The Classroom Library

My love of literacy didn't come from school. In fact, I really don't know if any of my teachers truly loved literacy. It was my mom who instilled this fascination in me at a very young age. We were always taking trips to the library as a family. I would travel the aisles with my sister while my mom would search for the latest James Paterson or Stephen King novel. As we grew up, so did our taste in literature. It evolved with us, but we never lost it. I'm not sure where I would be on the journey had it not been for choice, modeling, and accessibility. 

In the summer leading up to my first year of teaching I collected any and every book that people were willing to donate to my classroom library. My collection was growing! The school didn't provide bookshelves, but I went out to thrift stores to get them. I needed everything easily accessible and organized. It took me (and my family) hours to level and categorize each book in my collection. By the first day of school I had hundreds of books perfectly aligned and separated. It was a dream come true! (Well, almost.) 

What I didn't realize was that the number of books that you have in a library doesn't matter if it is full of books that people don't want to read. 

Kids weren't using my classroom library, and it was hard to find enough time to get them all into the school library for meaningful trips. My dream of putting independent reading at the forefront of my work was crumbling. If kids don't have books that they want to read, then they won't read! What to do? After research and collaboration, this is what I've found:

-The key to a successful classroom library is to ensure that it is reflective of the people that are going to use it. Books should be relevant and engaging. If you serve black and brown kids, you better have books that represent those students. There should also be books BY black/brown authors in your library. Do you have books to represent LGBTQ students? These are things we have to think about!  Who wants to read a book if you can't see yourself in it?! It is so crucial that we show all students that they have a place in literature. (If you are looking for an extraordinary list of culturally relevant books and engaging books you will want to check out the Project LIT community. This grassroots movement started at a local high school and has grown into a national book club. I am honored have my own chapter at my school, but that is a whole other post! Learn more on this Twitter account.)

-If you aren't already doing so, YOU need to get in the YA game and start reading books. When you read the books you will be able to recommend them to specific kids. This will also help you to find books that are relevant for your community. Most importantly, you can talk about these books with your students. Authentic conversations about books and characters are so powerful. This is a great way to allow students to make text to world and text to self connections.

-Find new books for kids to read and explore. If I judge a book by its cover, I know that kids are doing the same thing. Keep up with lists from places like the New York Times (YA List), Brightly (YA Brightly), or good reads.

-Incorporate a few old school books in there as well! Of course we want to ensure that students are still reading powerful stories like Speak, Monster, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian even though they aren't necessarily topping the charts right now.

-Allow choice. I heard Kwame Alexander speak at the beginning of the summer and he said something that has stuck with me. "Books are like amusement parks, and we have to let kids choose their rides." When we try to tell kids what to read, it becomes a chore. My mom never forced books on us, and we explored because of it. If a ninth grader wants to read a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book for a quick read? Let them. (And then give them other suggestions!)

-Allow for a kid to abandon a book if they aren't into it. Even though I consider myself a reader, I have certainly come across books that I didn't enjoy. Life is too short to force yourself to read something that you aren't interested in! Tell kids that. Let them know that it is okay!

-Accessibility. Do you remember how I told you that my love of reading came from my mom? It was because she modeled what it looked like to be a good reader, but it was also because she made books accessible to us. Many of our students live in book deserts which means that they do not have easy access to good books. By creating a strong classroom library you are making books visible and accessible to students throughout the day. There is no trek to the school library or public library! ;) 

Over the last few years I have purged a great deal of that initial library. (Sorry, y'all!) I have also worked very strategically to fill it back up. It takes time, but having books that kids WANT TO READ is worth it. Here are a few resources for you as you work to create a killer classroom library!

