Parenting Advice Applied to Teaching

A friend of mine who is a relatively new parent posted this article today called Teaching Through Love Instead of Fear by Pam Leo. While this article mainly is talking to parents I think it applies equally to teachers. It is something that I try to be very conscious of in my teaching. I want to model the respect that I would like to see from my students. At times it's hard to model that level of respect but I feel that it is important.

As stated in the article:

"One of the big issues in schools today is "bullying." Parents and teachers struggle daily with how to stop this behavior. Without realizing it, adults teach bullying behavior to children by modeling it when they use the threat of their physical size or power to make children do things."


How can we expect our students to behave the way we would like to, with respect and kindness towards each other, if we do not show them how? It is a sad fact that some students do not see that kind of modelling at home. We as teachers are the ones who have step into that role, become the role-models that our students need. 


Getting our students to do what we want them to do out of fear can be, sometimes, an easier or quicker way, especially with younger grades. Leo states "The power of fear is easy and quick but short-lived." but that "The power of love requires more work and takes longer but children never outgrow its influence." With the older grades, even my students at grade 5, gaining obedience through fear doesn't always work as well. Building real relationships with students, showing that we care about their feelings and dignity goes much further and is much more long lasting. Telling a student "I understand that you would rather talk to your friends right now, but we have to think about the rights of the other students to learn right now." can help to build that relationship more than sending a student out or keeping them in for detention.


I am not perfect in this by all means but it is something I strive for and something I hope all teachers strive for as well.

Morning Routine - Class Responsibilities

Today I've been working on what I would like my morning routine to look like. Both of my homeroom classes last year were chatty, especially the first group, and I liked giving them the time between the first and second bell to do some socializing before we got down to work. While I liked this, I also think that I would like my students to start getting focused before O Canada so that after we can get right into our work after watching the announcements. So I've come up with some ideas of what I would like our morning routine to look and sound like.

I would like to start the day with some French music playing in the background. When I bring the students down the hall from outside, I'll have them change their shoes before they come into the classroom (I'm a stickler for this. I don't like outside shoes in the classroom because it makes the floor messy). They then put their outdoor things and backpacks on their hooks in the back closet. Next, they choose their responsibility for the day by moving their name tag to the job they want for the day. This will help me quickly do attendance as well because I will see which names are not up. Then they will get their desk ready, do their job if it's one that needs doing before class, and then sit and do the anchor work on the board. I'm thinking it will mainly be writing in their journals or a word problem. I did this occasionally last year but would like to do it more consistently this year.

Behind the red sheet is an old blackboard. Everything on there
is on magnets.

The major change in the responsibilities is in having them pick for themselves as they come into the classroom. Last year we did responsibilities once a week. I would draw names randomly and ask the student which one they wanted, they would answer in a full sentence and I would place their name on the board. I liked using it as a chance to have them practice speaking but I think doing this I will also be able to have them say sentences. I can still ask who is doing a particular job or if someone has forgotten to choose one I can ask them which one they would like.

I would like to change some of my jobs as well. Many are the same as last year but I am also adding a few more. Some will not be available every day.

• mini-prof - runs the morning routine
• tableau - responsible for cleaning off the board at the end of the day
• pizza - takes pizza orders and passes out pizza
• dîner chaud - takes hot lunch orders and passe out hot lunch
• du lait - takes milk orders and passes out milk
• l'horaire - puts up the schedule for the day
• bibliothèquaire - ensures the class library is in order and brings library books down to the school library
• blogger - writes what we did that day on our school website
• premier du linge - first in line
• dernier du linge - last in line
• annonces - on days when our class does video announcements, these two students will do them
• messanger - brings notes to the office or other teachers
• souliers - makes sure our boot rack outside our classroom is tidy
• placard - makes sure our back cupboard is tidy
• chaises - makes sure all chairs are down before announcements and up before they leave
• aspirateur - gets to vacuum the carpet in our reading corner (I can see some fights happening over this job. They all want to do it.)
• crayons - makes sure there are plenty of sharpened pencils ready for the class
• A.V. - audio-visual, in charge of lights, taking pictures or videos, using the SMART Board for songs
• billets - hands out tickets during the morning routine
• gardien/ne des points - keeps track of class points and points in games
• recyclage - brings recycling down to the photocopying room
• extra - helpers for anyone who wants help with their responsibility, this job is chosen last. 

