that I think those kids are doing exceptionally well when that communication continues.

Recently, I emailed one of my former students parents because their child was taking initiative and coming up with amazing ideas for our book club. The student was creating book displays and leading discussions and I thought it would be great to let them know. I hardly ever email parents but there were some challenges the year I thought this child and it just seemed like a great way to tell them that their child was doing well.

This is a part of the email:

Thank you VERY much for your email. It isn't often someone stops and takes the time to let parents know that the little boy they were raising, is still somewhere in the adolescent cloak [their child] has adopted as [their] current attire.

I forwarded the email to my fellow librarians and we all teared up a little. I forget that what we see and experience at school can be completely different from what the parents experience at home. It is also different from one teacher to the next. This is definitely something to keep close during the coming year. Also, I have to remember to not be so frightened by parents. :)

Martin Scorsese? Who's that?

Yes! That's right! One of my students has no idea who Martin Scorsese is...It's funny what one thinks is just common knowledge. But, like misterjt was joking "but I bet they know who Martin Lawrence is! Damn Gina! "

I should really get over my shock but maybe it's because it made me realize I'm old!!! LOL!

We were actually talking about Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane which he had just finished reading. Psychological thriller that made him scream out loud! He was really amazed that book could make him scream out loud. I am not sure if I will read this book but the movie trailer looks pretty good and it's Scorsese and DiCaprio.

After we talked about the book and movie, I proceeded to talk to him about Martin Scorsese. I know, I shouldn't push it on him but he needs to know!!! Is this bad? I don't know?!?

He also brought up how he loved The Lovely Bones movie and really liked those "landscapes within landscapes art thing." I jumped on the chance to talk about surrealism and Magritte (thank you UCSC Art History degree!!!).

It totally made my day talking about these things, I hope, it at least peaked his curiousity.

Class Notes: approach to our notetaking lesson

I decided that I should probably start keeping entries on the lessons I have been teaching the last 3 years so that I can see what I can update and improve upon. Sometimes teaching the same lesson over and over again gets pretty stale and of course, it shows. (sorry children!) And sometimes I will attempt to switch it up a bit to make it more enjoyable for me..and hopefully, the kids.

Today was the notetaking lesson where we teach children how to properly take notes. Yes, kids still need help with how to properly take notes. I know, I was never taught how to take them and not until college did I really get a grasp of what the importance of proper notetaking (organizing, evaluation, putting things in my own words, etc.) Normally, I go through our slideshow and make the kids practice with my own generic topic and encyclopedia article. This usually takes about 15-20 minutes which leaves about 15 minutes for the kids to work on their own project. I tend to want to give them as much time working in class so I can walk around and help them and see how they are doing then lecture them for too long.

This time, I did use my generic article but I also had the follow along with their own articles. I thought it was a better approach. One of the first things we talk about is skimming and scanning to get a overall picture of what the article is about and to find keywords or phrases. I used our lovely document camera, which is one of the best tools ever and should be in every classroom, to show the kids my article. I demonstrated how reading the 1st and last sentence of a paragraph gives you an idea of what's in the body of the paragraph and then had them do it with their first article. I also had them take out their brainstorming worksheets to see the kinds of questions they came up with at the very beginning of the process. This was great because it gave them a little guidance as they worked and also tied in the lesson from a week and a half ago to what we were working on in class today. As we worked, we also formatted and discussed why notecards and these formatted cards were important.

After that step, I had them write 1 fact per card and discussed how these were their notes so whatever symbols or abbreviations they came up with, as long as they understood them, wasa good approach. Another difference in how we taught these lessons is that we had them create bibliography cards before their first sets of content cards. This was a better way to showing them how the 2 different types of note cards are connected.

A great question from one of my students (remember, I teach 7th graders for the most part) is why they need to write an author and page number on the card. I explained that 1 reason is when he's evaluating his cards and he reads something and it does not make sense, he knows exactly which book he used and which page to turn to. A light clicked (i think. i hope!)

Overall this was a pretty great lessons. I do have some glitches to work out, mainly with timing and I also need to update the slideshow I use because I was missing some information. I updated it and then ended up not saving. I know! that's the biggest mistake ever and I stress that with the kids but hey, I'm human!