1. Create an Amazon Wish list 

You know how people make wedding/baby registries? Now you can do that for your classroom! (*Throws hands up in the air*) All you have to do is create a public wish list on Amazon and insert your information. From there, you search the wondrous site and add books, shelves, etc. to your list. Ask your community (family, friends, school) to purchase gifts from your list and have them sent directly to your school. Often times people want to help students, but they don't know how. This is a great way to involve different stakeholders. I always include the person's name on the front cover so my students know that people from the community are thinking about them! (Here is an example of my list: Mrs. Sainato's Classroom Wish List) 

2.  Use Donors Choose 

Donors Choose is another awesome way to involve the community in your classroom library. Donors Choose makes it easy for people around the world to donate funding to a project of your choice. You get to pick the books you want, write a compelling request to the world, and then watch it get funded! The process is a bit time consuming, but they will guide you through step by step. I get all of my class sets through this organization! 

3. Look around the community/Non-profits 

As I was writing this post my literacy coach sent me an email about a book drive that my community is having at the beginning of the month! There are plenty of events happening if you take the time to look around for them. Another great idea is to look for local non-profits in your community that are looking to help students. Book Source is a great non-profit that offers individual books and class sets at inexpensive price points! 

4. Write a grant 

I will admit that I am not well-versed in this realm just yet, but I will be working on this much more this school year! Here are a few that I am going to look into: Dollar General Literacy Foundation, Target Grants, and CLA Grants. (Scholastic is making it easier and easier to apply with these simple steps: Get the Grant!)

5. (Used) Bookstores 

I am fortunate to have a mega used book store here in Nashville, but you can also find them online! Here are a few used bookstores that you can look into: Goodwill Books, Half Price Books, Thrift Books.

6. Teacher Power 

LOL - we don't get a whole lot of power, but your teacher ID can snag you a few perks. You can use your teacher ID for discounts at bookstores like Parnassus, Barnes and Noble, and Books A Million 

House Teams in Public Schools

"It is our choices, Harry, that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities." 

-Albus Dumbledore 

In today's world it is hard to find a person that has not heard of Harry Potter. Whether or not someone has read the books rarely seems to impede their ability to identify Harry and his scar or Voldemort and his missing nose. 

The thing about Harry Potter is, it truly is magical. Whether your grew up reading the books, or you have only seen the movies, it has a way of sneaking into your heart. Though the actual magic part is fun and exciting, I don't think it's the most powerful piece. I would argue that the most important part about the Harry Potter series would be the relationships that are built and the lessons that are learned. Many of these relationships begin and prosper because of one commonality: house teams.

The house team system is a traditional feature of British schools. JK Rowling created four houses for her series: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Each of the four house teams are categorized by specific colors and character traits.  In the book series your house team would be decided by a magical sorting hat. This sorting hat is able to scan your mind and identify which team you would fit best in. 

So this is all cool, but what does it have to do with MY classroom?

One year ago I had the opportunity to visit the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. (Cue the fangirling!) I walked into the "great hall" and looked out into a modern day, Americanized version of Hogwarts. The music was filling the halls, the giant dragon was illuminated, and the house teams were displayed. I felt like I was in a dream. When the shock/awe wore off, I tried to take as many notes as I could. I quickly noticed that the house team pennants that were displayed were more than just decoration. This was their school-wide behavior plan. Mr. Clark spoke about the pros of having such a system, and all of the benefits that he has seen within his own school. I had to bring it back home with me. 

With a little research and a lot of trial and error, I have created my own house teams in my classroom. I am going to lay out my plan for house teams. You can use this list and change it up as you see fit! If there's one thing I learned through this process it's that the rewards and organization have to be based on your students. Your plan may change from classroom to classroom and from year to year. 

Last year I worked at school that wanted to use this system school-wide. After visiting the Ron Clark Academy we were inspired by the house teams that they created. (They did not use the traditional HP houses.) We wanted to create houses the were culturally responsive to OUR students. We also had a very large school, so we had to create six teams to keep them a manageable size. We chose character traits that we wanted to embrace and the languages that our students could relate to. For example, Fuerza is Spanish for strength and Nomusa is Zulu for kind. This took a lot of additional work, I'm not going to lie! In addition to finding the perfect names, we had to picks colors and create pennants/house team shields. (Note: This would be a great activity to do WITH kids if you have time. We wanted to have everything ready to go before the school year started.) 

