We > Me

A Cultural Shift: Individual vs Group Mentality

While at The Boeing Company I was able to see and hear from many employees who spoke to the cultural shift from individual success to group success was a growing need. Over the next five years fifty percent of The Boeing Company's employees will be able to retire. And this poses a number of problems. One in particular is losing valuable knowledge that those retirees have. Creating that cultural shift of collaboration vs individual is no easy task as it is ingrained in the American culture as a core value. While I still see the value in individuals and I have always enjoyed the collaborative process.

At a massive company like, The Boeing Company being able to collaborate is key to their success in the aerospace industry. It is important the we as educators push all students to work with diverse group members to best prepare them for the every changing workforce.

In my classroom I find ways to constantly foster students outlook on the collaborative process. The growth in community from August to June is visible and palpable by November. I love that students discover each others strengths and areas to improve. And then with little effort from me they support each other in all areas and celebrate their individual and group success.

Quotes that I hear throughout the school year that make me smile:

"Wow, you have really improved your grammar."
"You guys we did it, this looks great!"
"You can do it, you just have to work hard."
"Wait Sara is really good at this, lets see what she thinks."

Ways I work to build a collaborative classroom  community starting the first day of school and beyond:

1. To succeed, we need: This is an activity that creates a class promise/pledge that will be present in our classroom all year. It is great because all students create it and are reminded when they are not adhering to it from their peers and me. I start by having students independently brainstorm what they need to succeed in our classroom on sticky notes. Next in small groups they compile their list with common needs they recorded. Then we create a class list compiling all ideas and students take those needs and write them on sentence strips in any style they choose; which will be posted to create our classroom pledge on butcher paper. We will recite this pledge throughout the school year to keep it alive.

2. Group Norms: Each group will create their own group norms no more than five that will aid in collaboration.

3. Snapping: When students share ideas or answers the class will snap for ideas they agree with or find interesting. Great way to build student self-esteem and active listening.

4. STEM and Problem Based Learning: They quickly learn when posed with a real-world challenges that they need the strength of others to develop a plan of action in order to solve a problem that may have multiple solutions. Through this process they in turn learn that everyone has something to offer.

I do think that it is important to find a balance as an educator between collaboration and individual tasks. There a fine line when students work collaboratively to ensure that collaboration is taking place as well as  individual learning and accountability. The key is getting students to see that everyone thinks differently and the power of actively listening to others in order to work in a collaborative setting that includes and values all members.

Brain Break: YOU TUBE

I have always been a huge fan of exercise and movement through dance. When Zumba took off in the states I knew that I had to bring it into my classroom. 

Since I have personal goal to provide my students more brain breaks I spent some time on You Tube to create a movement playlist. Below are some the the videos that I plan to use during some of the brain breaks!

Additionally I have been sharing some of my favorite songs and having students listen to the lyrics to discuss the songs message and they are loving this! Below is the first song that I shared with them and we had great discuss around it!

Now that we are three weeks into the school year, I must say that I am enjoying providing these brain breaks and have received great student feedback about loving the brain breaks, and the best part they are able to come back and refocus.

The last brain break that I have been doing with the students is from Kathleen Kryza from an app that she recommend which was called Settle Your Glitter. I haven't had much luck with the app, so instead I explained to students that we learn best when our glitter is settled and we practiced in the mornings to "Settle our Glitter," and they giggled a little, but I have heard them telling their groups, "Our glitter is everywhere and we need to settle it." I may create class snow globes and use those to help us settle our glitter as we need it. I really like this because I know that it is a great life skill and everyone needs to take time to settle their glitter.

No matter how busy we get within the school day I will make time for brain breaks as they benefits are beyond worth it!

Let me know what brain breaks you do with your class, the more ideas the better!

Professional Book Review: Transformative Teaching

Overview: The first five chapters are a reminder of what many teacher do with students and their classroom to ensure that it is a successful learning environment. The last chapters focus on growth mindset, being mindful, the practice of mediation as avenues to help all students to be learners with purpose, intention, and success.

