Help me get the teachers talking. What are some ways you get a discussion after a classroom modeling. No one wants to say much. I don't know what they are thinking. I would like to get more conversation out of them. They take notes during the lesson, but they don't really share their thoughts. Any suggestions out there?

Back to teambuilders. Here are some teambuilders. Maybe someone can use them at some point this year.

Literacy Timelines (for times when you have all day, this takes some time)
Teachers will create a timeline of friends, colleagues and family members who have
influenced their literacy development. These timelines will then be used as a catalyst for discussion about what is meaningful and memorable in influencing the literacy of others.
Begin by asking everyone to draw a line across a blank sheet of paper (providing a stack of blank
oversized sheets of paper and baskets of markers is helpful). On this line, ask everyone to mark a starting point with a vertical line labeled “Birth” on the left-hand side, and another labeled “Present Day” on the right-hand side.

Ask participants to think of at least five people who influenced their development as readers and writers during their lives. Participants should then map out on the continuum when they met each person. Below the timeline, everyone should list the names of these mentors with a one-sentence description of how and why that person affected his or her literacy.
This task should take no more than 10-15 minutes. Ask everyone to write silently. Often it takes at least a few minutes for participants to clear their heads and begin remembering names (especially those of distant mentors).
After everyone has completed their timelines, meet in small groups or collectively discuss the following questions:
· What did your literacy mentors have in common?
· What are some striking differences?
· What connections do you make to how you mentor students?
· What connections do you make to how you influence the literacy teaching and learning of your
colleagues?

Where I Draw the Line

Prepare some statements on the blackboard, whiteboard or chart paper before participants arrive (see examples below).
Once everyone arrives, draw an imaginary line across the front of the room. Tell everyone that this line is a continuum, with one end designated for those who “strongly agree” with the first statement, and the other end of the line reserved for those who “strongly disagree.” The middle territory is for those who are neutral or ambivalent. Ask participants to place themselves on the line based upon their response to the statement.
Statements to post might include:
· Teachers must know and use research findings to inform their practice.
· Reading comprehension strategy instruction is a fad that will pass in time.
· Every teacher in the same grade in our school should teach reading in the same way.
· There is enough phonics instruction in our school.
· My experiences as a writer influence the way I teach writing.
· My experiences as a reader influence the way I teach reading.
· Research is only valid if it is objective.
· Not enough attention is paid to grammar and spelling skills in our school.
· Boys’ literacy is of greater concern to me at the moment than girls’ literacy.
· I have never experienced as much pressure as a teacher as I do now in the classroom.
· The standards movement has been a positive force in schools over the past decade.
· Parents are becoming more involved in our school.
After each person has lined up for the first statement, have people share why they feel strongly or are
ambivalent about the statement. Take no more than five minutes to discuss each statement. After the
discussion of a statement is completed, read aloud the next statement, have everyone rearrange
themselves on the continuum, and discuss the new topic.
Ideally, you don’t want to post any statements that lead to a herd of teachers at one end of the continuum.
Sometimes the statements that are the most fun are those that are most polarizing, or lead to a chain of participants all along the line. You can easily adapt these statements to reflect current literacy initiatives in your building.

Now for a fun teambuilder. List the desserts on cards and have them go to the card of their favorite dessert. Then read the traits for each dessert.

Angel Food Cake - Sweet, loving, cuddly. You love all warm and fuzzy items. A little nutty at times. Sometimes you need an ice cream cone at the end of the day. Others perceive you as being childlike and immature at times.

Brownies - You are adventurous, love new ideas, and are a champion of underdogs and a slayer of dragons. When tempers flare up you whip out your saber. You are always the oddball with a unique sense of humor and direction. You tend to be very loyal.

Lemon Meringue - Smooth, sexy and articulate with your hands. You are an excellent after-dinner speaker and a good teacher, and also a great leader. You are very loyal, but a bit of a diva at times. You are a very outgoing, loving person and have loads and loads of friends.

Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Icing - Fun-loving, sassy, humorous, very grounded in life; very decisive and motivated. Everyone enjoys being around you, you are a practical joker. Others should be cautious in making you mad. However, you are a friend for life.

Strawberry Shortcake - Romantic, warm, loving. You care about other people, can be counted on in a pinch and expect the same in return. Intuitively keen. Can be very emotional.

Chocolate on Chocolate - Sexy; always ready to give and receive. Very creative, adventurous, ambitious, and passionate. You can appear to have a cold exterior but are warm on the inside. Not afraid to take chances. Will not settle for anything average in life. Love to laugh.