I am the only person using the house team system in my new school. As a result, I chose to use the Harry Potter house teams. I decided that this would give me more opportunities to purchase items on Etsy or Amazon while decorating my classroom. The house teams are already well "researched" and designed. (Note: Students that love HP will also LOVE being sorted into a house team that they have read about.) 

Here is a breakdown of the four houses:

I wish I could say that I have a magical hat that sorts my students, but sadly I do not. So I have acquired the next best thing: a quiz! Who doesn't love a personality quiz? I am currently using a quiz that I found on TPT (you can find that one here), but I am working on creating one for older students. 

Once they take the quiz they have to add top their score and put it at the top. I do not let my students know which house they are in that moment. In fact, they have to wait for the sorting ceremony! I do this for two reasons: if they know the house right away then there will be little buy in/excitement for the students that do not like or follow Harry Potter and the second reason is completely logistical. If I have 25 people score Ravenclaw in my first period then I will have a very uneven and unfair system. 

I teach four core class periods. Each class period is made up of students from all four houses. This allows for friendly competition in each class period, AND it allows for smaller numbers. Some activities will involve working with your house team.  This allows for an instant group that students have built already built community with. 

The sorting ceremony is one of the most excited days of the year! We have an amazing school librarian who lends us the library, her talking sorting hat, and her house team capes. We all enter the library with lights out and music on. The background of the Smart Board illuminates the Great Hall, and the sorting hat is waiting in the front of the room. I call students down three at a time (mostly for time's sake), and they sit their patiently awaiting the news. I will begin the ceremony by reading out of the first book in my best British accent. From there I will say a little bit about the student before I yell out the house. Sometimes you have to get creative, but the students always appreciate when you call out some of their character traits that you have seen through their actions. Once all of the students in the class are sorted they will work on a team building activity together. 

This is the part that has taken the most time for me to work out. Points can be both given out and taken away. The points are the part of the system that get all of the kids involved. Some of the kids, no matter how amazing your sorting ceremony, will still not be sold. Not until they start to see the points in action, of course! Below you will find the posters that I put up in my room to show how students can earn/lose points for their team. You can customize these to fit the needs of your own students! I also give random points out throughout the year. After awhile students will start to ask about new ways to earn points, and I am always willing to add to our list! My favorite addition has been "road kill" pencils. For every road kill (hallway) pencil that a student brings in they will earn one house point. This is a blessing and a curse. I never run out of pencils now! But I also have to stop students from running to me with sharp pieces of wood. 

I don't want to take away from my instruction time so my students are the ones that track the points throughout a class period. We use a simple format that is divided into four quadrants. Each period has their own row within in the quadrant. A new student each day will have the opportunity to track with +1 or -1 for their period. At the end of the period, that student will add up the new score and write it on our class tracker. (When we run out of these papers the students will just automatically write it all out on notebook paper. It is amazing what they will do for you when you tell them what you need!) 

The incentives that I give out are given to the house team that has earned the most points over the course of a week. I calculate points from Friday-Thursday. The last point of the week cannot be given out past 4pm on Thursday. This allows for students to know the winning team on Friday. 

Even though the entire grade is separated into one of the four houses, they typically only get to work together with the people that share that house in their class period. There is one time, however, where they may get to see everyone else in their house! More on that in a bit.. 

On Friday I announce the winning house team and then each class period team is allowed to pick their own incentive. This incentive must be chosen unanimously, or at least with the largest number of votes. I will not give multiple incentives to one period. (It gets too messy!) We have added other incentives to this list, but the lunch in the great hall has been the most popular. 

Lunch in the great hall is the one time that students from all house periods can celebrate together. This one took some conversations with my admin, but now it is all worked out! During this incentive students are allowed to have a house team party in my room during lunch. Students are encouraged to bring snacks to the party that will take place on the following Monday. This is one reason why choosing the incentive on Friday allows for ALL class periods to see what they want to do. 

