Grades vs learning

At my last school I had a group of kids who were not only interested in getting good grades but were also interested in learning and seeing their progress. It was so rewarding to hear some of the questions they asked to help them better understand and to see them so focused on being able to apply what they learned.

This year I am not seeing that in most of my students. I have a few very high achievers who won't accept a grade less than a 100%. And I've come across parents who are so focused on their kids GPAs (although often times the kids of these parents could care less about their GPA).

This group of kids is quick to complain and blame when their grades are less than ideal but are not willing to do anything about it.

One example:
Part of every rubric for a writing or speaking project includes creativity, risk-taking, and variety. I have explained what this means. I have given very specific comments to individuals who are just handing in the very minimum and yet nothing changes yet they complain so loud when their grades are perfect. I have level 4 students who will hand in a paragraph of 5 sentences (which may have been the requirement) but all 5 sentences are nothing more than a subject and verb and maybe an object thrown in making it a VERY basic paragraph and something that I would expect of my Spanish I students.

Another example:
We had a test coming up in my Advanced class. They expected there to be a snow day the day of the test (a Friday) and so most of my students wasted the entire review hour the day before chatting and studying for their chemistry test because they figured they would have the weekend to study. It turned out that we did have the snow day and so their test got pushed to Tuesday and none of them started studying until Monday. Then when the same material shows up on the next test they will have completely forgotten it (because they crammed instead of learned it) and will complain.

Some days I wish we could take away grades and just focus on the learning and on what students accomplished. I think kids would learn and retain far more if our report cards looked more like checklists of skills needed to be acquired where we could just keep track of what they have or have not accomplished.

Homework completion corrolates to success

My Spanish II students took a test on the preterit on Friday. Every student who earned a C or higher (with most of those earning Bs and As), had completed the previous 4 assignments carefully (all 4 of those assignments directly related to this test). Every kid who failed, missed at least 1 assignment with most missing multiple assignments or did not complete carefully the assignments they did do.

When I shared this information with my first hour, they all just stared back at me like they could care less. It really is unfortunate.

Teaching kids to be independent

What can we do to teach kids to be more independent and responsible for the choices they make?

We have had a quite a few kids ineligible since the quarter ended and they are always so quick to blame the teachers who "gave" them the Fs.

I tell kids about a vocabulary quiz coming up, write it on the board, put it on my website, remind them daily, and the day the quiz comes and they bomb it they are so quick to turn the blame around to someone or something else. "I had a game last night." "I didn't know there was a quiz today." "I didn't know what was going to be on the quiz."

I give kids an assignment (that should be very self explanatory if they would just read the directions) and so many kids come to class the next day with it not complete and say, "I didn't know how to do it so I didn't do it." And my response always is, "Did you stop by my room afterschool, during lunch or before school this morning to ask for help? Did you find a classmate and ask them?" There response always is a blank stare.

I give kids an in class assignment for them to work on independently while I circulate the room and kids stop me to tell me they don't get it. So I always ask them "What part don't you get?" And they just repeat "I just don't get it." So I say, "well, think aobut it and call me over when you figure out what part you need help on."

Or a student asks me a specific question. So instead of just giving them the answer, I usually respond with a question to get them thinking about it and continue with follow up questions to guide them to the answer. And too often they refuse to think about it and refuse to answer my questions. They tell me "it's your job to tell me the answer." Too many kids just aren't willing to try things on their own and need to be spoon fed.

I want to get kids to think independently. I want them to try things on their own first and then if they still don't get it, to be able to think through it well enough to ask good questions. I want kids to take responsibility for their own learning and realize that their successes and failures are directly because of what they put into it. I want kids to learn to keep track of deadlines and manage their workload effectively. These are all skills they so desperately will need when they leave our four walls.

How can we teach them these skills?

The beauty of being a department of one

So this week I was doing some planning ahead for my Spanish I class since today we finished a chapter. So I looked at the next chapter in out textbook and the topic is school which really made me yawn. Buen Viaje works with school related vocabulary for 3 whole chapters and this would be the third chapter. I am bored to death with talking about school. Now before I plunged ahead and started planning the next chapter I had a thought. I am a department of one. What I teach effects no other teachers or future levels because I am the one who teaches the future levels and being the only teacher I will not have kids switching classes (from/to another teacher) at semester time. And so there is absolutely no reason why I need to stick with the textbook. So this week I threw out the textbook. I will probably go back to it at least as a reference after break or maybe not until after the semester but for now it is sitting on a shelf.

