Let's Look at 2017 Shall We?

Link up at www.twowritingteachers.wordpress.com.  We are so grateful for this community. 


Fearless.  My One Word for 2017.    Let's try this with some free verse-ish writing, shall we?

Isaiah 41:10:  "Do Not be afraid, for I am with you.  Do not be dismayed, I am your God.  I will strengthen you.  I will help you.  I will uphold you with my victorious right hand."

Fearless in Faith.

More learning to be had here.  

Less fear in trying to write and share my learning.  

Fearless in Friendships.

Uphold the ones that are critical.

Fearless in love.

It's for All People.

(That phrase, "all people" is in Luke chapter 2.  It's really been on my heart since Christmas.)

2 Timothy 1:7:  "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline."

Fearless in Running.

Find that girl and get her back.  

Fearless in fitness.

Cliche--I know.

But I've lost that too.  

I boldly need to reclaim that on all fronts.  

Joshua 1:9:  I command you-Be strong and courageous!  Do not be afraid or discouraged.  For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Fearless in ambition.
I'm not afraid anymore.
Fearless in the work.

Fearless in the journey.

I don't know where it's going to take me.

But I know Who is going with me. 

And I'm going fearlessly.

Some music to get us started:

I like to play this one in my kitchen. It's where all the best dancing takes place.

Joy!

Kendra

More on Purposeful Play: When the risks kick in.

Have you read this book yet?  I've written about it a few times before.  And all fall, we've been dabbling in "play and project" time.  It's been good!

Then December happened.

You see, the short story is, in December, in our Faith-based school, the Christmas Pageant is the hard work of December.   The kids are engaged in:

• Large group community work.
• Shared reading in musical lyrics.
• Exposure to reading basic melodies.
• I was fascinated to watch as the kids were exposed to speech enunciation techniques.  
• The self-regulation it takes to stand with a large community of kids and focus on singing.
• The fun and festiveness of dressing up and presenting a beautiful story.  

Christmas Pageants are hard work.  And may I say, Music Education rocks?!?!  

A purposeful teacher is careful then, about how to proceed with the classroom setting.   I could have steamrolled through lessons.  I could have insisted on routine.  I could have ignored the needs of my students.  

None of those would work for me.  

Yet, we need to also be engaged and learning.  

Today, I want to share the work of Play and Project time and the moment I realized my Firsties were taking risks in their writing during this time.  

In our classroom, there was a place to work with foam, nails, screws, bolts and washers, and rubber bands.  First, the project encouraged kids to create Christmas Trees with these items.  They took these items and started to create Robots.  Hey, it's cool!

A safety note:  I have a small class size with kiddos who have a LOT of self-regulation.  There are years where this wouldn't have been an option.  

Enter the Robot Store.  Every good store has signs.  Come Now!  Play!  Love and Name Him!  

These three signs?  Made by a former reluctant writer.  In these moments, to protect her risk taking, I always ask what she thinks of them and I honor what she is saying.  Occasionally she will revise a sign, but she is also starting to monitor her work as she is creating it initially.

Come On to the Shop!

That last sign?  We've also been working on digraphs in our word study time.  When I asked her to read it to me, she did.  And she self-corrected herself on the placement and directionality in this writing. For this student, it was way more powerful than even a mini-lesson on editing and revising.  Because it revolved around her play.

She asked if she Had to make a new sign.  I left that up to her.  (She didn't.)  But as a developing writer, I was so pleased  to have the opportunity to have this conversation with her.  

The other thing you don't see in these few pictures, are the volume of signs that were taped around my classroom.  On desks.  On my desk.  On cupboards.  Tables, Doors.  They just kept writing.  

Keep in mind, this wasn't Writer's Workshop.  Intentionally, I didn't swoop in and conference on the writing process.  But I did observe risk taking, joyful writing, a large volume of writing.  

December showed me that play does encourage risk taking academically.  We'll be playing in January...February...you get the picture...

