Let’s Taco ‘Bout Pro-D

This past week I had an amazing opportunity to visit another school, during school hours, with real live children there working and learning. As a teacher this is unheard of for professional development. Most of our professional development is done a few times a year in a conference hall or local high school with an expert talking to us. I understand why this is the norm because it would be astronomical to pay for a TTOC for for every teacher multiple times a year. However, after this past week I would argue that I learned more in one day of observation and talking to colleagues than in most of my other Pro-D. I was able to watch a guided reading lesson in the same grade that I teach, talk to students, talk to the librarian, see the amazing reading programs in place, as well as talk to their full time literacy coach. This is a school with very high needs and it was great to see what they are doing there to help their students. My biggest take away was a tool used during the guided reading lesson. Each student had this book to mark where and what they wanted to share with their teacher. I hope to make these this week and start implementing this with my class next week.

 With today’s social networks, it is possible to constantly be connecting and learning from fellow educators. While I do not have twitter, I can see the value in it as an educational tool. I’ve seen how you can connect with teachers from around the world, discuss educational practices and share your stories. The reason I am not on Twitter is because I enjoy talking with people in person and I don’t want to add another social media to my already technology filled life.

After this class is over I know that my professional development will continue. I think that it would be hard as a teacher to not to professional development. I believe that there is always something you can learn or do differently to help you be a better educator. Whether that is trying a new project, connecting with another classroom, or talking with a fellow teacher, we should always be learning from each other.

Families + Reading Culture = Success!

Fostering a reading cultures in school is a big focus at my school this year. One reason for this is because our school’s Action Plan for Learning is focusing around literacy and self-regulation. One thing I have done recently around fostering a reading culture is by having a Family Literacy Bingo card. I ran this through the library so I was able to introduce it to every class in the school and hype up the activity. Students enjoyed the various activities on the card which included play a board game together, read a book together, look at family photos and make a meal together. What I thought was important was making reading fun for families and that it was about spending time together. When students brought back their card with at least one line complete they were given a prize. I asked each student what their favourite activity they did was and many of them said building a fort a reading in it. I think that this is such a fun experience for families to do together while making reading fun.  

Family Literacy Bingo Card 

Sunday, January 27th is Family Literacy Day! 

Names: Adult(s):_______________ Child(ren): ____________________ 

Grade(s):______________ Classroom Teacher(s):__________________ 

Instructions: Over the next week, colour in the boxes of the activities that your family has done together throughout this week. If you colour a complete line (across, down, or diagonal) you can return this sheet to the school library, on or before Friday, February 1st, and get a prize from the library!!! 

Read a book together	Do a crossword puzzle together	Visit the public library	Draw a picture together	Cook supper  together
Read a magazine together	Do a jigsaw puzzle together	Explore the online digital resources through our school website	Play a board game together	Make a craft together
Play a board game together	Write a letter to a family member or friend and post it in the mail	Tell a family story	Make a shopping list together	Look at family pictures together
Talk about the best parts of your day	Fix something around your home together	Look at family pictures together or draw your family	Play a word or guessing game like “I Spy”	Make puppets to retell a favorite story
Act our part of a play or make believe together	Build a fort and read inside with flashlights	Make up a story together and draw pictures to go with it	Make a thank you card or birthday card for someone	Work on homework together

Another school wide initiative is our Drop Everything and Read mornings. This year we have had two mornings where families are invited to read with their children throughout the school for the first 20 minutes of the day. Being able to promote reading with families is so important, because if reading isn’t valued at home then the student can be at a disadvantage at school.    

(http://www.scholastic.com/readingreport/reading-aloud.htm)

Recently, our principal has received a large grant for our school to help us with our Action Plan for Learning. As a result, tomorrow I get to visit another school to learn from them on what their literacy and self regulation programs look like. I am very excited for this opportunity. The school I am visiting is seen as a “need” school so they have a full time literacy coach and librarian, who we get to talk to tomorrow. I’m wondering how having this full time support will look compared to our minimal literacy coach support and me as a librarian only two days a week. I hope to learn different strategies to use both in my classroom and in the library. We don’t often get a day to learn from other schools, so I fully intend to take advantage of this day of learning from others.