So I took a few moments to sit down and think about what we could work on that would really give them more to work with and be able communicate more. I have settled on a unit on present tense verbs. How can we communicate without verbs?? So I put together a list of regular verbs, irregular verbs, stem-changing verbs, and spelling change verbs that are used very often and that could be used for students to talk about what they and people they know do. I added to the list some vocabulary that goes with those verbs to allow them to speak more completely.

By focusing on verbs together, I really feel that I can get kids communicating more and it will help them as we cover more topics so that they can speak more fully. I'm also hoping that it will allow me to spend more time on the past tense second semester.

In the future I want to get a hold of the textbook that introduces the present, past and future together. I hate being limited by the present tense in Spanish I.

Picking on others

I used to teach in a fairly large school and just this year have moved to a VERY small school. One of the biggest differences I have noticed is the increased amount of picking on that I see. In every school there is plenty of picking on but in my new school it is so constant you can never get away from it. It is a constant battle to try and stop it every second of my classes. It has become so accepted.

I expressed my frustration at this with my mentor a number of weeks ago and her response was that this is just how it is in a small school and that many of the kids act in a way that they are asking to be picked on. It really bothered me the way she just saw it as normal and instead felt the kids being picked on were to blame. I don't care what these kids are doing to provoke it is never OK for a kid to make fun of and pick on another kid. School should be a safe place for kids especially realizing that for many kids it may be the only safe place they have. I realize that we will never get rid of it completely. But if we pass it off as normal instead of stepping up to the plate to try and fix it then we are saying we don't care about these kids and providing that safe place for them.

Well we have now had some incidents seriously escalate and administration is scrambling to deal with it. I just wish someone would have realized how important it was to stop it years ago before it got all the way to the high school. Now that they are in high school it is so ingrained in them and so accepted even in the classroom that I fear we are fighting an uphill battle to stop it.

These kids deserve better. All of them deserve better. They deserve to learn how to interact with one another in a way that is positive and productive. They deserve to feel like someone actually cares about them. They deserve a chance to develop skills and attitudes which will help them be successful in the future. Are we giving them those opportunities?

Estoy muy orgullosa de mis estudiantes de español I

Today my Spanish I class was amazing! Honestly, it was an improv lesson because I really didn't like what I had originally planned but the kids just ate it up. They were thinking critically, they were using Spanish in ways that had never been officially taught, even my student who does nothing (absolutely nothing - his grade is at about a 25% in the class), was participating and ASKING QUESTIONS IN SPANISH!!!

Here is the lesson:
-As the bell was ringing I quickly wrote a very short story about my friend Sally and what she looks like. Here is the story:

"Mi amiga es Sally. Sally es muy alta y delgada. Ella tiene los ojos azules y el pelo marrón. Ella lleva unos pantalones verdes y una camiseta amarilla. También lleva zapatos negros con calcentines azules. Ella lleva una gorra blanca."

-Then as students walked in they picked up a blank sheet of paper on the front table and were instructed to get some coloring utensils from the back.
-After collecting their homework, I told them that I was going to tell them a little story about a girl named Sally and that they needed to draw what she looks like. I encouraged them just to listen the first time through. I allowed them to use notes if they wanted (since we had just learned this vocab yesterday).
-I repeated the story 3 or 4 times pausing between each time to give students time to jot things down and draw (some prefered to write notes first before drawing).
-Then I told students that I would not repeat the entire story but would be more than willing to answer any question they had as long as the question was in Spanish (and my answer of course was in Spanish).
-When most students had finished, I randomly called a student to the front of the room and asked him to tell us a little bit about Sally in Spanish.
-I then called on more students to add more
-After we had sufficiently retold the story, I asked them to write a paragraph on the same page as their drawing (or the back of the page) about Sally.

Here are some of their paragraphs exactly as they wrote them (from students of all abilities):

"Sally es muy alta. Sally lleva los pantalones verde. Ella tienes marrón pelo. Sally tienes ojo azul. Sally lleva camiseta amarillo. Sally tienes zapatos negro. Sally es una gorra blanka. Sally los calcetines blanka."

"Sally es bonita. Ella lleva una la camiseta amarilla y los pantalones verdes y los calcetines azules y los zapatos negro y la gorra blanca. Ella tiene ojos azul y pelo marrón."

