Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Being a BUDDY, not a BULLY!

(First blogger tragedy- I wrote this whole post already and it deleted itself somehow! NO!)

On Monday afternoon, it was brought to my attention that I have some bullying going on between some of the students in my class.  Most of my students (11 out of 14 to be exact), have been together for at least a year in a half now.  This has produced relationships that mimic sibling bonds - and the good and bad that come with that.  I was aware of the pushing buttons and minor disagreements they had, but full scale bullying was surprising and upsetting.  Although it hurt my heart to hear it was going on, I knew it was a valuable learning opportunity for our class as a whole and something that needed to be addressed...stat. 

So, I moseyed on over to Pinterest and spent an hour, or four, researching lessons, books and activities on bullying. 

Here's a peek into how we are tackling bulling in our class, days 1 and 2: 

Day 1: During our library time on Tuesday morning, one of my aides found this book and we immediately snatched it up and read it as soon as we got back to class, right before recess.  I used this time to introduce the term "bully" and survey what my students already knew and their reactions.  Then, I read the book with a LOT of emotion and animation and my students were captivated. Well most of them, except for the one student who really needed to listen. Isn't that how it always goes? Guilty conscience? They seemed to really listen and started to get it. Mini lightbulbs may have even shown up above their heads and I counted it as one point in my favor! ("The show where everything is made up and the points don't matter" - but they totally have more points than me! Please tell me someone gets that reference...)

Day 2: Even though they really listened during our book yesterday, I knew we had to do some hands-on activities to really drive home the learning. Good old Pinterest came through again and I found this amazing lesson.  To summarize: I got 2 apples that look very similar and started a generic lesson on comparing and contrasting.  Then, seemingly suddenly, I choose one apple and started pointing out everything that was wrong with it. "This apply has a hole!" "How GROSS!" "This is the most disgusting apple I have EVER seen!" And I threw it on the ground. Wait, WHAT?! 

Yep, and then I had all my students do the same thing. They took turns berating the apple and dropping it on the ground. When it got back to me, we looked at the apple again to see if anything had changed, and surprisingly, it hadn't.  But when we cut into the apples to eat them, one apple was crisp and white.  The other apple, was bruised and brown and squishy. When I asked the students who wanted to eat the bruised apple, they all said no (well except for one who likes the attention of being different, there's always one isn't there?). But why? WE did this to the apple! We made it like, so we should eat it! 

Ooooh, aaaah. See what I did there? We bullied the apple! And they didn't even know until it was over! Even though we each only said one mean thing or threw it once, it was REALLY bruised and icky.  All those mean comments and actions added up, and even though the apple looked okay on the outside, it definitely was not okay on the inside.  I was a little worried my students wouldn't make such an abstract connection, but I started to see lightbulbs go off left and right.  Most of my students felt legitimately bad about what we had done to the poor apple and we had a great follow-up discussion about the activity (which is saying something, especially for my kiddos with language delays!) 

I didn't get any pictures of the activity because we were so wrapped up in it, but trust me, it was great! I did get a picture of my sloppy Venn Diagram though, so there ya go :) 


Tune back in this weekend for the last 2 lessons we will be doing to help banish bullying in our classroom and make sure we are being BUDDIES, not bullies! 

Thanks for stopping by! 
Alyssa 

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Bloglovin'

I use Bloglovin' to follow all my favorite blogs everyday (and there is quite a list of them!) Fun news, you can now subscribe to my blog as well!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I love Bloglovin's user-friendly platform and that all my blogs are in one spot! Check it out!

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Five For Friday!


Hi all! I'm trying out something new today (well it was today, but this didn't post on Friday like I thought it did! So now we're doing Five for Sunday!) and linking up with other blogs for Five for Friday!

1. 
One of my kiddos (who I had last year as well) has started recently copying print on her own! This is a HUGE happy teacher moment and has led to many proud student moments (which leads to more happy teacher moments and goes on and on and on...).  This color activity (thanks to Kindergarten Smiles amazing Word Work packets) was done 100% independent and is a HUGE step!  She's worked hard for 11+ months and it's paying off! (Apparently I really like parenthesis ;)...oops!) 

2. 
 Look at this cutie working so hard at Read to Self! This is new for us this year and I love that you can even see his little finger tracking text! 