Good luck, and happy sorting! Please let me know if you have any additional questions or if you would like to talk through ideas that you may have. 

Tips for a Successful Transition Into the New Semester

December 31, 2017. A day of reflection and excitement. 

Many of us will be heading back to school within a matter of hours. While I hope that the majority of us spent this break relaxing and recharging, I understand that teachers will continue to work through breaks regardless of what has been suggested to us. As we prepare our lesson plans for next week, I want to remind us to keep that students at the front of those plans. The second semester brings a multitude of tests for our kids, but that doesn't mean that we should let this "cloud" take over our time with them. 

I know that it's hard to get back into the swing of things, but here are a few ideas and tips to get those plans started! As I reflect on my time with my students, I have come up with four concepts that will help to make for a smooth transition into the new year. 

I think that I would be lying if I said that every part of me is excited to get back to school on Tuesday.  While I love my job and my students, I also enjoy little "break luxuries" such as reading all day and being able to go pee whenever I want. Our students are going to feel the same way, only slightly more sleepy. 

My advice to you is to greet students, and staff members, with excitement when you get back into the school building. It's no surprise that you have a better day when you are smiling and talking positively than when you spend your day complaining and groaning. Excitement and and positivity breeds more positivity! Even if you have to fake it for awhile until your coffee kicks in, believe me, it will start to spread. When students see that you are excited about learning, they will be excited about what you have to share with them. Remember, they are the reason that you do this job! Enjoy your time with them. 

Our students are going to come back to school different than they left us. For some, the holiday break is stressful and they welcome coming back to routine and security. For others, they may have had the chance to travel and are eager to share that with everyone. Regardless of what happened over the break, it is crucial that we enter into the new year with consistency and routine. While it may sound appealing to "ease" into the new semester, it will cause disorder and low expectations. One routine that I swear by is bellwork. Students have bellwork each day, not matter what is going on in the school day. In that past I have given a pop quiz on our classroom routines and procedures, but I will be changing it this semester. Instead of a paper quiz, I have created a Kahoot with many of the same questions. This will not only get students engaged, but it will also allow me to revisit our technology rules and procedures through modeling. 

How do we foster an intrinsic or internal motivation in our students? While I can't quite give you the answer to this one, because I don't think anyone has THE answer, I can give you some suggestions. I have found that internal motivation, while difficult to pinpoint, can be encouraged through relationship building. The better you know a student, the better you know how to meet their needs. Each human learns in a different way, and if you can figure out their "way" then you can better understand how to get them to want to learn it. Another key to intrinsic motivation is to have students set goals. I allow students to set both personal and academic goals. If you want this to work it is important that students set goals that are realistic and measurable. While goal setting can be a great back to school activity, it shouldn't be left there. Go back and visit these goals at the end of a two week or five week span to see what progress was made. Another way to get students to have intrinsic motivation is by bringing choice into the classroom. No, I am not saying that students should have to choose everything in their day, but I am saying that choice is powerful. Imagine this: your administration team explains that everyone will be part of a book club for the next semester. This is fine, right? I like to read. I don't really have time to read this book, but I guess I have to. I really hope that it's not on PBLs again.. I just came back from a great PD on this. I would like something more. Then your administrator lets you pick the book that you will be reading. I get to pick the book? That's cool. I have been wanting to read more about family engagement and now I get to do that with some of my colleagues! See? Choice is great. Students feel more connected when they get to chose things like how they show mastery or the order in which the agenda will run that day. 

2018 is almost here, and it will be gone before you know it. You only have a few more months with your current students. Make the most out of it! 

For the Love of Literacy

Flexibility. A term that each and every teacher must learn to become comfortable with.

When we decided to move back to Nashville last year I had quite a few things to consider. Where should I work? Do I want to continue at a high school or enter into a middle school? What grade level will I teach? It didn't take long for me to find and interview at a school on the west side of the city. Before I knew it, I was hired! I was excited, and a little nervous, when I found out that I would be teaching fifth grade ELA for the first time.