"Sally es muy alta y delgada. Sally es blanca. Ella tiene los pantalones verde. Ella tiene un la camiseta amarillo. Ella tiene un los zapatos negros. Ella tiene el pelo marrón. Ella tiene los calcetines azules."

"Sally lleva la camiseta amarilla, los pantalones verdes, los calcetines azules y los zapatos nengros. Ella tienen azules ohos y marrón palo. Ella lleva la gorra blanco. Ella es delgada y alta."

"Sally es una muchacha. Ella es muy alta y delgada. Ella lleva los zapatos negros. Ella lleva los pantalones verdes. Ella lleva la camiseta amarilla. Ella son ojos azules. Ella son pelo marrón. Ella lleva los calcetines azules."

I suppose this is basically the idea of TPRS with my own little twist to it.

You will definitely see some grammar mistakes in them. But you can see they were able to communicate and retell the story. And the thought process they went through was just amazing.

One kid asked me towards the end of class, "Does marrón lose the accent when it becomes marrones?" This is something I have not specifically taught yet but was thrilled to see this student was already getting it.

Their homework tonight is to write their own little story and tomorrow they will draw pictures based on what another student wrote. I can't wait to see the stories they come up with.

This is why I became a teacher!

How can they care so little???

So today in one of my classes a major project (worth 100 points) was due along with a review worksheet. Both were given to students over a week ago with frequent reminders and time in class on a couple of occasions. So this morning I go around to collect them from my students. In one hour 3 students had completed the project and only 5 had done the worksheet out of 11 students! And what got me most was the absolute lack of care. Not a single student showed any disappointment or regret that they had forgot to do it or anything. They just sat there as if this were the most normal and perfect thing in the world.

And then when we started doing some review activities, they were failing miserably because they didn't recognize any of the vocabulary. It's only vocabulary that we have been working on for 3 weeks and have been tested on several times.

My original plan was to go over the review sheet as a class the latter part of the hour and then answer any questions before tomorrows chapter test. But since so few had even completed the review sheet I was not about to just give the answers to the rest so I met with the 5 who had completed it and we went over it together. What did the remaining students do? They sat and gabbed.

Will I feel sorry for them when they fail the test miserably tomorrow? No way! I have done everything I can to help them succeed and they have done very little, for some of them absolutely nothing. It's just too bad that the quarter ends this week so there will be no chance to pull their grade up after this and the zero they earned for not completing their project.

Classes that put a smile on your face

My Spanish I kids are amazing this year. They work hard. They ask the best questions that truly show they are thinking. I often hear them practicing Spanish in the halls. The work they do is quality. They are just fun. They are what make my day almost every day.

And then on top of it I got to teach one of my favorite lessons today (conjugating verbs). So that class was just fun today.

I have learned this year that it is so important to sit back and just smile on a regular basis. My first hour class was slowly getting started this morning and one girl says "We should have a half day on Wednesday" (we have Thur and Fri off already this week for teacher convention). And so I just chuckled and said "Why don't we take the whole week off?" It was a very light hearted way to start the day. A way to connect with the kids and start the way in a positive mood. One kid then responded with a smile "We'll go talk to Mr. Principal and tell him it was your idea."

Talkative students

I got a new group of middle school students starting on Wednesday and they just won't stop talking. Things that I have tried so far:
-waiting patiently and not talking over them
-making it clear that I dismiss and not the bell (this allows me to quickly dismiss the students who weren't talking first)
-hold a few after both days
-asked individual students what consequences should follow if they continue to talk (thus they are creating their own consequences - this worked with the few I had trouble with in my last group)
-talked with my mentor (who sees these kids 4 times a day) who says she will bring it up at the student-led conferences they are having tonight and Monday

We will see how things go tomorrow. Several of them are kids who do not have the support at home and calling home would do nothing. So if things aren't better tomorrow, I'm not sure where I will go from here. There are some great kids in there I can tell but I can't see or hear them when the rest of the class is a three ring circus.

A student who was gone

Today a student comes into class who was gone yesterday. He sits down and copies the notes from his table partner (kudos to him for at least starting to figure out what he missed). I ask the class to get out the sheet we worked on yesterday and students write the answers on the board so we can go over them. At some point I realize that this kid had been gone yesterday and has yet to ask for this sheet that we are working on. By now, probably close to 10 minutes has passed in class. I then ask the students to complete the next part individually which we then go over on the board. We spent probably about 25 minutes on this worksheet and this kid never once asked me for the sheet nor did he go back to the basket where I keep extra handouts to get one. He just sat there.