"Brevity. Levity. Repetition." thoughts on Daniel Pink's talk

Last night, I attended a lecture given by Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, with Blades and Ambookgeek. It was hosted by Brentwood School which has a yearly lecture series in honor of John Hutson, a loved and respected History teacher of the school. The John Hutson Memorial Lecture Series is open to the public so if you hear about it next year and like the guest you can go.

I read and wrote about how A Whole New Mind completely blew my mind with Pink's ideas about how the world is changing focus from skills that are logical and routine and moving to more towards the artistic side of thinking (this is really simplistic so you should read the book). He reiterated that a bit in this lecture but focused mainly on what needs to be done in education. From the onset, he emphasized that he is not a trained educator but he does talk to those in the fields children are being trained to work in - medicine, law, arts, etc. For me, a lot of what he speaks about is valid. There is a shift and it seems that other places are getting it and the US education system needs to catch up. I am not sure if Arne Duncan will strive to make the public education system better but I hope something changes.

Working at the type of school I work at and being a product of the public school system, I have a real fear for my nieces and nephews. I fear for kids in low-income and middle-income public schools. I work at a public library as well and the gap between middle schools at the public library and the middle schoolers I work with is incredible and I am only commenting on research skills and some technology skills. I am not even sure about other skills in other subjects. Of course, all kinds of factors need to be considered, economics, parent involvement, teacher skills, etc...but it is very appalling witnessing how unprepared students are.

Pink emphasized how important having a well-rounded mind is for our kids and ourselves. There should be a focus on using both sides of our brains - the artsy, creative side as well as the logical side. I am not going do much justice here but if you do have an opportunity to hear him speak, I highly recommend going...but if you cannot see him, here is a link to his lecture from Americans from the Arts website.

Acknowledging a breakthrough...I love my job

ssshhhh. don't tell anyone!

I actually twittered that I am very happy at my job. The first two years I was glad and pretty happy but I was also extremely overwhelmed and a little lost. Being a school librarian is a very challenging specialty of librarianship. No one ever tells you that. All you ever hear about is how you will lose your job and how under-appreciated you are by teachers and administrators. Luckily, I am at a place that appreciates us and what we do. I hear it and feel it everyday when students come up to me and say, "Thank you." Yes, there are moments where I am "ssshhhing" and there are moments where I look around and wonder, "where are their teachers?" But, for the most part, I am so very very lucky.

We have only a few more days before the Winter Break and I can honestly say that I feel really positive about the year so far. My class management skills are much improved. Sometimes, I wish I had a video of my classes before. I think I looked a bit frazzled. Trust me, there were moments where I would walk out of my class and it looked like I was hit with a bomb. I had fun and I trust that I taught my students well, but by this time last year, I was grabbing a cocktail and trying to relax and not feel so burned out. This year I just feel happy.

Heading Santa Cruz for a conference

Tomorrow I'm leaving LA & So Cal to go to Santa Cruz for the Fred Jones Workshop. I am exciting about this workshop because one of my colleagues attended it last year and gave a great review of the 3 day workshop. It focuses on classroom management! And if you've been reading this blog, you know how I am with classroom management.
Hopefully, I can take some of these tools and implement them in the new year. I'll try to blog while I'm up there.

I cannot wait to go back! I'm a slug and slugs always go back! I am a little concerned about the fires but I did not receive any messages that it was postponed so hopefully Santa Cruz is doing all right despite this mad heat wave.

Survived Year 2 - yay me!

This has been an extremely challenging year. It was fun but I also had to work a lot on what my friends say is "fine tuning." I had a full class of 15 wonderful students with very different personalities. My first year, I struggled with learning the curriculum and pretty much felt like I was thrown in the deep end and expected to know how to swim. Actually, as I write this, that is the perfect metaphor for my teaching career. Last year, I also joined the swim club and I had no idea how to swim. One of our awesome coaches helped me out with my stroke and other tips and I got better over time. That was exactly how it went in the classroom. I was panicked the first couple of months or maybe half the year. Kids are strange, especially tweens, so you know, being a first time teacher, it was all sorts of weird and frightening.