It seems like a lot of jobs but I will have around 25 students and I want them all to have a job each day. I've decided that they can only choose a job once each week. That way I won't have one person being the mini-prof each day and more students will be able to choose a variety of jobs. Some jobs won't be available every day, for example, we don't have milk on Wednesday so that job won't be available that day. Each job will also have a picture next to it as a reminder of what it means. I"m hoping that having a first come, first served way of picking jobs will also encourage my students to be on-time for school, something I've had trouble with in the past.

What classroom jobs do you have? How do you have your students pick jobs? Do you have them apply for the jobs or do they get to choose? How do you ensure that everyone gets a turn at the ones they would like to try?

Three Ways to Read a Book - In Intensive French

I've been thinking about my first week of school plans today. One of the first lessons I like to do with my students on their first day with me is to teach them the three ways to read a book. This lesson comes from the The Daily 5 system. I adore the Daily 5 and am so excited to be able to use it more in February with my class. I have another post in my head that I'm going to write soon about ways to incorporate the Daily 5 into Intensive French, but it needs more thinking and planning time before I can write it.

The first few days of Intensive French are conducted in English. We will discuss as a class how the next five months are going to go, we talk about how they feel about Intensive French and we go over some strategies for dealing with the frustration they will feel when trying to function in a new language. One big frustration they feel is that they are not able to read English books in my class, only French ones during silent reading. In order to deal with this frustration, I talk about the three ways that they can read a book.

I ask the students to think back to when they were first learning to read. I have them talk about what they remember. Memories are often a little spotty on the subject of learning to read. Many think they just tried and they could do it. Some remember that it was frustrating and they had to read one word at a time. Others remember picture books very fondly. I tell them that learning to read in French is just like learning to read their first language (English for almost all of my students) except that it's easier because they already know so much about reading.

My class library is better organized than this now with book
baskets, but I don't have a more recent picture

We start brainstorming what they know about reading. They know that they read from the left side to the right of the page, top to bottom. They know that words have meaning. They know what punctuation means. They even know the sounds of each letter and I tell them that the sounds in French are sometimes the same or similar and sometimes a little different but we will work on that together.

Then I move on to the three ways we can read. I show them three books, all French. One is a book we read together in grade 4 pre-intensive French. The second is a comic strip book and the third is a simple book with very few familiar words. I ask them if they know the three ways to read a book. Through prompting and modelling I can get them to come up with the ideas themselves that they can read a book by:
1. reading the pictures (the comic book)
2. re-telling yourself a familiar story (the book from last year)
3. reading the words (the simple book)

I model with each of these books, showing them my thought process as I look at a few pages. I have them help me by saying what they think is going on in the book based on the pictures and words or from what they know from reading the book last year.

This lesson helps amazingly when I start up silent reading time, which I do right away on the first day. I feel it is very important to give my students some time to explore the French books on their own, just as students in Kindergarten are given time to explore books in their first language to help them learn to read. Many students find a sense of relief after I explain this to them. Before I think they feel like I'm going to plop some books in front of them and expect them to be able to read them in the traditional sense. That would be an unrealistic expectation of them at this point. After all, I'm there to teach them how to read, not expecting that they will be able to do it right away on their own without help.

How do you help your students settle into your classroom? What are some of your favourite first day activities and lessons?

Setting up my classroom

I went in to school this week, intending to get a start on setting up my classroom. I have an added challenge this year because I have, probably, six more students than last year so I have to factor the added desks into my classroom layout. I am also teaching one grade 5 class for the whole year, French first half, English the second, so I've inherited a great deal of resources to teach the English half. This is what I found when I came into my classroom.

