off the bookshelf - Junot Diaz's This Is How You Lose Her

When I lived in Korea I read this book:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Something about it totally caught me, and I really liked it. I liked the nerdy ghetto kid who really wanted to be in love. What I liked more, though, is the way Diaz moved the story away from him to share stories of the lives of his mom, grandparents, friends, and sister, and moving the narratives from the US to the Dominican in a way that gives some context to his upbringing.

And so, I thought this summer that I'd read his latest book:

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

This book also stars characters from Oscar Wao, and does keep a focus on Yunior's fragile relationships and how these become so consuming. It's basically a set of stories from the people that Yunior meets and knows, and I like the sort of loose-connectedness that the stories all lend to the overall theme. Diaz's writing also has this very smooth accent-vibe, making you, if you're like me, feel like you could hear the attitude of the character's words.

I enjoyed Oscar Wao more, but there's something haunting about the new stories that really did stick with me.

the ladder of feedback

When we were first meeting teachers at our school, they all at some point mentioned something like this:

"This place gets very busy."

"When the year gets going, it's like a freight train that just rolls on through."
"You may, at times, wish you could pull the blinds in your room and take a little nap."
After this week, I know what they meant.

We are lucky enough to have had PD sessions this week with an Inquiry guru, Kath Murdoch, and man, does she have amazing things to show and tell.
I learned and considered so many really though-provoking and new things - it was great to be a student.
One of her suggestions was to video tape students working in groups.
And so I did!

We've been studying The 7 Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey in our first Inquiry unit, Learning to Learn.
Yesterday, as we explored the final habit, Sharpen the Saw, I asked students to work collaboratively to categorize picture/word cards into the headings mind, body, heart, and soul, as mentioned in the Sharpen the Saw story.
Of course, there were many pictures that could be categorized into more than one.
I videotaped their conversations as they decided, and found the recording was really valuable.

Today, I introduced the ladder of feedback, which is a tool I know we're going to refer to and use OFTEN in our room - it's awesome.
It's just such a great way to get kids thinking about framing feedback to their peers in a positive way.
(In fact, I think we could all take a look and examine the way we provide feedback - not just with students but in all of our relationships!)
Afterward, we watched one video of a group "working together" and step-by-step, used the ladder to provide feedback.
I'm telling you, it was like a breakthrough. Simply amazing.
I'm definitely looking forward to watching the rest of the group interactions, evaluating student cooperation, participation, and general input, and using the ladder of feedback as a guide.

I made up a super quick reference poster to give out - it could be given to individual students, taped onto grouped desks or at meeting areas, shown on a projector, etc.
I'd love to know if you've used this or if you do use it, how it goes.
Click the picture to download.

Happy weekend!

this is ca-razy!

Beat It | Dub Step

Things that might be said while watching this:
"I feel like I don't know which body party to watch because they're all doing separate things all the time."
"Did you see the way he..."
"I want to see him in real life. It's the only way I feel I'll believe it's happening."
"I wonder how much his body hurts afterward."
"His Wikipedia page proves Wikipedia is not a reliable source: His brother, Danny Hartmann, lives in Germany and is one of the richest men all time."
"I wish I could dance."

mental math activity

Today in Math we were talking about mental math strategies.
We did some sample questions and then talked them out in pairs and small groups.
26 + 10 =              26 + 12 =               36 - 10 =            You get the drill.
My kids had some really different ways of answering the equations.
We did a few of these simple ones, and most of their addition and subtraction skills seem in pretty good shape!
(After that I pulled out the toughies... 250 + 70      300 - 18     90 + 40     etc.)

When I started to see their attention slipping, I knew we had to break out the individual white boards.
Off the top of my head, I came up with a great activity that got everyone moving and practicing some mental math.
For some reason, "in the middle of lessons" seems to be the best time for me to come up with fun little activities - I guess I'm just more in the zone at those times.
We called the activity "The Quiet Math Game!"
Oddly, I find a lot of kids like the challenge of nonverbal communication... happy teacher!

Give each student a small white board.
Ask each to write a mental math problem on the board. (We used addition and subtraction questions only since I know some of my students are not familiar with multiplication and division concepts, but this could easily be adapted.)
They do NOT write the answer on the board, but they do figure it out and memorize it.
Next, they walk around with their white board and marker silently finding a "partner."
Jack will look at Jill's question and calculate it mentally.
When he knows the answer, he will write it in the corner on his own white board for Jill to see.
Jill will check it and give a thumbs up or thumbs down.
Then Jill will look at Jack's question and calculate it mentally, same as above.
When they are both correct they do a little high five, erase the answers in the corner, and find a new buddy.
It was a lot of fun and I loved the little "math brain" buzz in the room!

saving fred {a teamwork activity}

This first few weeks of school have been awesome.
I am loving my class!

Students can sit at any of five tables they feel like, as long as it is a smart place - you know, like not beside their best friend so they can talk about recess..! 
Each table has a team number above it. 
Students inquired as to why they were sitting in teams, and why I give them the choice to change seats as they wish.
We brainstormed "teamwork" and I got lots of definitions, examples, and real-life connections.
Great brain time!

Afterward, I told the class about my friend Fred, a gummy worm, who can't swim...

