Triangles

"You can't fit a square peg into a round hole."

We've all heard that expression, and as teachers we tend to classify children as round or square - they fit in the hole or they don't, they understand or they don't.

But what about the children who don't fit in either category? The ones who don't follow either path.

Look at the three linemen in this picture. Specifically the one furthest away.

Do you notice anything unusual?

My son sent me this picture with no explanation. 

I was able to pick him out immediately - that child who gave rise to many sleepless nights, refined our parenting skills, caused us to consider carefully how we stated things, and taught us that a leap of faith - whether literal or figurative - can indeed end well.

He is not round, nor is he square. This child is our triangle.

Last week, during a lesson on social media, I asked a 6th class how they would describe Twitter to someone who had never heard of it before.

The answer from the boy waving his hand in the back of the room?

"Very, very carefully."

After the laughter stopped, I rephrased the question and the same child was able to provide the answer I was seeking.

He understood the question, he knew the answer, and he knew exactly what I was looking to hear. But he chose to take it in a different direction. He is not round, he is not square - he is a triangle.  

Did this child's answer benefit the class? Probably, because it forced me to use precise verbiage. The second time I asked the question I knew that every child in the room understood it.

Triangles are creative, bright, add dimension to our classroom, and cause us to be a bit more thoughtful in what we say and do.

They also take our classes off on tangential romps, they hijack focus, they disrupt.

Our job is to harness the triangles and aim their energy into the task at hand. Much easier said than done. Triangles don't always respond to traditional teacher tactics, and more often than not they delight in the attention they bring to themselves. It's challenging, especially when we have to admit that a student noticed a facet of our question/lesson/activity that we failed to foresee.

But that is the beauty of the triangles.

By causing us to consider another meaning, another opinion, another path, they figuratively push the button that prompts us to reevaluate our thinking and our teaching.

Dealing with the triangles can be difficult and sometimes we do need to shut them down. But if we try to view them as an asset and can channel their triangleness in the right direction, it can benefit everyone in the room.

So the next time "that child" brings your lesson to a crashing halt - take a deep breath, think "Triangle!", grab the reins and hang on.

Reading All the Books

"Mrs. Porter, have you read all the books in here?"

I hear that question several times a year. My stock answer is, "No, but I wish I had the time to do that."

As the Media Specialist I recommend books to children and give book talks, but I wonder:

• How am I modeling the act of reading in a concrete and visible way?

• How do I best share not only what I am reading, but that I read for enjoyment, that I push myself to read widely despite my tendency to lean toward certain genres?

• How am I starting the conversation about reading for enjoyment as a lifelong activity?

My current To Be Read pile.

Last year I made a resolution to read 100 books between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31. I further resolved to add the titles to my Goodreads list and write one sentence about each book.

Amazingly, I accomplished this goal. And Goodreads gave me a visual record to share. I also kept a spreadsheet that recorded the number of pages. During a lesson where I had language arts classes setting reading goals for the year, I shared my reading list. The number of books read got a mild reaction, but when they saw the total of 28,005 pages they were astonished.

This year I'm again recording books and reviews on Goodreads. I've created a chart paper record of titles read, dates completed, and number of pages.

Last week, without comment, I displayed it on an easel in the corner of the library in an act of passive-aggressive librarianship.

I've spotted folks examining it, I've heard conversations among students, teachers, students and teachers about those titles and what books they've been reading. 

Mission accomplished.

 If you're curious to see for yourself, my online record can be found at Mrs. Porter's Goodreads Shelf.

My Favorite Things - The School Supplies Edition

Inspiration can come from the tiniest slivers of your day. A colleague told me not long ago that I should make a favorite things list, “You know, like Oprah. You always have the good stuff here in the Media Center.” On a lark, I sat down to make a list and as I wrote I realized that I am the Sally Albright of school supplies. Perhaps I need some help. In the meantime, here is my list:

Mrs. Porter’s Favorite Things – School Supplies Edition

·      Ticonderoga^® Pencils – Seriously, ask any teacher, there truly is no better pencil. You don’t even have to turn them around in the pencil sharpener to get the wood to grind down evenly.