This year, with my swimming, my strokes were better but I was working on fine tuning them and also on endurance. The same goes with the classroom, I knew the curriculum but I now had to focus more on the class management and being able to stay energized during the school year. If you haven't taught or worked with kids, you mights not realize how tiring it really is. They has a lot of energy and it takes a lot of energy to be around them. It's fun, frustrating, inspiring, aggravating, hilarious, infuriating all at the same time. And trust me, you go through all of these emotions in a single day and I don't know about you, but after a day of yo-yo emotions, I'm pretty much spent. Managing a classroom has to be one of the biggest challenges of being a teacher. I watch great teachers and I am always amazed at how they do it. They still maintain this very cool atmosphere but they can also keep their students focused and on task. I will do that next year. I am saying "will" because it has to happen.

I know, this year, my class was pretty crazy. I am sure it was fun for some and frustrating for others. I tried and tried but I think, once a class has gone one way, it is very difficult to reel them in to another way. Next year will definitely be better.

It's grading time again...

It's that time of year again - grades and comment writing. You would think that it would get easier but students change so much over the past 3 or 4 months from when you first met them. I tend to have a really difficult time writing comments. It is not that I do not have anything to say about my students like at the beginning of the year when I first met them but it is just difficult for me to describe students in the space available. However, this is the time, where I feel more comfortable with the kids and they feel more comfortable with me so their personalities change - they are more confident, more relaxed and a little more open with their true personalities. It is this time of year, where their comments are a bit more personal. I just wish it did not stress me out so much but at least this time I am much more on top of things and have already finished 3 out of the 15.

My worst nightmare (I am probably over-reacting)

Today, I began a lesson about copyright, public domain and fair use. It was going well until I told them to open up Flickr's copyright symbols page. Instead, being students and the temptation of searching for me is way too hard to pass up, one of them typed in my name.

One of my students, raises his hand (smart, I thought he was going to make a comment about copyright) and goes, "Ms. Martino, are you Miss Martini?"

My eyes popped out of my head!!!

And low and behold, there I was! But it was actually a picture from my friends' pages.

Then came the bombardment of questions and the accusation that I'm a liar because my profile says I lived in another city. I mean, it was all in good fun and they are just curious but oy. I knew this would happen. Thank goodness for the privacy settings.

I am not sure how I am feeling. I think, it's because I'm a little more human now. Do you remember when you were in school and teachers always seemed not from this planet? I mean, I never knew where the teachers' lounge was or if they had lives outside of school. Now, if you have an online presence, well, you have some of your life just out there in the open and people do not seem as inaccessible as they once were.

I am not sure what will happen now. It will be interesting I guess. They will probably find this blog as well. Well, all I can say is, "Welcome."

Sometimes you just need to crack down...

Today, I had to crack down on my class. They are a great class but with my loose management style (ok, maybe lack of any skills) it is really difficult to get them all to focus. Everyone tells me that I need to run my class so that I can survive the year so that is what I am doing. I never have used a seating chart before. I tried to do it at the beginning of this year but there was a class right before my class so I never had a chance to put down name tags.

I was thinking about a seating chart all weekend. Is that sad? That is how stressed out I am about getting these students to focus. Also, I gave them their first test and 1/2 bombed and the other 1/2 excelled. I did not think it was me since 1/2 of them understood what I was teaching. I did notice that the 1/2 that did not do so well is the 1/2 that goofs off and I have to try to settle down throughout the class period.

I tried to settle the down my giving them a pop quiz. And it worked for a while but then the threat of a pop quiz faded. Plus, I do not want to give pop quizzes all the time. Then I was sick and I think my being there sort of faded from their memories. So, now I have a seating chart and also a class participation sheet that I add slashes or stars too. I know, that sounds very elementary school but I am hoping it works. Though, I feel as if I am bribing them and I am not so sure that that is a good idea.

Hopefully, it will work out. But with Christmas break coming I am not so sure how long it will last. Also, I had to give out detentions today for being late to class.

Not that best day in class but one I will try to learn from. I thought last year was challenging but this is a lot more difficult for me. I am not so sure why. Maybe because of the number of students and the number of different personalities.