Year 18

I am so thankful to be at a new school, in a new grade, with new curriculum ... and 18 years into my career. 

This year provides a steep learning curve for me, but it is mostly of my own creation. Sure, I have to find my inner kindergarten teacher (thank goodness my first graders are starting to seem like first graders and it is only the third week of school -- kindergarten is not my natural state!) Sure, I have to learn a basal program when I haven't used a basal since student teaching. Sure, I have to navigate new adults and schedules and having my kids at my school with me. But none of this is truly challenging because all of my prior experiences have given me tools for most things in the realm of elementary school. The absolute best gift all these changes have given me is a chance to grow myself in new directions and the freedom of being the only one who is new to all these things on my team. Because our basal is not a new adoption, I have the freedom to play with it and with my own planning and maneuvering of the classroom learning schedules and space. 

So, I turned to the Daily 5. For years I scoffed at Daily 5 or any type of centers and rotations because (especially as an intermediate teacher) being tied to rotations meant constant changing of and managing busy work (see my first blog "What's the Point?") From my observations, all those activities were breaking teachers and not growing students (sorry to everyone who is in deep with Words their Way rotations -- do you have grade level readers and writers after you created all those activities and individualized spelling assessments? Or is everyone basically still at the same place? Did it close the gap?)

And then I landed in primary--first grade. Cue very short stamina. Like 1-2 minutes of reading to self. Max. And I'm a big small group devotee -- how was I supposed to meet with students in meaningful ways without having to constantly redirect everyone else? In intermediate, students had their own schedule of tasks to complete (book club reading and notebook maintenance, independent reading and notebook choice, etc.) so I could meet for 30 uninterrupted minutes with each group at least 2x a week, more for the struggling students. My enrichment students could engage in the wonderful deep conversations that pushed them past grade level expectations with my full attention and guidance as needed. It was lovely. Sigh. And now I have 2 minutes.

 

As I reached out to blogs of primary teachers around the world, Daily 5 kept coming up (see The Brown Bag Teacher, etc). Since the reading and math curriculum are not new to my school, only to me, I have the flexibility to play with it and make it fit my students' needs (no fidelity -- the swear word of all new curriculum adoptions.) So, I started to implement some ideas I'd seen on others' blogs about Daily 5 and what other teachers on my team were doing to rotate students through guided groups. But I needed more. I needed PHILOSOPHY and THEORY. I needed to know why I was rotating students and how I could roll out a better form. So I bought the book on Amazon. 

In this new edition, the authors show how they evolved their teaching over the decades, which I really appreciate because we all go through similar phases of control. I could see myself in their evolution and I could see in Daily 5 where I was trying to go next. I also LOVED the background information on the brain and how they used research to guide their classroom practice. I LOVED that they have choice in not just subject matter but environment (not in a fad way where there is not choice, like some flexible seating interpretations...soapbox.) I LOVED that not all students have to do meaningless word work when they don't need it to grow as readers and writers but that some students will have meaningful word work in their rotation. This is just what I was looking for in my new path. I plan to read slowly and implement Daily 5 in a way that makes sense for me and is not "one more thing" that I will become exhausted and drained by. I think this is going to be my key. I'll let you know!

Go year eighteen!

Sarah's Teaching Points