Creating Cultures of Thinking - Ron Ritchhart

I'm a huge 

Cultures of Thinking fan.

I try to incorporate thinking routines

into my lessons.

I've started looking at ways to make

thinking visible.

I've started focusing more on

the thinking

and less on 

the knowledge.

So when Ron Ritchhart

came out with a new book,

you know I had to read it.

Creating Cultures of Thinking

breaks down the 8 forces

teachers and schools need to look at

to ensure they are in fact

creating these cultures.

The eight forces that share culture are:

1) Expectations - what you expect for students not of them

2) Language - name the thinking that goes on

3) Time - do you give students time to think?

4) Modeling - teachers should model thinking

5) Opportunities - create learning opportunities that are inviting

6) Routines - besides daily transition routines, thinking routines are also important

7) Interactions - shape meaningful collaboration and learning

8) Environment - that shows you value learning

Reading this book

has made me reflect on my own practices.

Do I emphasis learning and thinking

as much as I could/should?

It has also made me 

look at the different classrooms I teach it.

I look at their use of space

and what it shows that they value.

It makes me think about my own classroom

(when I have one)

and what I want my students

to know I value.

If you want a book to make you think

about your own teaching practices,

in a good way,

this is the one for you.

This Makes Me Happy

There are many things that can make me

happy.

This weekend,

I was in Dubai.

And while the weather,

shopping,

food and

 mates

were great,

there was something else

that made me truely happy.

I attended a Cultures of Thinking

workshop

presented by Ron Ritchhart.

To spend 2 days,

listening to this man

was inspiring.

And truely made me happy.

Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop - Patrick Allen

A lot of what I've been reading recently

is about reading.

I've noticed the last few books 

I've read

talk about getting students to choose

their own reading materials. 

In Zambia,

I met a teacher 

that did not have reading groups

but instead conferred with her students.

Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop

follows this premise.

Allen shares his experiences

as he improved his ability to conference

one-on-one with his students.

He spends some time explaining his purpose

or philosophy for conferring. 

He provides examples and strategies. 

What I really loved,

was how he related a lot of his thinking

to developing students' metacognition. 

The strategies and routines he sets up

help students become better

readers, writers and thinkers.

Now, 

the challenge lies,

in getting schools and teachers to see the benefit

in conferences over the 

group sessions where students

are not reading for themselves.

The Writing Thief - Ruth Culham

I'm a huge fan of Ruth Culham.

She's written a lot of books about the

6-Traits of Writing.

She's a great resource

for mentor texts. 

And basically,

that's what

The Writing Thief

offers. 

Culham explains how stealing from

authors and books we love

is great when teaching writing. 

She focuses on 

informational, narrative and argument

types of writing.

She explains them in simple terms

and connects the 6-Traits to these 

text types.

With the 6-Traits,

Culham points out

the simple differences

in each text type,

and offers some mentor texts

to support them.

With Ethan having completed 

first and second grade,

and with having taught,

in recent years,

second and third grade,

I found myself making notes in the margin

about which texts I could see myself using

with a specific grade,

or even matching ideas

with a unit.

The Writing Thief

is one of those books

that you're glad you read over the summer

and gets you excited about going back

into the classroom. 

The Book Whisperer - Donalyn Miller

My first year in Zambia,

my teaching partner and I

scoured the server

to find a ton of reading logs.

We went through them all

(they were used by the previous year's teachers)

and found the one we would implement

in our classroom.

By October,

I hated the reading logs.

It felt like I was giving parents homework.

If a student wasn't reading,

I'm sure the parent would tell me.

So what did purpose did the log serve?

Unfortunately,

I was alone.

The following year,

my teaching partner was an avid

book log teacher.

And since we were a small school,

it was hard for her to do something

and not me.

So,

when I read in The Book Whisperer

how the author also has a distaste

for reading logs,

I knew we were kindred spirits!

The book is more or less
her thought process
on how to create a generation of readers.
She has instilled a love of reading in her students.
They don't read books because the curriculum says they should.
They read books they want to,
they share ideas,
thoughts
and recommendations.
It's what I would love my students
to feel about reading.

Miller teaches middle school.
Her methods work great in that setting.
As a second grade teacher,
I'm not sure how much of this I could use
but it was truly inspiring.

Writer's Workshop - Summer

So June 21st,

was the official first day of summer. 

Also known as Summer Solstice.

And this year,

we were in Seattle.

There were many things happening

in Seattle on this day.

There was the Rock and Roll marathon.

I hear the Summer Solstice parade

in Freemont is quite the site,

But our first day of summer,

had an excitement of it's own.

June 21st marked my graduation day!

Woohoo!!!

For the last 2 years,

I have been working full time,

being a mom

and a student.

And it finally paid off.

On Saturday, 

I graduated with my 

Masters of Education

in Reading and Literacy.

It was truly a day

all about me!!!!