How are you using play in your classroom?

Joy!
Kendra

Heart Maps-Part 2. Writing in December.

Link up at www.twowritingteachers.wordpress.com.  We are so grateful for this community. 

Hello Friends!  The last time I sliced, I was writing about Heart Maps!  Well.  December Happened.  This means Lots of work on Christmas Pageant.  Lots of learning and community is built during that time, but when you are back in the classroom, there's a shift.  You have to be so purposeful in what you are asking kids to do.  This includes reading, writing, math, the whole idea of your classroom.  

So, when this blog post from Ruth Ayres showed up, I was so relieved!  It saved Writer's Workshop in December in my classroom.  A pause.  This doesn't mean that we didn't write.  We just paused on the topics of revision, editing, readability, etc.  We only wrote.  I asked for the kids to think about only writing when it was time to do so, and that was pretty much it.  

But, as December went on, some bumps kept popping up.  How was I going to honor my students, and yet maintain some sense of writing as we got closer to Christmas break?

Enter Heart Maps.


Once upon a time, I won this book in a #g2Great chat.  I have perused it.  I have tried some out on my own.
I just jumped in and shared the idea with my First Graders.

It was awesome.

These Heart Maps ask kids to map about what is important to them.  So-they did.  Many kids made more than one over these past few days.  And for some kids, it resulted in journal entries and writing.  For other kids, it gave them the chance to just reflect on what was important to them.  

As we move into January, I'm excited to see how they respond to Reader's Heart Maps.  I'll plan to use them in Nonfiction as well.  And of course with Poetry and Visualization.  There are guidelines for all of these topics in Georgia Heard's book.  

So, stay tuned.  There could be parts 3, 4, and 5.  This is developing into a highly useful strategy in my classroom.  

Have you used Heart Maps in your Writer's Workshop?

Joy!
Kendra

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Gift Edition.

Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who link up.

Hey Friends, My Family?  We are nerds to the core.  Books all around for everyone.  

It's a tradition in our household to celebrate Advent and stop and reflect each week on what this means.  We also open a present or two.  Nothing fancy.  Clothes.  Fun.  Faith.  And Books.  Lots of books.  

Here's a snapshot of what we are giving and have received in books this year.  A span of ages and interests here:

Here's what was gifted to me:

A quick honest reaction?  I'm not enjoying this book at all.  I asked for the book.  I'll finish it.  But the short story is this did not resonate with me.  At all.  I'm a little angry at this book actually.  Does this happen to anyone else when they read?  It's a blog post for another day...


I'm loving this cookbook.  I love her stories and her voice.  I also learned she has a blog.  It's on my list of things to check out over Christmas break.

This picture book is really about me.


For the Mr.:

What's funny is we both said no books for each other.  That we had enough.  Yeah, right...

For All the kids of each Shape and Size:
















Does your family do books as gifts?  What are you giving/receiving this year?

Joy!
Kendra

Celebrate! Christmas with the Cops...

Friends, You can celebrate too!  Link up at www.ruthayres.com.  I thank Ruth for sharing her space with us. 

Two weeks ago, dear friends, I wrote about this...

But our Friendship with the police department is just beginning.  

This past week, we had lunch with them at school.

And it was awesome.  

We served them lunch.

First graders told them a bunch of jokes in the way a first grader can.  

Everyone had a blast.  

I'm celebrating continued friendships in the midst of tragedies.  Our kids were still hugging them and offering condolences for their losses.  And telling them how awesome they were.  And taking over their hats and jackets.  What gracious officers.  

As I think about this, I'm praying and thinking about what else we can do for our friends.  This has turned into Service Learning at its most authentic.  What else can we do?  I'm celebrating the fact that we get to ask that!

Joy!
Kendra

Celebrate! Space to Create!

Friends, You can celebrate too!  Link up at www.ruthayres.com.  I thank Ruth for sharing her space with us. 