·      My First Ticonderoga^® - For those who need/prefer a chunkier pencil

·      Paper Mate^® Clearpoint^® PencilsP - For your automatic pencil needs. 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9mm lead options

·      Paper Mate^® Pink Pearl^® or White Pearl^® Erasers

·      Paper Mate^® Ink Joy^® Retractable Pens – Offered in an incredible array of colors

·      Staedtler Triplus^® Fine Tip Pens – Perfect for grading

·      Quartet^® Liquid Ink Dry-Erase Markers – Chisel tip! Deep colors! Erases well.

·      Scotch^®600 Transparent Tape – Comes in 1” and 3” core. It truly is clear and is the item that sparked the comment from my colleague.

·      Staples^® Bright White Laser Paper – Looks and feels crisp. It’s a heavier weight than  most printer paper, which makes it stand out.

·      Wausau^TMAstrobrights^® Colored Paper – Deeper colors, if I’m using colored paper, it should stand out. You will not find pastel paper in our Media Center

·      Tru-Ray^® Sulfite Construction Paper – Smooth. None of those weird chunks of fiber you find in other construction papers.

·      Staples^®Paperclips – I prefer the gold, but metallic is a close second. This applies to both standard and jumbo sizes.

·      Sharpie^® Accent^® Liquid Highlighters – Cap top, not the retractable. Foray^® is an acceptable substitute, but Sharpie^® is definitely preferred.

·      Post-It^® Brand Notes – No substitutions here. The size, color, and shape options boggle the mind. I even have templates to print custom notes.

So there you have it, my favorite things. Have fun stocking up!

Summer Vacation

"It must be nice to have the summers off."

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that or some variation on the theme, I could retire. I do believe it is the single most irritating phrase one could utter to a teacher. That said, it is nice to have the summer off. What do I do with all of this free time over 8 glorious weeks?

•  I explore all sorts of cool tech tools like Graphite, Zaption, and cool stuff the folks in my Twitter PLC mention that I didn't have time to play with during the school year.

• Glogster - I participated in a 1-on-1 webinar and am now certified as a Level 1 Glogster trainer. I learned about some cool features of Glogster that we had not been using at school - can't wait to show the teachers and kids. I am also now part of a group testing the Beta version of their new app.

•  I've been hard at work adding links to my Professional Development Pinterest Board. I've added some new subject area boards. Check it out at http://pinterest.com/lmsteachers

•  I worked with teachers, sharing online tools like Screencast-O-matic, Dropbox, Powtoon, Haiku Deck, DropItToMe and Socrative with them.

• I read books and book reviews to curate titles for my fall book order.

•  I'm cobbling together the prototype for the interactive notebooks that all 801 of my students will be creating this as part of their library media experience.

• I've considered my stance on the Oxford Comma.

• Most of all I am spending time with family and friends - experiencing life, creating memories and sometimes remembering to document those moments with pictures.

Yes, it is nice have the summers off. It helps me be a better person and a better teacher.

New Year's Resolutions in July

It is a little over half way through 2014 and I have decided to revisit my New Year's Resolutions and see how I am doing. My resolutions are below, along with some commentary on my progress.

I resolve that in 2014...
1. I will regularly post to my blog with the goal of at least one new blog post per week.

This lasted about 6 posts. I am using this mid-year review as a chance to jump-start the process.

2. I will post one picture a day to my 365 Project account to create a visual record of 2014.
   
This did not even last a week. I do take many pictures, but tend to be organic instead of organized when it comes to timing. Lesson learned.
 
3. I will keep a record of the books I read on Goodreads including a written review of some sort not just stars.
   
Success!!! I have accomplished this goal and in the process have recorded and briefly reviewed 60 books since January 1st. It is a great way to hold myself  accountable for what I read. As an added bonus I found that some of my students were using my Goodreads page as a suggestion list. :)
   
4. I will not feel compelled to join every social media site on the planet just to try to keep up with the teeming hordes. I will just use the media which make sense in the context of my personal and professional life.