As the spring months went on, I didn't hear much from my new school. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until mid June when I got a message that made my stomach do a little twist. The principal that hired me would be moving on to work with another sector of the district. This was great news! What wasn't great news? The new master schedule that the team had created actually placed me in a social studies class.

Me? A social studies teacher? Flexibility, I remind myself.

Fast forward to December 1st. I am the seventh grade social studies teacher of a beautiful middle school in Nashville. I am teaching world history for the first time. I am learning so much, and I am growing tremendously each day. I don't know much about world history, but I have found that the easiest way for this thing to happen is through literacy and stories. My students sometimes complain that they have two English classes: ELA and social studies. To me, this is music to my ears! We are growing together each day and for many of us, we are exploring world history through a new lens. We read, we write, and we discuss. Everyday.

The ELA teacher walks up to me on a chilly afternoon as we watch our students run around and play basketball during physical activity time. He looks at me and says something like, "our students.. they grew. A lot. Like 187% growth from the fall to now." This is insane! How?! The answer is simple: we teach literacy. Without ever really planning together, we are both focusing on the skills that students need to be successful, regardless of the content area.

While I may have been scared at the beginning of the year, I am finding that this isn't much different. What you will find over the course of the rest of the school year are some new resources that I have been using in class. The first thing that I posted to my TPT store is a medieval Africa concept sort. I am still learning, but I hope that you find some use in the items that I am creating and sharing with my students. As always, if you have suggestions or requests, I would love to hear them!

Here's the newbie: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Medieval-Africa-Word-Sort-Introduction-Activity-3547719

Why I Chose To Stay

How often in our lives do we actually take a step in faith and pursue the plan that our passions are pulling us toward?

At just twenty-six years old I have had the opportunity to act as a resident principal of a successful and complex PreK-8 school in Cleveland, Ohio for the course of an entire school year. I beat out over two hundred applicants and made it into a leadership cohort of just ten. During this time I have grown both personally and professionally. I have led professional development, coached teachers, made difficult decisions for an entire school building, and presented to important people across the city. People look at me in amazement when I shake their hand, stand tall, and mention that I am just twenty-six years old. (I may have accidentally lied to my staff about this one small detail.. sorry, y'all!) I have the opportunity to lead a school of my own in August, but I don't want to.

You see, I have taught students in grades six through nine in various cities. I have had the privilege of watching students surpass two reading levels in one year, stand up to people that didn't believe in their abilities, create change within a community, and quote Shakespeare. And though these may seem like little things to you, they are the exact reason why I want to go back into the classroom.

The decision to resume the role of a teacher was not an easy one for me to make. Well, I lied.. it was actually incredibly simply, but telling my family and friends took courage. It seems like people outside of the education world have a difficult time understanding the unique joy a teacher can feel. While some members were supportive, others could not understand why I would want to leave such a coveted role for lower pay and less respect. So I decided to come up with a few reasons why I would want to do such a crazy thing:

1. You can walk into work on the worst day ever and just the smallest interaction with a child in your classroom can turn that around. 
2. The role of a teacher is to facilitate learning for students, but you would be shocked at just how much you can learn from your students. 
3. Teaching is fun and exciting! In what other profession can you stand on chairs and have students debate whether or not someone committed a crime? (Think "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the Seriel podcast all rolled into one unit plan!)
4. There is no greater joy than seeing a student truly understand and master content. You can actually see it in their face. 
5. Kids are so funny! They keep me up to date on just about everything that I need to know in today's world and the evolution of our language.
6. Teaching allows you to live with purpose. I wake up every single day and I know that my life has meaning. 

So why am I going back into the classroom? I'm going back because I truly believe that every single child has a right to an excellent education, and I want to be on the front lines making that happen. Because I love teaching tiny people ways to navigate through this crazy world via both content and life lessons. I will unapologetically advocate for all students, regardless of zip code or race. I will fight for our students, and I will equip them with the necessary skills so that they can then advocate for themselves. I am taking my step in faith to pursue the role that God has created for me, and I'm not going to let a silly thing like salary get in my way.