Fred went out boating one day in his generic plastic cup.
He made sure he brought his personal flotation device, a sour apple ring candy, because he knows how important it is to be safe.
He set sail. 
It was a great day. 
He was on the open seas...
When suddenly, a giant wave capsized his boat!
Fred panicked...he can't swim...
He managed, with all his gummy worm strength, to pull himself up on top of his plastic-cup boat.
He felt safe.
But how was he ever going to get back to shore?
Just then, he remembered his sour apple ring floaty!
But where was it?
As he peered around, Fred noticed it had gotten trapped underneath his boat.
Worried that he might sink with the boat and be lost forever, he knew he had to get that ring out of the boat and around his wormy waist before it was too late...

So that was the task: saving fred by getting him into his sour apple ring together.
But there was a catch: students could only use paper clips to touch and move things! 
No fingers, no hands, no other forces, just paper clips.

It was a really great time to see groups working together, strategizing, becoming successful, then setting the whole task up again and challenging themselves to try it again a different way.
With no teacher input!
I didn't ask them to try it again... they took that part upon themselves!
My heart soared.
Soared, I say!
Pretty confident this is going to be one great year in the Philippines.

- Amanda

into this...

Gotcha!

batangas weekend

We've just spent a lovely long weekend at Stilts Calatagan Beach Resort in Batangas.
It's only about 3 hours from Manila, so it's a great quick getaway.

The water was beautifully warm, which is a big plus for a cold-water scaredy-cat like me.

There was lots of time for putting my feet up {in my favourite summer shoes from Michael Kors!}.

Forgot my Kobo so I borrowed the Tatler from the front desk. 

Apparently this "high society" publication is a great place to sight parents from our school, which seems very strange to me.

Luckily, though, I was able to borrow a friend's Kindle so I started reading this book:

It's very interesting so I'm going to have to track it down for my own collection.

In the evening we saw a cultural dance show.

In hindsight, I really should have taken a video of the tinikling dance because it's cool how quick their feet get going!

The dancers are moving to the rhythm made by the tapping of two long bamboo poles...

They weave in and out of the bamboo, trying to stay on rhythm so their feet don't get bit when the poles are slammed together!

It was so nice to get out of Metro Manila and into the calm.

I know we'll be craving that every couple of months.

Happy National Heroes Day!

my mouth is a volcano

In the classroom I'm trying to create an open-dialogue community.

I don't think my students need to raise their hands all the time to share their ideas or ask one other questions.

I want conversations in our room to feel like natural conversations!

I can guide them, but I want the kids to feel free.

Of course, some of those habits need to be taught and practiced.

Enter Julia Cook!

My Mouth is a Volcano is a really great book for helping kids understand appropriate conversation skills.

It will be a great reference tool in the room as we meet together to as a whole group.

I'm really looking forward to classroom discussions this year with this openness!

I think having an open-dialogue will really help students feel an important part of our classroom community.

inspirational quotes freebie

(Click to download.)
Happy weekend! We're off to a resort for some R&R after these first busy weeks of school.

into this song... vance joy

Vance Joy - Riptide

building our home

While we wait for the shipment of our things from Canada, we thought we'd do a bit of shopping to get building our home here in the Philippines. There are too many great things on Society6! We're also planning on having a bunch of our personal photos printed professionally to be framed.

For the bedroom:

Two of a Kind

Palm Trees

For around:

City Bokeh

Seinfeld Hair

For the kitchen:

Let's All Go and Have Breakfast

For Jeff:

Slapshot - Old Time Hockey

For the guest bath:

The Secret Life of Heroes - Wonder Pee

Inspired?!?

i-time {inquiry + personal interest = kids in control!}

One of my favourite parts of our first week was our I-Time.

Anyone else use this?

It's something I've never used before, but after jumping in, I highly recommend it!

We teach an inquiry curriculum, meaning students are given a lot of control over their learning.

They take the reigns, so to speak, and that whole idea, I'll admit, made me uneasy.

Coming from Kuwait, where I had to implement behaviour expectations like crazy, teaching through inquiry seemed like a big loss of control on my side.

I have to say, though, that the transition has been really really great so far.

I love giving the students the responsibility and independence that inquiry calls for.

It's amazing watching them learn together.

What is I-Time?

Basically, it's a time for students to choose a topic of personal interest and research it.

My students are allowed to sign out up to four books from our library, so my one stipulation during our browse and borrow time will be that each kid find at least one non-fiction book focusing on something they want to learn more about.
Note: We have an absolutely AMAZING library space in our school! We also have five iPads in the class and I'm able to book a class set of Chromebooks.

Immediately following our library time is a single forty-minute period that I've designated for I-Time.

Each student has an I-Time notebook where they will write down their questions, ideas, new learning, diagrams, thoughts, etc. etc.

For this week, I pretty much answered "yes!" to all the "Can I..." questions the kids asked.

{Can I draw pictures to show what I learned? Can I write questions about things I want to remember to look up later? Can I write the things I learn in a list? Yes, yes, and yes.}

They grabbed a pencil and found a comfy spot around the room to read and learn about a personal interest.

Everyone was so engaged!

In the coming weeks I'll start to teach the class about framing their inquiry questions - how to broaden questions, how to write more specific questions, how to research effectively, how to go about summarizing new knowledge, and options for presenting their learning to the class.

Letting kids make choices about what they learn is a very powerful tool; I'm already looking forward to our next I-Time session on Thursday!

into this show

Sons of Anarchy