Ice Cream - You like sports, whether it be baseball, football, basketball, or soccer. If you could, you would like to participate, but you enjoy watching sports. you don't like to give up the remote control. You tend to be self-centered and high maintenance.

Carrot Cake - You are a very fun-loving person, who likes to laugh. You are fun to be with. People like to hang out with you. You are a very warmhearted person and a little quirky at times. You have many loyal friends.

Teaching Writing With Barry Lane

I've been taking Barry Lane's After the End to collaborations and workshops because his humor and practical advice speak to so many of us. I especially love to do a read aloud of his chapter (at least the first couple of pages) "Don't Fix My Story, Just Listen To Me" because most teachers start nodding their heads and chuckling because so many of us have dragged student papers home only to cart them back to school ungraded...and the best part is the realization that this isn't the most effective use of teacher time since there is little learning for students in all that time teachers spend marking up papers.

So...this year I've been able to make great use of his new book But How Do You Teach Writing? He includes simple, easy to implement writing exercises that we can use in our collaborations, and then teachers can take them back into their own classrooms and have a model to share.

In the process of digging around online, I also discovered a site with additional workshop ideas. Truly, these are all fun, and I don't know about you, but I'm all about finding some joy to spread!

If you have a few minutes, visit UTube and type in Barry Lane. There are a number of videos you could share at your collaborations, and fun or not(they are hysterical), the message rings true.



By the way, I love the fact that he still writes about his fourth grade teacher. I'll try to upload that clip here as well. Enjoy!

In Just a Few Minutes...Find Connections!

So...no one is posting. It could be a number of things:

l. Who has time to create a post? (I've decided to look at the clock and time this blogging event.)
2. I don't want to have to polish my rough thoughts...(I have cast reckless abandon and decided to risk your judgment. I'm hoping you see content and ideas, not so much how I might need to revise my writing in this format!)
3. I'm too tired...
4. I don't know how to mess with all the features - pictures, linking, etc. Who cares?...Just talk...

I have to say that I have found great help on this site. Several weeks ago I posted some thoughts about how I wished I had more ideas about community building. Several trainers wrote back about ideas they've used to build community, and I have used them all. Thank goodness for your generosity! I've used Shonna's index card idea for telling why you became a teacher on one side and on the other to write a career you'd never do. It's quick and easy! Jennifer, I've used the T-shirt, which is also very clever. Thanks for sharing these ideas!

So...my point is that it was totally worth the fifteen minutes or so it took to write about how I needed more ideas for community building. Just think how cool it would be if even more people contributed to the pool! So...I've been on for ten minutes now, and I'm going to wrap this up before I hit the fifteen minute mark.

I've been wanting to post about something that has been surfacing for me lately...Isn't it a small world? Last week I met Elsie for dinner in St. Louis. Just the week before I had learned that her sister-in-law was a friend and colleague from a school where I had worked. It was such a nice occasion to be able to share dinner out of town and get to talk to a friend about our training experiences. What a wonderful surprise it was, though, to discover in casual conversation that our fathers had worked together...What are the odds that both our fathers would be FBI agents? Even more powerful...they knew each other. In a later phone call, my dad told me that the judge's gavel he still has in his guest bedroom was made my Elsie's dad. Small world...I love discoveries like this.

OK...this has been twenty minutes total, not fifteen. But that's not so much time, is it? Go ahead. Live dangerously. Post your thoughts.

What Do You Call Jet Lag When You're Traveling By Car? Car Lag?

I've been in a school every day for who knows how long...and today I looked out at my group of teachers and thought, "Let's see...if it's Wednesday, I must be in*****(unnamed school...). Truth is, I could see that these teachers, like me, were also on overload, and fortunately for all of us, I was able to remind myself that sometimes this is the only day these guys have to connect with each other, build community, collaborate on challenges that face them, and generally refuel.

So...I asked if I could start the day with a "community builder" of pictures of my grandbaby. I explained that this was kind of indulgent on my part, and even though we had no technology because we didn't have the big meeting room, they were kind enough to gather around my laptop with their writer's notebooks in hand, ready to record the photo number of their choice. I gave them a few minutes to quickwrite the reason for their choice - what the picture meant to them and why it connected to how they felt about their classes. Afterward, they shared in pairs and then we were going to discuss as a group.