The janitor isn't finished with my room yet. He's still doing the floors so I'm going to wait to go back in again until next week. What I did do is measure my bulletin boards that don't have fabric yet so that I can buy fabric to cover them. I measured them all, wrote the measurements down on a piece of paper, and left the paper in my classroom. Oh well, I'll get it next week.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all my English books. I'd like to have them neatly put away, somewhere not too accessible during the first half of the year so that my students aren't trying to sneak them out during silent reading time when they are meant to be reading French books. Most IF teachers teach one class all year. Last year I did something called the flip-flop where I only taught French all year to two grade 5 classes. This had many disadvantages but one main advantage was that I only had French resources in my room.

One storage option is my back closet. There are beams up there that can hold heavy boxes of books. I also have two new-to-me bookshelves and I have a few cupboards that didn't get used last year. I could, I think, get all the books stored in my room. The other option is we now have an empty classroom next to me so I could store the English stuff over there until the end of January.

I'm curious about what other Intensive French teachers do to store their stuff. Any suggestions? What do you think would work best? How do you organize your room?  

Video Game Style Motivation

On Monday I bought a new exercise game for my Wii. I've been using the Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus but I felt unmotivated by it lately. I've been playing it for a few years now and was frustrated by the fact the goals I had to set were based solely on weight and nothing else. Early on there were little rewards for reaching a certain amount of hours of activities, and I always made sure that I got in my 30 minutes so it would play the little happy music, rewarding me for my hard work, but beyond that there wasn't much. I don't need to lose weight, I want to be more fit. Sure, I could set my own goals apart from the game's and celebrate them for myself, but that's what I got the game for in the first place, to be my motivator.

I'm easily motivated by small success celebrations. Three seconds of happy music or collecting a trophy or sticker or check-mark both in games and in the real world are huge motivators for me. So I wanted a new exercise game that would let me set goals that were meaningful to me. A few friends suggested Zumba and I considered it (I love Zumba and dance in general) but there didn't seem to be any goal setting or rewards for reaching goals. Instead I bought Wii Sports Active. So far it has lived up to my needs.

But how is this all related to teaching? After all, this is a teaching blog, not a exercise game blog. When looking in to buying a new game, I thought a lot about what motivates me to do things. As much as I would like to be, I'm not often intrinsically motivated, or not as much as I think I should be. I clean my house because I like guests to feel comfortable and enjoy my house as much as I do. I mow the lawn because I don't want neighbours to think I don't take care of my yard. I write because I want people to read my writing and give me positive feedback (or critique it constructively). I do get some pleasure out of doing all these things as well, but when I feel stuck or unwilling to do something, it's often external motivators that get me going. I believe that the same is often true of my students.

We did a book study at our school this past year of a book called The Highly Engaged Classroom by Robert J. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering. A few teachers got together and we read and discussed chapter by chapter. It was a good read with lots of great ideas. The one I've been contemplating lately is having the students set goals and make choices about their learning. I believe that setting goals is highly motivating, but I haven't come up with a way to integrate this idea into my Intensive French classroom.

In video games, players don't often set their own goals in the same way. The game sets up the goals for them and they can sometimes choose which ones to go for or how to attain them. For example, one of my favourite video games is Little Big Planet. I get to run around and collect stickers and I get rewarded for finding more stickers and items. In other games, players are rewarded with experience points and get to go up a level. Or they collect gold and buy new items for their character.

Now, I already have a reward system in my classroom. My students get tickets for speaking French during our daily routine and these tickets go in for a draw at the end of the week. The students often cite this as one of their favourite parts of Intensive French. Not intrinsic motivation but often effective at getting reluctant students to participate. I would like to alter this system or add a different system that somehow uses what I know of video game motivation to help motivate my students to speak French in class. I would like to figure out a way to have the students either choose their own goals or have set goals for them to attain.

Have you used goal setting in your classroom? What worked for you? Do you have any suggestions for how I could use goal setting in my classroom?

