Getting Ready to Begin the New School Year!

We had a great time this week at our first get together since the Reading Institute in New York. It was fun and exciting to talk and share with everyone and to make plans for implementing workshops in our classrooms and share our learnings with our colleagues who were not able to be in New York with us. And lunch was great! Thanks Jane!

I left the meeting with books to read, ideas to work out, and excitement over the possibilities. Next up: meeting with our new principal to share the new strategies and spread our excitement of literacy workshops as we work with her to set up our timeline for the year.

Since returning from the Reading Institute,  I read "A Guide to the Reading Workshop" by Lucy Calkins (the book we all received from TCRWP). It was a great review of the critical parts of the workshop that make the reading workshop so successful with all students. I especially focused on the section on conferring, the area of reading workshop that has been the most challenging for me. I am excited to begin the new year with more strategies and skills for conferring with my students more effectively. In my afternoon session at the Institute with Jen Serravallo (Small Group Instruction), I learned very specific ways to raise the level of reading with all learners (aka differentiation). Her book "Conferring with Readers" is a favorite of mine. I am now reading her second book "Teaching Reading in Small Groups". Great books! I am eager to implement these strategies with my new class!

Coffee and Keynotes (and a couple of other things)

Janet and I pose here at the Columbia University subway stop on our way to Roone Arledge Auditorium. Each morning we left our hotel early, made a Starbucks stop to help us fuel up for the day, and arrived in time to secure excellent seats for the Reading Institute's Keynote addresses.

Even though I have heard Lucy Calkins speak many times,  I am always eager to hear her inspirational and thought provoking words again and again. Her Keynote on Monday, the first day of the Reading Institute, was no exception.  Lucy spoke of the challenges we face today in education, yet reminded us that we have tools to be able to understand and overcome those challenges: the passion, commitment, knowledge, and love of kids that we bring to our teaching lives help us to put our signature on our teaching. Before a later Keynote one morning, Lucy graciously posed with members of our team.

I eagerly anticipated Tuesday's Keynote presenter, Kathy Collins. I heard her a couple of years ago at a previous Reading Institute and remembered how much I enjoyed her talk. Although she is very funny, her message, "See Clearly and Teach Responsibly", was an important one. She used the metaphor of a phoroptor refractor to urge us to use different "lenses" to see the bones of our teaching practices, the structures we have in place, the possibilities and potential in ourselves and our students differently.

On Wednesday, the keynote speaker was Tim Rasinski (Mr. Fluency). I read his book a few years ago and learned a lot. It was great to hear him speak as he reminded us about the art of teaching. I went to his lunch session on fluency as well as his closing session on word study. I learned many things about the importance of fluency and how to develop fluency through poetry and music. I am very excited about his ideas on word study (working with Greek and Latin roots). I came away with specific ideas I will incorporate into my word study teaching to meet CA 5th grade ELA standards more effectively.

David Booth was Thursday's keynote speaker. This was the second time I had heard David speak. His message was on how new media and technology intersect with teaching and how important it is to incorporate media into our teaching. The bad thing about his keynote for me: now I REALLY want an iPad.

Jon Scieszka. I was really looking forward to seeing and hearing this fabulous, humorous children's author. He has been a favorite of mine for many years. I have encouraged many, many students to read and enjoy his books as I have: The Stinky Cheese Man, Math Curse, The Time Warp Trio series. During Friday's Keynote, Jon shared many stories from his childhood with us which are part of his new book, Spaceheadz.

Great Keynotes to begin each day of my wonderful week at Teachers College Reading Institute!

We're Off to New York! Thank you Fund For Teachers!!

Welcome to our new blog. The Flory Reading and Writing Project is begun. The six of us are so excited to be off on our learning adventure at the Teachers College Reading Institute. Our first day is July 5, and we are busy making last minute plans and preparations for our week long stay in New York. Thank you so much to Fund For Teachers for making this a reality for us. We are so happy to have the opportunity to learn new strategies which will help us to be more effective literacy teachers at Flory Academy.