Goodreads rating: 4 out of 5





I do my best reading with the comfort of food, a hot beverage, and the just right reading spot. For the most part when reading professional books I love my dining room table or a coffee shop. As I sat down to read this book I was hopeful to walk away with new ideas. I did get some new tools that I will be utilizing this school year, but I was also reminded of the purpose behind many things that I am already doing.

One takeaway is intentionally teaching students growth mindset. The book did a great job of laying out each step to teach growth mindset accompanied with resources which is great!  (Chapter 6)
1. Teach About the Learning Brain
2. Teach Strategies for Developing a Growth Mindset: Using Feel-It
Activities, Talk-It Activities, and See-It Activities
3. Keep Mindsets Alive

Be Mindful: (Chapter 7)
I really wish that I had read this a little earlier as it should have impacted many of my students from past school years. It talks a lot about teaching students to be aware of their past experiences and how that will impact their thinking and learning. Example: I always hate fractions, or this teacher is never nice...
by teaching students to be mindful of the judgements they are making and instead to be present in the moment it will allow for greater success. As a fan of the Dalai Lama this struck a cord with me and I never really thought to teach students that explicitly. ( I also need to continue to practice this myself.)

Author Visit:
Kathleen Kryza was a great presenter and truly practiced what she talks about in her book and because of that I was fueled with her great energy to try many new things this year in my classroom. My colleagues and I were ready to conquer the school year with many of her tools in mind. What a great professional development.

So far I have implemented the following and loving them all:
cohort group: students selected where they would sit, formed group norms, and each member has a role of responsibility and this is putting more on the students and less on me.

teaching about the brain: "My Fantastic Elastic Brain" a great picture to teach students about their brain and how it works! My students are really enjoying it!

chunk-chew-check: a way to teach and allow students to process information. For example as I read the book mentioned above I would read a few pages (chunk), they took notes any way they wanted (chew), and then they shared out with whole class (check). *They asked if I would always allow them to chunk-chew-check!, I said yes oh course.

brain breaks: I have done this throughout my teaching career, however I need to do them daily and that is my goal for this school year. I have told my students why we do them and to let me know when they need them throughout the school day.

Overall I really gained a lot through reading the book and meeting with the author. I am excited that she will be coming back to our school in March!

Students Empowered by Poetry

Every student has a voice and needs it to be heard and valued, this can be achieved when students express themselves through writing poetry. To me this makes so much sense because poetry reminds me of music which is filled with self-expression.  Kwame Alexander is a believer in empowering student's through the use of poetry.

American author, Kwame Alexander writes poetry and children's fiction that are infectious for all students through his poetic writing style. I first discovered him when I purchased his book The Crossover (side-note: student borrowed & never returned) which received the 2015 Newbery Medal. As a fan of basketball and the rhythm in which he told the story I was an instant fan. For those of you who have seen Love and Basketball it brought back all the memories I had when watching that movie for the first time.

Fortunately for me, he was the keynote speaker at a workshop provided by my school district!

I was immersed into the "Kwame" world from the moment he began to speak on stage to a room full of educators who all had various opinions on poetry. Randomly yet so perfectly he would begin to recite poetry through his speaking. He sparked my love for rhythm and had me wanting to go to my local library to pick up poetry books that I had't thought about since I was forced to read them in high school.  He was a captivating speaker who said so many things that hit home with me, as how to access students and hook them into writing through poetry.

1. If the teacher is excited about it so will the students,
2. Start with poetry you really enjoy,
3. It is not intimidating to reluctant readers,
4. Connects to the human spirit,
5. Provides students a voice=empowerment.

In the breakout session he showed teachers grade 5th-12th a way to start poetry in our classrooms.

1. Living chart with students input on what is poetry.

2. Write a shared poem: pick a topic, list words around that topic on a chart, then ask students to go deeper with the words that they are listing, and then select words to write the class Haiku.
--One tip I really liked as he was writing our shared poem was, he told us not to give the topic away in the lines...instead allude to it.

3. Students repeat the process with a topic they enjoy.

I am more eager this year to make poetry a priority in my classroom as a way for students to begin to appreciate it as well as get empowered through writing their own. Without a doubt Kwame is a powerful presenter and there was no way to not be engaged and that is my plan with my students.