Check. This goal was easy as there are only 24 hours in the day and I do not want to spend all the waking ones online. I am on Facebook primarily for personal use, Twitter for keeping up with my Professional Learning Community, Pinterest to archive/curate resources for students and teachers at my school, and Instagram as a means of occasionally sharing photos with family and a few close friends.

 According to the Journal of Clinical Psychology and Forbes Magazine, approximately 8% of people achieve their New Year's resolutions and 49% of people achieve infrequent success so I choose to feel good about what I've accomplished.

Now to plan my next blog post ...

Reviewing YA and Middle Grade Books

I am a middle school library media specialist. I am also a member of the Black-Eyed Susan Committee (Maryland state book award) for 6^th – 9^th grade. As such, I read a large number of middle grade fiction and non-fiction books and express my honest opinions of those books to both children and adults. Last night, as I updated my Goodreads account I decided to read what others have written about books I’ve recently read and I was a bit taken aback by some of the reviews. Apparently there are adult readers writing negative reviews of books for seeming juvenile. I’ll say that again, some adult reviewers are writing negative reviews of young adult and middle grade books for being too juvenile.

#ThatIsTheIntendedAudience

In a book targeted at a teen audience the language, the action, the thought processes, the drama, the angst of the characters, and the style of writing and presenting information are all going to be (or should be) geared to the tastes of teens - NOT adults. My students are increasingly more sophisticated in some ways, but their life experience and exposure to history is still quite limited when compared with that of most adults. Certain plot twists may seem obvious to an adult, but to a 13-year-old they may be fresh and unexpected. Short bites of information may seem lacking in depth to someone with background knowledge of the subject, but to those for whom this is new information it may be the right amount for them to process.

 I am not saying that there are not books deserving of low ratings, but to knock them for catering to the intended audience seems unfair. While adults may read and enjoy YA fiction and non-fiction, they should be mindful that young adult books are written for young adults and in my opinion, should judge books through the lens of the those for whom the book was written.

Some Interesting Things I Learned in the Media Center This Week

1. You can move the keyboard on an iPad to the middle of the screen by holding down the keyboard button and clicking "Undock".

When I was showing students how to split the keyboard on their iPads to better facilitate typing to the "Text" Generation, one of them chimed in, "You can move it up the screen too!" We hooked his iPad up to the SmartBoard and he did a demonstration for the class

2. There several teachers in our school who are familiar with Gilbert and Sullivan tunes.

The Elements app by Touch Press has a feature you can use to listen to Tom Lehrer's Element Song. The science teacher and I found that if we played it for the group at the beginning of class it saved a lot of time and cacophony. We had several teachers who walked by our open space media center as we were playing the song and ask "Gilbert and Sullivan?" The kids thought that Gilbert and Sullivan were scientists. Next year we'll have to get the music department involved with the 8th grade chemistry unit!

3. Children are shocked that the names of chemical elements are much the same in Japanese as they are in English.

The Elements app has the option to listen to the Element Song in either English or Japanese. The science teacher told our students that if they worked hard, we would play the Japanese version for them at the end of class. Burning question from all 6 classes: "Why are the words mostly the same in Japanese?" Next year we'll have to get the Language Arts teachers involved with the 8th grade chemistry unit!

4. The Preamble song is forever.

Received an email from a student I taught 15 years ago when I was still teaching U.S. history. Apparently learning The Preamble Song in my class something that has stuck with him and he had the chance to demonstrate his Preamble prowess last week. The idea that he then thought to track down my email and share with me made my day.

5. Middle School children love trivia questions. Middle school teachers, administrators, instructional assistants, secretaries and substitutes also love trivia questions.

Last Monday, on a whim, I posted a trivia question on an easel outside of the Media Center. Most of the school population walks by there each day and I thought a few of the kids might think it was fun. I had the answer read on the afternoon announcements. 

WOW! I had no idea the response this would generate. I posted a new question each morning and by Friday there were an increasing number of traffic jams in the hallway that included both children and adults. People were stopping in to guess the answer and a certain competitiveness has emerged among staff members. I had one student tell me that students in his technology class tried researching the answer

Winter Doldrums at LMS? I think not.