This is one of my professional reads right now.  I've been to several dynamic, awesome conferences this fall, and I have Makerspace on the brain.

Let's be honest, I have a lot on my brain right now.  

All Good Things.  

Most of that creative work, as we know, takes place at home.  

At least it does for me.

Mine was taking place in the kitchen, in the living room, in the piano room...

Not a dedicated space for thinking and creating.  

(Read-Stuff was everywhere on our first floor.  That drives me crazy too.  Even though it's all mine!)

And my 12 year old?  

He loves puzzles.  

And we love to be together.  

So we were in each other's space.  

All the time.  

A good problem to have.

So after a conversation with the hubs, we did a little rearranging.  

And we have our own "Makerspace" here in what most people call a dining room.  

It's not that fancy.

I didn't need it to be.

I needed it to be a place dedicated for my work.  (And Mr.'s work too-he's been teaching ESL on the side...and he's a Nerdy reader too.)

I liked being in the space that we tend to land in here in our house.  We have lots of space in this house.  But when I'm working, reading, writing...I do like to be next to My People.  My kids are growing up fast.  I want to be accessible to them.  Not held up in an office upstairs away from the space where we really live.  

Interested in a tour?  

I thought you would be.  :)

What most people see as a dining room table, is now my study area.  :)  That space to the left?  We were experimenting with bringing a desk into the space too, and realized a full sized desk would be too big.  But there is a space for puzzles now.  And other things a 12 year old Maker needs.  

So we aren't really dining room folk.  We do our eating, even with friends, in the kitchen.  This is perfect for us.  

Room for reading, writing, and studying.

What Make Space has taught me is to look at things with a more creative eye, and not to rush that.  This morning, the actual work took about 30 minutes.  We spent more time talking and mapping out what this space would be used for.  

The implications for school of course are swirling in my head.  I have some spaces to work in, but is there something else I could do in my classroom?  Stay tuned...

Let's celebrate space to create!

Joy!
Kendra

Celebrate: An Open Letter to My Mustangs...

Friends, You can celebrate too!  Link up at www.ruthayres.com.  I thank Ruth for sharing her space with us. 

All You Mustangs (And Friends),

On November 2nd, we woke up to one of the worst things that has ever happened in our city.  I'll just link that story here if you need to read it.  

Obviously school was cancelled that day.  I sat a lot and just stared at the news as it continued to develop.  That's not the healthiest way to spend a day after a tragedy, but I just couldn't believe that This was invading our neighborhood.  Our space.  

It's one thing to see these tragedies on the news and be moved.  It's another thing to have it happen in your 5 mile radius.  I'll never react to these news stories the same again.  

What was I going to say to you as a teacher?
What were we going to Do to make an impact?

Thursday came.  

Through my choked up voice, I told you that this was our time to share Jesus.

And you know what?

Those words didn't even sound futile as I feared they would.

What else were we going to do?

What can kids do, you ask?

Beautiful cards for Police Officers.

I'm not sure I'm ever taking off the thin blue line you placed on the back of my car.

I wear the t-shirts that were designed with pride.

And then the offerings started to come in.

In just about 3 weeks, you collected offerings.  Oh my, did you collect offerings.  

$1,165.75. 

To our "Big Kids", you lead the charge on this.  It just blew me away.

I cried every time I saw an update on the offerings.

Maybe you don't know. 

The officers coming, were a bit of a surprise. 

The best kind of surprise. 

The kind of surprise you see mentioned in passing on the news.

Get in the car, we have to buy cookies surprise.

The officers did come.  

They were so humbled.  

I wish we could have stayed and chatted all day.

You can't imagine the amount of love they felt.  

(See a link for our chapel with Police Officers.)  

Seeds of Friendship were planted this week.

I can't wait to see how you continue to serve our Police Officers.

I celebrate your servant hearts in the midst of a tragedy.  

I celebrate the healing you provided.

I celebrate the opportunity for new friendships.  

Joy!
Kendra