Moving....again?!

I'm moving.  Again.

It's a new school.  Again.

Remember how I said I wouldn't move, and definitely not to a new build?  Yeah, no.

So how did it happen?  It was a series of small chips.

I ran into my friend, Leanne, while I was shopping for a Mother's Day gift.  We had a nice visit in the middle of the summer dress aisle.  She said, "I was just talking about you today at my school.  We saw there was a new school opening up and I said, 'I'll bet Greg is going there.'"  I told her I had NO interest in going to another new school and that I only had a couple of years left until retirement.  Chip.

A week later, Frank, the principal at the new school had his Connecting to Kindergarten (a welcoming to his incoming kindergarten students and families) event hosted at my current school.  I was away that day and didn't attend, but those who did said how enthusiastic and inviting Frank was.  He had created this culture and vision for his school, despite not having a staff and the building was not yet finished!  No building, not staff --- no problem!  Chip.

Rewinding a bit... Months earlier, Frank was named as principal of this new school.  I was really happy for him.  I had worked with him a few schools back, and respected and liked him immensely.  I never thought we would work together again, and when he was named to be principal of the new school, I thought that sealed it in never working together again.  Frank came by my school occasionally because it was the newest school in our district.  We would talk about design elements and furniture choices we had made in opening this school.  At that point, I had no interest in moving and besides, there would be so much competition ahead of me for the jobs at the new school, that the point was moot.  Little chip.

Fast forward to the day I saw Leanne ... it might have even been the same day.  I found out my dear colleague S, passed away.  S was always a great inspiration to me.  She had the toughest job and the toughest students, but she had the BEST attitude.  She always told me to look for the joy in every situation and to look where I could help.  Her death was like this large piece that had cracked inside of me, but had not completely broken off, this chunk just hanging inside me.  Big chip.

A few weeks later, on a Thursday, the postings for the teacher jobs came out for the Frank's school.  I looked at them and just laughed: only 6 classroom positions!  Four of them at K and or 1.  Who the heck would post on a single 2/3 or the 4/5?!  I laughed again.  Then I thought about it.  All night.  Chip.  Chip.  Chip.  

The next day it was constantly in the back of my mind: "Should I stay and just ride out my last couple of years?  Or do I have one more new school, one huge challenge left in me?"  I went back and forth on this one.

At home after school, I was talking to my wife about possibly posting on the job at Frank's new school.  She didn't seem too surprised.  She just smiled and said, "Go where you'll be happy.  Go where you'll be needed."  When she said that, to both of our surprise, tears started streaming down my face.  I don't know if it was the lack of sleep, pent up exhaustion built up over the last couple of years, finally grieving over S, or my wife's advice being so close to S's advice.  But that big last chunk finally broke off.  And I had my answer.  

I posted on the 2/3 job that day.  I had my interview in the rain, under a tree, on a park bench, with Frank later that week.  I didn't like my chances because I'm sure lots of people applied to work with Frank, and in my district's hiring system, I was a lower priority.  But somehow the planets aligned and I accepted the 2/3 position at the new school.  

It was the weirdest and fastest job process for me.  One Thursday I am not looking for a job and then next Thursday, I am going to a place I said I would never go.  But realistically, it was a private, emotional sculpting process, months of one chip at a time.  

Quick and Dirty Oral Language Strategies

How about something I can use tomorrow in my class, Greg?

Deb Vanderwood asked me to submit some oral language strategies for a literacy newsletter she was doing for the district. I'll post them here in case you, dear reader, need a break from my recent self-indulgent thread of woodworking articles.

Here are snapshots of low-prep, high-yield speaking, listening, and thinking strategies and activities:

• The News 
• Two-Headed Story Machine 
• Picture Detectives 
• Three Pictures 
• Mini-Debates  
• One-Minute Speeches 

6. 
   

The News 

I adapted this idea from Brenda Miyanaga.  At the beginning of every day, every child can come up and say one sentence about what is going on in their lives.  It is kind of like oral Twitter. I have a mic set up in my class (so *I* can be heard without yelling), but you do not have to have one.  Guests to my class remark how comfortable students are with speaking in front of others.  It could be due to this non-threatening routine.   

 

Two-Headed Story Machine 

I lifted this one from Theatre Sports.  If you can, demonstrate this to your class with another adult or a quick-thinking student.  With a partner, tell a story together, but each partner/head only gets to say ONE WORD at a time, going back and forth.  This is a fun way to generate random story ideas.  Partners have to listen carefully to each other, and teachers can work in a lot of grammar into this strategy. 

 

Picture Detectives 

Show an illustration from a picture book, a screenshot from a movie, a photo from a Social Studies or Science book, a news photo, etc.  Students use the 5Ws to figure out who, where, when, what, and why from the picture plus explain HOW they know based on the evidence from the picture.   This strategy uses inference and evidence.  Teachers can use this as a pre-reading strategy or a story generating method.  My class used this strategy to write news stories. 

 

3 Pictures 

(Joni Tsui told me about this one which originally came from Faye Brownlie).  When introducing a new topic, show students 3 pictures, but do not tell them what the new topic is.  Instead of trying to generate statements about each picture, students generate questions orally about each picture (to expand their thinking), one at a time.  Without answering the questions, students try to figure out what connects the three pictures.  For example, to introduce the water cycle, the teacher could show a lake on a sunny day, a hurricane, and a hydroelectric dam. 

 

Mini-Debates 

(Kevin Akins used the Academic Controversy strategy that I morphed into Mini-Debates for my primary class).  Introduce this strategy with an accessible “issue” (Skittles are better than Smarties, beach vs mountains, etc.).  If you can, demo this with an adult.  Part 1: Person A (the teacher) talks for 30 seconds explaining the Pro side of the issue while Person B listens.  Then Person B has up to 30 seconds to speak about the Con side while Person A listens.  They have another 30 seconds to have a chat freely about their ideas.  Part 2: They switch sides!  Now Person B is the Pro person and speaks for 30 seconds, and so on.  This strategy exercises thinking on your feet, listening to your partner (so you can refute or use their ideas), and looking at an issue from both sides.  

 

 

One-Minute Speeches 

Students write, practice, and perform speeches one-minute long. For my 2/3 class, I get them to do a speech about a non-fiction topic.  (We do so much story writing so doing factual writing is a nice change).  We use Bev Kelly’s paragraph map (on 11x17), and adapt it into a “speech sandwich” with the box at the top for the intro, the box in the middle for the closing, and the boxes in the middle for the categorized body of the speech.  Once crafted, students cut these boxes out and they become ordered cue cards.  Students practice and perform their speeches.  The best part is when the class listens and gives the speaker feedback: “I noticed you stayed on topic.  I could hear every word.  I learned new things.  I thought you were brave.”