Bullet Journal

Bullet journaling has become my new therapy and secretary all in one. I have always been a notebook person who doodles, creates list, and throws a touch of art and color in there whenever possible. Like many of you, bullet journals began to saturate my Pinterest browsing and I quickly became addicted. Then I saw it take hold on my colleagues and friends, and I was in!

Over the years I have received many journals from students as gifts and was never sure what to do with them all...until bullet journals entered my life. The best part about bullet journals is you can create it with many items that you already have and there are no rules, do you.

I started with the basic calendar pages and the learning curve is evident as I progressed through the months. By November I figured out a layout that best fit the needs and journal I had.


Use: school calendar dates, tracking effective education, professional development, and personal dates.

Next I thought about all the tasks I wanted to track and created the following layouts/pages:
blog ideas-recording ideas as they come

teacher goals: new things I want to try and breaking bad habits


to read list: middle grade books


tracking clock hours: recording and totaling clock hours with a goal of hours wanting to be reached


I have many other ideas running through my head, now to think about the best way to create them in my bullet journal.

I am not sure if what I am doing is a true bullet journal, but I can say I know that in the up coming school year this will be great therapy for me that will also have big pay off in keeping me organized and on track.

On a final thought, the teacher in me coming out, is now thinking how students would love this. I want to think of ways students could do this with their own lives in and out of school. I am thinking they could track academic and personal goals, reflecting on learning, tracking their journey with growth mindset, there are so many options. I love that this type of journal is personalized and there is no one way. I can see this being very liberating for many of my students. And an added bonus of gaining a skill that will remain useful throughout their lives.

WABS STEM Externship

"STEM Externships provide teachers with a fresh look at today’s science, technology, math, and engineering workplace through hands-on work and mentorship. Our state is home to innovative, cutting-edge STEM industries yet we struggle to attract local talent to rewarding STEM careers. As a STEM extern, your increased exposure to educational and career possibilities can help you shape students’ visions for their future upon graduation."  (WABS)

As I was almost through the 2015-2016 school year I was thinking about what I would do with my summer as a person who likes to keep their mind working. I am always looking for ways to earn extra cash to pay down those student loans, so when I received an email in April seeking externs I was intrigued. Knowing that these opportunities can be hard to come by I quickly went to the link provided and began the application process. 
As I eagerly awaited the news if I wound have this opportunity or not my excitement grew. This was the first year that I taught a STEM kit (Hands-on Standards) to my students and they loved it. It was so real-world that the student buy in was beyond evident and the integration of skills was great! I have never seen my students work so hard and serious on a task before. 
In June I received my second email from Washington Alliance for Better Schools (WABS) stating that I would be apart of the 2016 Externship Cohort. I had no clue as I embarked on this journey the world that I was about to enter. 
A major part of this externship was being paired with a local company as a way to understand the workforce environment and the problems that they face. This would help guide externs in writing our own problem based learning task for our students.
I was paired with The Boeing Company for eight days of full immersion. And to stay I left filled with knowledge doesn't even come close. The best way I can express the way I felt at the end of each day was, it was as if I had just had a Thanksgiving fest completely stuffed, satisfied, yet wanting more. 
By the end of the eight days I was over flowing with ideas on how The Boeing Company connects so closely to what we are doing in our classrooms. And of course all the opportunities as a sixth grade teacher who can now say when I teach certain skills or topics that these are the same skills that The Boeing Company employees use and value daily. Not to mention all the perks that their employees receive such as pay, benefits, and a on site message therapist! 
Education can be isolating, meaning we as educators get very wrapped up in our own world and rarely get the opportunity to see other career paths that many of our students will chose to be apart of. It was great to be apart of the corporate world to bring back career pathways to my students. Additionally learning the skills they see young employees lacking such as soft skills (interpersonal skills) and the ability to problem solve is a somewhat "messy" unstructured manner.  
Without a doubt this experience has and will continue to impact my teaching. I encourage educators to take advantage of these opportunities when they arise as they will not regret it.