Whew! Testing is Over....

... and we charge toward the end of the year with purpose! Resolve! 19....18....17.... This is my least favorite time of the year. For the homeroom teachers, every management trick that worked all year is either scrapped or completely retooled. The testing is DONE! Now it's just a waiting game. It's a difficult time to focus for teachers and students, alike. For an ESOL teacher, for every plan you think up, create, and prepare materials for, it feels like four of those will be cancelled. The fun part is not knowing until you go to a class to pull-out students and all the lights are off, little or no warning. Then, the test results come in, and boy, does that bring its own flurry of activity. So, as I begin to already scratch out plans I created this weekend, I have to adjust my attitude. I'll miss my students, and I won't get as much time to reach classroom goals with them or even say a proper, "Good luck in middle school. We'll see each other soon." By year three, I'll be better prepared to only see them a time or two a week until the end of school, I suppose. In the meantime, this little fella made me smile, I hope he can do the same for you. Gotta love Kid President! Remember, you've worked hard all year! You woke up every day because this is your calling. Administrators may have changed, curricula may have changed, expectations from higher ups may have changed. When a child succeeds, when a child is grateful, and when a child shows evidence of growth, we all remember, hopefully. We remember that any job has challenges, but ours has some pretty awesome rewards.

Exposing It - "Four-Letter Words" Review Game

Watching TV CAN be educational! I have always loved game shows, especially the ones with celebrities. Imagine my excitement when Hollywood Game Night debuted. On the first episode I caught, I found the next game for my students. I envisioned the perfect game for review. In my class, I already have the "I Used an Adult Word" wall, so it's only right that the game I discovered was "Four-Letter Words." Here is the clip I saw on TV.

For review, I came up with four letter words from all the 5th grade subjects, and we played some review. I had enough words for a few rounds. At first, I was running for the letters. By the end, my students knew how to run the game themselves. They weren't quite as fluid as I was, but they'll get it in time. See the result.

My voice screeching is so unpleasant to me!! Can you pretend to unhear me?  =)

Isn't it awesome?! Goes to show that it's fun taking risks on my lesson planning sometimes. Hope it inspires you to not to only play more in your class, but to also find inspiration anywhere. You never know what might strike you.

And a side note... I do promote play. We do play to learn a lot in my classes. Please don't think that that's all we do, but it's sure fun to share these moments, my avenue to differentiation. I think it's more fun to use my blog to expand our creativity in this manner. From other teachers, I am always researching methods like Daily 5, guided reading, writer's workshop, and on and on. I've got my eye out!

Enjoy!

Tips for Teaching English Language Learners (ELLs)

Today, I found a great, to-the-point list in a blog article called, "Do's & Don'ts For Teaching English-Language Learners." It was written by an expert I've been following for quite some time, Larry Ferlazzo. While you read this list, keep in mind that all the dos and don'ts that are listed will just as well help your struggling native English speakers. Remember, sometimes the difference between an ELL and a native speaker is not all that much, especially in the early years.

Another Ferlazzo article is about the importance of having pictures handy when teaching ELLs. Today, I found a great site for free images. I went to morgueFILE and just browsed. I found great images that I wouldn't even have thought about searching for. NOw I have a library of images saved that I won't get in trouble for using! This will be my new go-to website for free images.

Even beyond photos, go one step further, and consider the importance of realia. I attended a conference where the presenter shared with us the difference between a photo of an orange and an actual orange. Having us write down all the adjectives we could about the real orange we had in our hands first, he then gave us a picture. "What words could you no longer use to describe the orange if you'd never seen one in real life? Cross them out." He then gave us a card with the word orange on it. "Now if you can't read and you don't know what orange means because you don't understand English yet, what words would you have left?" We went from a list of sweet, rough, sticky, wet, light, mushy to having no words at all! The power in that, even to an ESOL teacher, was extremely eye-opening. So, all that to say, bring objects into your lesson.

Click on the image to go to Ferlazzo's article about photos for ELLs.

The link to the article is below, but I'm also linking my Pinterest board of writing prompts/inferencing/discussion generators. 