And then later today I was looking at my gradebook. I have 4 students who have never passed ANY of the competency tests this year. That means they have a zero for 20% of their grade right now. These are tests that I let them take as many times as they need to as long as they get the required grade on them. They are essentially free points if you take the time to work with me and get them done. I have NEVER had a student who was trying fail one of these tests!

Many of these kids are the same ones that are all mad at me because they get a zero on them if they don't ever earn that required grade. If I had just taken the score they got on it and entered it in the gradebook, yes their grade would be higher. But they would still be failing because they wouldn't know the material any better and so they would still be getting 30% on the chapter tests (yes, all 4 of the ones who have never passed any competency tests got right around a 30%) on the chapter test. And so those kids would still be failing (along with tons of others who were happy with the first score they got on those competency tests regardless of whether they knew the material)!!!!

Responsibility

One of my biggest struggles is helping students understand their responsibility in learning. Too many of them show up in my class expecting me to just hand them everything on a silver platter and that they won't have to do anything. And then when they do poorly the first person blamed is the teacher.

At some point in the year I like to sit down with my classes and talk about their responsibility as a student and mine as a teacher but it doesn't always help like it really hasn't this year with one of my classes. Even when I'm soliciting the information from students, they still see it as coming from an adult. And of course we all know that adults know nothing, right??!!

I guess I'm just at a loss as to how to approach this problem. I hate to see my students not doing well. But there is only so much I can do if they aren't pulling their weight.

Responsibility for learning

We are working on verbs like gustar right now in my Spanish II class.  This is a tough concept.  We do not have a structure quite like this in English.  So I get that this is tough for my students.

 

However, many of them in one of my classes are not even attempting to grasp this concept.  They do not study at home.  They come to school with the homework incomplete.  They lay with their heads on their desk when we have some in class practice.  They do not come in and ask questions.  They rarely ask questions in class even though they clearly don’t get it.  So I am quizzing them tomorrow and we are moving on.  I can’t do the work for them.  And since I’m clearly not seeing any progress from many of them there is no point continuing down this path.  Those that have been working hard on this are getting it and will do well tomorrow on the quiz.  Unfortunately they will be a minority.

 

This is the same group of kids who still cannot accurately conjugate regular present tense verbs, commonly used irregular ones like ser, nor use subject pronouns correctly.  These are things we spent many weeks on this year already (and that they should have learned last year).  Again, those that have been working all along get these things and are doing well.  Those that won’t try, sit and chat all hour or put their head down are drowning.   

 

But what can I do?  I have given them ample practice.  I am always available before school, during homeroom, during lunch, during several hours during the day, and afterschool almost every day.  I have provided extra resources online.  I spend each class period circulating and answering specific questions and working one on one with those students willing to try and ask for my help.  At some point there is nothing more that I can do.  At some point the students have to take responsibility for what they are learning.

Mastery learning

4 years ago, my cooperating teacher planted a seed in my head about mastery learning. My first three years I experimented a little with it in regard to just a few very important concepts each level. I created competency tests (idea stolen from my CT) on some of the concepts I felt were very critical (present tense verbs, subject pronouns, and preterit verbs) and expected students to show their mastery by achieving a certain score. Students could retake these tests as many times as they needed but had to reach the target score to get any credit for the assessment. So students couldn't be satisfied with a C or a D on those critical concepts like I see way too often.

So this year, in a new school I decided to take the idea beyond just a few competency tests. I have developed a series of competency assessments (including oral assessments) and I have decided to allow students to retake vocabulary quizzes (with a one week deadline). What I have found so far is that students are now taking the time to go back and learn what they missed knowing that they can get credit for it. This should then help them be more successful in the future as they are expected to be able to use the vocabulary.

If you had asked me 4 years ago about whether I would allow retakes, I would have told you "No way!" but I am really seeing some positives come from allowing them.

Dallas School District has just created a new grading policy that requires teachers to allow retakes (I linked the article above). Someone posted it on Livejournal which really sparked this post. I really believe in their reasons behind it but I really don't believe we do any good by forcing when philosophy of grading (or whatever) on a whole district with teachers who have different teaching styles, different beliefs, and different grading systems. Retakes so far is working really well for me and my students but that does not mean it is best for all classrooms and all teachers and students.