Next, I asked how many chose photo number one, and it was amazing what happened. (This is a picture of Hailey's second day of life!) First of all, most of them chose that picture, and in explaining why, one veteran teacher broke down in tears. Her kids were nightmarish, incapable of being students; they were infants, like Hailey, but they didn't care about life, school, or anything about writing. Their parents were meth addicts or alcoholics and didn't care about their kids. Other teachers who chose that picture said that they felt like infants with the new strategies they were asked to adopt, not knowing or trusting where it would all lead...Oh, my, this was the teachable moment, and my lesson plan of covering the 6+1 traits seemed like it was shot to hell...Ever been there? (Actually, I like it when everything is out on the table, so to speak.)

So...I thought to myself, "Better regroup!" I asked the teachers, "What can I do to help?" The answer was to model in the nightmare class, which was scheduled to meet in moments. I told the group that I'd oblige, but they must use this time to observe and study the students, their interaction with the teacher (me this time), and we'd go back and debrief as a team of experts. I didn't have all the secrets of classroom life, but maybe in watching, we as a team could come up with some answers. (I wanted to be sure that this didn't look like I was going in to "show up" their regular teacher...or to be slaughtered for entertainment -however their teacher was the one who asked that we look at her class...and after all, if the kids were incorrigible, we'd get an idea of what was happening.) I reached in my bag and pulled out a cloze poem entitled "I Meant to Tell You," and we waddled down the hall like a line of ducks in a shooting gallery.

So...after introductions and a read aloud of the original poem, we took a few minutes to quickwrite in writer's notebooks about a person we wished we'd said something to but for whatever reason we didn't. Kids all wrote -really- for a few minutes. We stopped, turned and shared the identity of who we wrote about with a partner if we wanted...most did. All turned and at least listened. Then I gave them the poem with blanks drawn in where they could all add their own lines of poetry. Kids asked all the right questions. Does the person have to be alive? Does it have to be a person? (The kid was thinking of a beloved pet.) So...then I set them loose to write what they wished. I tried to write at the same time and did for a bit, but then I circulated to see (unobtrusively, I hoped) what was going on. All but four were writing fast and furiously, and like Dr. Woods advises, I watched for the crest of the wave.

As pencils were laid down, I asked if there were questions or comments about the writing. A teacher raised her hand and asked if there was a student sample that I could share with everyone. I said yes, but I gave the kids a few minutes to turn and share with a partner what they thought of the poem and the writing...and if they wanted, they could share a bit of their own poem or all. (I wished it were my class...I didn't know where they were with safety and comfort!) After students chatted, I read the student sample (which was written by a student who lived in a motel while his mom and his dad were seperating, and his dad ended up getting arrested when he came to reclaim the family...) I circulated around the room while I was reading, and when I finished, I whispered up close to the boys who had written nothing if they'd mind please writing at the bottom of their blank pages why they hadn't written anything.

I collected up the papers, and we filed back out and down the hall to our meeting room. Someone asked if I'd read the student work, so I began, and before I was through even two of them, we were all in tears...a note to Mom who never smiled or laughed anymore...dad who went off to Iraq...a best friend who moved away...grandpa who was a best friend but died...a favorite teacher (I'm not kidding) who was the only one who understood...and so on. The boy whose dad went to Iraq wrote in his last line line..."I'm glad we have money now, but I miss you, Dad. Thanks."

OK...so what's the point? Our kids carry in so much baggage sometimes that it's humbling...Would this come out in a survey? Maybe...maybe not. Will this come out in writing? Maybe...I hope so...Someone asked what should be done about the kids who didn't write. Another teacher answered that that would be a great place to start the conferencing...(thank you)...By the way, they wrote on the bottom of their papers, "I don't have anything to say." Someone else asked about how to motivate kids without a cloze poem...I was dizzy watching the questions go back and forth, but relieved that solutions kept coming back to teaching the kids that are in our rooms now...not where they are supposed to be next year...not where the plan always leads us...but where they appear to be now.

So...here I am, back in Springfield, light years away, a presentation tomorrow...what is it on? Gosh, it's lonesome out there when you keep driving out to schools and home before and after dark. My family keeps me grounded, though they have gone out on their own. Baby Hailey who lives up the street keeps me grounded, so I peek at her pictures when I can. Thank you, Hailey, from all of us today. We are all infants in a way, finding our way, trying to spread light when we can. I didn't have to say much today. So glad you led the way, Hailey. I'm tired!

One final postscript...the NCTE newsletter had an interesting article about teachers who blog about their classrooms (by the way, our is private...) and I thought you might be interested...