Click on this image to go to my Pinterest board for some helpful and interesting images.

I really enjoy this stuff. Being a creative person, I would hope that my students have a chance to imagine and wonder in my class. I've seen graphic organizers on TPT that go great with this. I'm sure I'll be creating one in the future. Just not today. =)

Finally, here is the link to the second Larry Ferlazzo article, "Using Photos with English Language Learners." Really great stuff. Ferlazzo is worth following, especially if you embrace the challenge of teaching our little language learners. I'd love your feedback. If you have some questions, I'd love to have a discussion with you and brainstorm about different idea. 

On that note, it's Friday! End on a high note.

Testing Season Reflections - Bucket Filling

I've posted about testing season once already. I am one of three ESOL teachers at my school. Because ELLs' academic and language development can be influenced by so many factors throughout the year, it is crucial that we assess their language proficiency annually with ACCESS on top of all the other assessments they receive throughout the year. It does truly benefit us all as their instructors. I'll admit, it's exhausting!!! More than it is exhausting for me, I'm sure it's exponentially more exhausting for our little 5-11 year-olds. By now, perhaps we'll all become numb to it.

It's exhausting for me because there is no flow to my day. My schedule..., well who am I kidding? It's not my schedule. It's, 
                                      "Are they at lunch?"
                       "Are they at specials?"
                              "Oh, there's a Dr. Seuss party?"
                   "Wait, we have a writing/science/checkpoints/math test right now?"
               "Yay! We finished early!!!"
       "Did you say we got 3 new ELLs today? Well, we need to order more books, then."
    "They need two days of testing. If they're not absent, we can meet the deadline."


[Though we test every single ELL three different times, twice in small group and once individually... yes, every single child.] Then, there's, 
                  "There's three of them, why does it take this long?"
   "They can't just send a courtesy email 30 minutes before they pull students (it was a courtesy and it's hen's teeth)." 
             "Cover all the content on your walls."
                         "Testing's over, take down your coverings."
                                 "One writing test on Wednesday, cover all content again."

So, while we're still testing ELLs, now overlapping with small group testing general ed. students, I walk around listlessly. My usually very enthusiastic smile and how-you-dos has been replaced with a less vibrant smirk and an "eh." My bucket's empty, what can I say? I miss my students making my cozy little modular complete with their laughs, enthusiasm, and their awesome kiddisms. I miss all my grades, but closing out the school day with my first graders was always the best. It's been nearly a month now, and I'm dying for normalcy.

I received an email yesterday that made me realize just how much I was craving my regular bucket levels. Thanks so much to this parent for filling it up just a bit. What a sweet message! I have many heart-to-hearts with said student about paying attention in her gen. ed. classes. I try! This made me (until now) secretly swell with pride.

So, while I was thinking about replacing my snowman and snowlady bulletin board with a gumball theme (just for the bright colors), I may do a Bucket Filling bulletin board instead.... after I take down the content coverings for this round. To all you teachers out there, when I can, I will not dip out of your bucket, but rather, I will try to fill them if possible. Hang in there during testing season, don't interpret my smirk as lack of enthusiasm for you. I promise, that's not the case! That smirk actually means, "I feel ya. We'll make it though this."

Be Inspired - Keepers of the Flame

I am a sucker for inspirational pieces written with teachers in mind. As a teacher myself, I love to view how others see us, but I share them because I don't think I reach greatness as a teacher without first surrounding myself with inspired teachers. So if this reaches whatever teacher community I'm a part of, including my co-workers, blog readers, random visitors... I'm happy to pass it on. I found this gem, and I'm so touched by it. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope that from time to time, we're all reminded of the power we hold. Remember how important you are to the students, remember how and why you were called into this profession. It's good practice for all of us.

Written by Paul A. Reynolds • Art by Peter H. Reynolds... beautiful!

A Little Inspiration for Gratitude

Absolutely beautiful. The message is fantastic.  It was hard for me to listen AND look at the beautiful images by Louis Schwartzberg.  I had to watch it twice, because the message is powerful!! 

"If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day of your life and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well." -Brother David Steindl-Rast 

I hope you get as much out of this as I have.