Just pour the information in my brain Señora

I got so frustrated with a few of my Spanish II students this morning. I handed back tests and told students to look through them and ask questions. I like being able to go around individually and talk with students who have questions. Two students sat their staring into space not even looking at their tests. Then after about ten minutes there were no longer any questions so I told them we were going to move on and that I was going to be collecting the tests. These two students then got all upset asking me why I wasn't going to go over the whole test as a class. I explained that we had just spent time for them to look through them and ask questions. And I said to them both that they were welcome to come in outside of class and I would go through it with them. Their response was they can't do that. And that they expected me to go over it with the whole class.

When I go over homework, tests, etc. with the whole class a few carefully look through theirs, others half-heartedly correct theirs, and the rest just sit there and stare into space. So those few carefully going through theirs get a lot out of it and the rest really don't get much. If I circulate and answer specific questions, it forces students to look at their mistakes and first try and figure out what went wrong and then second enter in a dialogue with me. So much more learning goes on. Unfortunately though, those that would have just stared off into space while we went over it together still stare off into space and still get nothing out of it.

And then as we were going over some pronunciation exercises and dividing syllables to find stress, they made me question how an English word was spelled (which I was right on when I looked it up later) and some kid says quietly "Go back to English class." It was just an awful class today. I'm not sure where to go with this tomorrow.

Class expectations and rigor

I am really struggling with my Spanish II class. They claim they learned nothing last year and when we are reviewing conjugating verbs they don't even recognize the forms of ser. The pre-test isn't even worth wasting my time to grade because it is that bad. And then on top of it the kids are asking when we are going to have fiestas and that they had a Salina fiesta last year and a this fiesta and a that fiesta. It sounds like all they did was have fiestas.

So, I want to step up the rigor significantly but I also don't want to lose my program. It is a small school and my class sizes are already quite small. So I am really struggling to find a happy medium (enough rigor so that I'm not wasting my time but not too tough on the kids so they lose interest completely). And I understand that it is hardest with the groups of kids who are used to an easy A; once I've been around a while, things will get better.

First Day of School

I just typed a whole long post and it disappeared when I hit Publish. This is so frustrating. So anyway, to summarize what I wrote.

My advanced Spanish kids seem very motivated and all of them mentioned wanting to work on their speaking ability. They also mentioned that they are weakest in writing. So I think my goals for the class are right in line with what they are thinking. Once the year gets rolling I plan to assign a monologue Gcast (www.gcast.com) assignment weekly as well as a writing assignment weekly. This will allow me to give them feedback on a regular basis. With only 7 kids in the class, I can realistically be getting good feedback to them that often. Isn't that amazing?? We also need to read some literature this year and will do quite a few projects related to that.

My Spanish II kids were quite confused when I said "Bienvenido" to each of them as they entered the room. They have either all forgotten everything they learned last year or didn't learn much. We spent just a little time reviewing present tense verbs and they couldn't conjugate regular verbs even as a whole class. We have a lot of work to do.

My Spanish I kids did not hesitate to express their opinions about how since we live in America everyone should learn English. It will be a challenge to change that very Anglocentric mentality into a more global perspective.

The staff here has been so very welcoming and helpful. It almost feels like one big family. We all had lunch together in the FACS room. But despite all that I still feel quite alone. I miss the camaradrie of being part of a department, sharing ideas, and just knowing that someone else in the school knows exactly what you are dealing with. I'm sure it will get easier as I get to know more people and as I make more connections outside of school but right now it is kind of hard. I have been connecting with people online through livejournal communities and through www.teachers.net which really helps. And I was so excited this morning to see the WAFLT conference brochure waiting for me in my mailbox and the previous Spanish teacher did put in the budget for the conference. I have always looked forward to that conference but this year of all years I'm looking forward to it even more.

Anyway, I hope all of you had great first days and that we all have a great year to come.

First day of school rapidly approaching

I've sat through meeting after meeting, met many very kind teachers, decorated and organized my room, planned curriculum and lessons, made seating charts, etc. All that remains is Open House tonight and a few loose ends to tie up. Then the kids come Tuesday.