My summer vacation

We are only into our second week of August and yet fall is in the air. We haven't had much summer-like weather this summer, a lot of grey days and rain, and today is no exception, though the sun did make a brief appearance this evening. As I write this, black clouds are coming in from the east. We will probably get more rain tonight though tomorrow's forecast looks promising.

Along with the fall weather, back-to-school sales remind me that summer break is coming to a close. I have had a lovely vacation so far. I've spent the majority of my summer reading. My new e-reader has opened up a whole world of books that I hadn't had access to, well, not convenient access to anyway. I thought I wouldn't like it. My father passed it along to me when he got a newer, fancier device. I found it difficult to find good French books on the main e-book websites but this site http://www.archambault.ca/archambault-ACH-fr-ct has an excellent selection of French e-books. As with their print counter-parts, French e-books tend to be more pricey than the English ones.

Aside from reading, I've taken up writing again. After participating in NaNoWriMo in November for my third year in a row, I stopped writing on a regular basis, other than for school purposes. I missed writing but felt I couldn't make time for it, even though I had proved to myself in November that I could indeed make time if I wanted to. But the writing group that I had been apart of stopped meeting regularly and without that added motivation of a group I let my writing fall to the wayside. Plus, I didn't have any new ideas that wanted to be written. But then in June I met up with a former colleague who is in a small writing group for women. Another of the members is a good friend of mine. They invited me to join and I decided that it was time to get back into writing.

I love being part of the River Girls group. We meet once or twice a week for write-ins and meetings. We share our stories, we critique for each other, we laugh, we eat and most importantly, we encourage each other to write. I have learned so much from them and I feel like my writing has improved. This past month I have researched writing and even publishing websites. I have a plan to start a writing blog soon where I will write more about writing with tips like how you should not use the same word three times in a sentence ;)

When not reading or writing this summer, I travelled a little, mostly to visit my family and our annual camping trip up north to Caraquet. Vivre l'Acadie! I spent a little time in my garden, though not as much as I meant to because the weather dampened my desire to be outside. And of course I spent a fair amount of time thinking about the coming school year.

Most of my planning for the following year has been in my head so far. I daydream about ideas and do seating charts in my head while cooking dinner or in the passenger seat of the car (not while I'm driving, too distracting). When August began, I started to revisit my favourite teaching blogs, resource sites and twitter streams to inspire my plans.

I feel very lucky to be returning to the same school again this year, the same classroom, mostly the same subjects and even mostly students that I taught last year. As far as I know (and things could change), I will be teaching grade 5 again this year but there will be only one grade 5 class instead of two. This means that I will be teaching Intensive French for half the year and the English compacted curriculum for the other half of the year, same as I did two years ago. I'm excited to teach in English again. Though I love French dearly and enjoy helping students learn it, teaching in my first language has its joys as well that I missed last year. Like last year, I will also be teaching pre-Intensive French to the grade 4 students.

My grade 5's this year will be the grade 4's I taught pre-IF last year. Other than the students who transfer to our school, I will have taught all of them before. I look forward to getting to know them much better than I could when I only taught them a few hours a week. Knowing them already has pros and cons. On the upside, I have a sense of who they are, what the challenges will be, and I know what I taught them last year. On the downside, I have a preconceived notion of what they are like based on how they behaved last year. I don't have that clean-slate feel that I would have with an unknown class.

Tomorrow I plan to go over to the school and start setting up my physical space. At the end of the school year, we piled all the English materials into my room rather haphazardly and added two bookshelves as well. My class list so far has 24 students on it, 6 more than last year, so I need to discover the seating plans that will work well with my space. I imagine that I may spend some time sitting in my chair just looking at the classroom tomorrow. I might try out this on-line seating plan tool, http://teacher.scholastic.com/tools/class_setup/ as well. The rest of the week I'd like to tackle my bulletin boards (I'd like to paint the ones in the hall or put up fabric backgrounds) and I would like to re-organize my filing cabinet.

How have you been spending your summer vacation? What do you do during the summer to get your classroom ready? Please leave me a comment.