3. 
Say hello to one of my new favorite shirts! These J.Crew shirts are cute, comfy, and all net proceeds go to Donor's Choose.  Clothes + teaching = my favorite things! 

4.
This is one of our new favorite games in our class! I mean how can you not love it?! It was handed down to me from another teacher and was missing some pieces, but we make it work!  It is great to get my kiddos talking, describing and using language.  Plus, they look SUPER cute and crack up every time! 

5.
Finally, we started a long anticipated project in our class on Friday! I can't wait to share more details later on, but my kiddos are starting to use our iPads in a SUPER fun way.  More to come later! 

Thanks for stopping by and check out the other blogs linked up for Five for Friday over at Doodle Bugs Teaching!


Sunday, October 5, 2014

the importance of praise

I've learned about Carol Dweck's research in my classes through USC and find it fascinating.  And then I stumbled upon this little video from Simply Kinder's blog a couple days ago and just had to share!   


To summarize: The WAY you praise your students matters!  Praising students for their effort, instead of their ability, can have massive implications in their attitudes towards school, their success and their own confidence in their skills. 

One of my personal goals this year is to focus on what type of praise I'm offering my students.  I'm focusing on saying things like "Wow! You really did your best work in your journal today!" and "I can tell you really thought hard about that math problem".  It may take a while until I can do it 100% of the time, but I owe it to my students to try! 

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Have you seen specific, effort-based praise boost your students up and create a growth mindset in your own classroom? 

Thursday, October 2, 2014

a peek into our world...

Also known as a classroom tour :) Here is a little peek into the space me and my kiddos share for 6 hours every day!

To start with, I am so proud of these rules that my kiddos came up with on their own this year.  We spent some time on the first day of school discussing rules and expectations.  Then we brainstormed and voted on the most important rules.  I think they hit the nail on the head and came up with some great ones! 

Throughout the year, my kiddos choose writing they are proud of to display on our All-Star wall.  (You may notice a blue-ish tint over most of my pictures.  We have light covers to help make our fluorescent lights less harsh. I love them! But they make photos come out a little strange.)  

My students each have a book box that holds their Read to Self books, journals, Playbook and more.  The cubbies underneath hold our classroom supplies and their personal cubbies on the other side. 

Classroom library! My kiddos love this little space :) 

My table/desk/center area. I got rid of my teacher desk last year and use this as my home base.  

This is our carpet area where we meet for community circle every morning plus calendar, reading and more! 

Our break area.  This gets visited OFTEN for students who need a little time to themselves to calm down, refocus or get some jitters out. 

Computers and work job drawers. 

When you put all those little pieces together, this is what our room looks like as a whole! Nothing special, but it me and my kiddos' safe little place to learn :) (Oh yeah, we sit on balls! None of those uncomfortable plastic chairs for us...most of the time!) 




Thanks for stopping by! 







Wednesday, October 1, 2014

hello!

Hi all! I'm Alyssa. Welcome to my happy little slice of the web! 




I am a first time blogger, but avid blog reader.  Each morning I wake up, grab my coffee and oatmeal, and sit down with my iPad and Bloglovin'.  I read everything from fitness blogs, to teaching blogs, to, I don't know what to call them, lifestyle blogs?  Needless to say, my Bloglovin' is full each morning.  

So, why would I start my own? Call me crazy, but it sounds like a fun way to chronicle my life as a special ed teacher to the coolest little kiddos.  I'm also hoping it'll be a good way for me to keep track of what I do over the years and connect with other teachers and their great ideas!  That being said, I'm pretty busy already, so we'll see how this goes! 

So to explain that "pretty busy" thing. I teach a 2nd and 3rd grade mild/moderate Special Day Class in Northern California.  My kids are pretty awesome and I honestly love my job ...most days ;).  I had the privilege to roll up with my kiddos this year so I'm in year two with most of my students, which also means I'm learning to teach a new grade level! 

In addition to being a teacher, I am also a student.  I am currently enrolled in a master's program at USC to earn my M.E. in Teacher Leadership in Differing Abilities.  My classes are all online and pretty amazing.  I have "class" three times a week through a video chat platform and we have been able to delve into some really important and thought-provoking topics.  I'm sure some of that will pop up on here from time to time :) 




I'm excited to start this little adventure, as unknown and daunting as it may be!  Thanks for checking in and I hope you'll be back!