My first impressions of this school have been nothing but positive. I was a little aprehensive moving from a huge school to one so small in such a small community but so far everyone has been so welcoming and willing to bend over backwards for others. I don't know how many times people have stopped me to check in, see how things were going, see if I had any questions, or make sure somebody had warned me about something coming up.

I do have to admit though that I feel very alone. I am a department of one. But when I get more established in what I am doing and find more connections in the area, it will be better. I've already been to the WAFLT website to preview what kinds of sessions will be at the annual conference. This year more than any I am really looking forward to the chance to connect with others and learn a few new tricks of the trade.

Website

I finally got a good start on my website (which is linked in the title). I am using Google Sites to create and host it and I really like it. It is super user friendly and allows me to do anything I want to with it.

Things are coming along

Now that I am in town I have had a chance to visit school, get more resources and figure out a few things. I feel a lot more comfortable about my Advanced Spanish curriculum and spent some time on my 8th Grade Exploratory curriculum. And today I spent some time putting together my website (which I have linked above). I have my syllabuses put together along with some of my first projects which I have posted there. Hopefully tomorrow, my school can post my website to their webpage.

I only have 7 students at this point in my Advanced Spanish class (and 9-12 in my other classes) and am so excited about how much I can do with my classes. My goal is to assign a short writing assignment and a speaking assessment (using Gcast) weekly to my Advanced Spanish class and giving the students some good feedback so that we can track the improvements. With this few students, I can really tailor the focus for each student.

I also plan to have all of my high school students keep a portfolio of writing assessments and feedback and speaking assessments. With such small classes we can do so much more!

Love and Logic

I finished reading Teaching with Love and Logic today.

One thing that I really took from the last part is the importance of a cool down time and not needing to enforce consequences immediately in all cases. I think back to times when I have been angry and in the heat of the moment. Those are not my best times. I often say things I don't mean and I'm not thinking clearly. If only in those cases I had taken a moment to step back and addressed the problem an hour later or the next day, I would have been able to think through it and come up with a better solution. The same is true for our kids. If it is something that can wait, then it is important to give them their thinking time. The book talks about just making an appointment with the kid at that time.

Love and Logic

I have recently read the first part of Teaching With Love & Logic. What I have read so far has really made me think about the way that I interact with students.

I have always been a "strict" teacher who consistently enforced a clear set of rules. And for the type of students I was mostly working with it usually worked. My previous school had so many good kids. But it was something that did not work all that well with my freshmen last year. They would push the limits and I would put on my strict face and push them back. I really struggled with my freshmen study hall last semester.

With reading this first part there are some things that I really think I need to change for the coming year. I will be at a new school and so I don't know my students yet so I don't know what will work with them but regardless I want to get out of the mentality of being the strict teacher. I want all my classes to have a more positive vibe.

These are the key things from Teaching With Love & Logic that will be in the forefront of my thoughts as I begin the new year.

• Encouraging students to solve their own problems. Instead of just delving out consequences, I want to ask more questions, listen more, and lead students to come up with their own solutions.
• Using empathy. I need to do a better job showing that I care about them, that I feel bad about the consequences that they suffer, and that I am there to support them in making better decisions.
• Have one general all-encompassing principle for the classroom instead a list of specific rules. This will better allow me to address each individual issue that comes up in the best way for the student and the class.
  
• More dialog with my students on a daily basis. The more that I can have 30 second conversations with my students, the better I get to know them and the more they perceive that I care about them. And in looking back at my experiences, I strongly believe it is true that people are more willing to do things for people they know care about them and that they care about.

I won't know how well any of this works in my classrooms until I get a chance to try it out but I really think there are some great ideas in what I have been reading and it is all common sense, things that I was aware of before but never quite put together. As I read more I will post more and once I start experimenting on my classes in the fall, I will also post more.

Welcome

Well, I have just signed up for a blog and would like to use this space to reflect on my classroom. I will be teaching in a very small school this fall and will be the only World Language teacher for the whole district. I will be teaching Spanish to grades 6-12. I am very excited and am looking forward to the challenge of a new school, new classes, new students, and balancing many preps.

I also started this because I just picked up the book Teaching With Love & Logic by Jim Fay and David Funk. I have not been able to put this book down and am looking forward to trying some of the ideas in my classroom this fall.

Well, the summer is flying by. We move to WI (from MN) this weekend and then after we get settled in, it will be time for school to start.