Stars and Stripes Forever!

Last year, while innocently sitting in Corvallis, dreaming about my year ahead in Australia, I thought it would be a fun idea to bring little wristbands for everyone in the school to say, "Happy Fourth of July." That idea exploded into one entire day of celebrating American culture with music, hot dogs, dancing, and contests. Who knew?

At Macksville Public School the philosophy is that all children are "on Gold." That is, they are gold students, capable of being beautifully behaved, respectful, responsible, and well-mannered. From there, if you forget, or make a mistake, or are just plain awful, you receive "tickets." 6 tickets and you're "off gold." Each 10 weeks we celebrate a day for all of those on Gold, and start fresh for the next term. Sometimes the days are held at the beach or the park. This time it was all about the U.S. of A.!

It was a great team effort, with staff and parents helping everywhere. Even Marilyn, our friend from Corvallis visiting for the week, came and sliced hot dog buns and took photographs. She even stood by my side, our hands on our hearts, as the children raised the American flag and the National Anthem played on the speakers.

We began with a parade of costumes. The children and staff were dressed in everything from Miss Piggy, Agent 99, Scooby Doo, Uncle Sam, Statue of Liberty, Men in Black, cowboys, cowgirls, Paris Hilton, Mortitia Adams, Spider Man, and Minnie Mouse. Even the children in plain clothes were dressed like an American, since we don't wear a uniform to public school! One teacher spent her senior year as an exchange student in Maryland. She came dressed in her cheerleading outfit and letterman's jacket, complete with school ring and photo button of her squad! The children paraded to Stars and Stripes Forever!

Then our two second grade classes performed a hip hop dance and tumbling act to stadium music. The crowd was clapping and oohing and awwing at the cartwheels and pom poms! Then the children lead the crowd in American cheers. Let me back track a bit. Back in April the teachers were discussing how every year the children learn dances, but this year the dance teacher is not "on class." Hmmm. "Well," I offered, "I could teach the kids some line dances." From there I was asked if I would please teach them American Cheerleading. Derr. So, many YouTube videos from Pomona High School Cheer Squad later, I was teaching the kids American cheers. So by July 2, the kids lead the entire school in cheers from "MPS! We're the Best!" to "Let's Get Fired Up!"

These folks love a contest. And it's important that "everyone has a go." So, there were prizes for the costumes, and everyone had a go at cheering. Prizes went to the most enthusiastic in the crowd!

From there we had a break to enjoy the Year 1's Lemonade Stand, "quarters" in hand to pay for each cup. The children ate a snack and then regrouped for the next act! This time the second graders performed the Electric Slide to "Boot Scootin' Boogie." We taught groups to do it with us, and yes, prizes for the smoothest dancers! The adults weren't off the hook. We got every teacher, parent, admin. assistant, and the principal to stomp the pavement with us! Moving around the square with the entire staff to one of my favorite songs, was a highlight of this year!

My kids then did the Cotton Eyed Joe (again, a version from YouTube, since my Texas version was more suited to people who have had too many tequilas!), inviting a partner to join them. Mums, brothers, teachers, were all asked to circle around and grapevine to the right! We ended with a whole school dance to YMCA. The crowd went wild.

From here our girls who raise the flag daily had the American flag on the ropes, ready to raise. I explained a little bit about the flag, as well as ediquette here in Australia. We were to fly it just below the top, and as Americans, Marilyn and I would place our hands on our hearts. The children stood solemnly while the song played. It was beautiful.

At this point we had lunch - mmm! Hot dogs, baggies of potato chips, and Otter Pops. All of these were bizarre to them. Tomato sauce had to be called "ketchup" for the day. We didn't even try mustard, since they would all say, 'yuck.' No one knew how to deal with the hot dogs. "I think we boil them." The buns, all 411, had to be sliced by hand. Otter Pops were just weird. When they saw they were Icey Poles, then everyone relaxed. "Ahhhhh! Icey Poles!" Just pronouncing Otter Pop was an adventure!

To finish the fun, the children competed in "Talk Like a Yank." They were to say, "Put your glasses on and drive your faster car to Denver," with their best American accent. I showed them how easy it was. Then I tried saying words their way, like, "kookaburra." Not as easy as it would seem. You try standing in front of 411 kids and 40 adults and everyone laughs as you pronounce "koala." What's so funny about 'koala?' Apparently a lot. So, after narrowing it down to 6 great accents, I asked them to try, "New York City," on the spot. They gave me everything from Atlanta, Georgia + Perth, Western Australia to Little Rock, Arkansas + Cairns, Queensland. One girl rattled it off like it was second nature to her. I applauded and handed her the prize!

What were the prizes? Again, it was a team effort. I had brought my Oriental Trading wristbands, little flags, and temporary tatoos. With a quick email to Corvallis and Albany, friends bought bandanas, flag tee shirts, red visors, and stickers galore. They sent them via my American visitor, and we were set to go. The anticipation rose when I announced before the event that the prizes were being flown in today directly from the U.S. Ooooh!

I hope the pictures here capture the spirit of the day. The children had a blast, which is the most important thing. It brought the school together as a community, and the staff worked together brilliantly. It was touching for me, of course, and I barely made it through the anthem without a tear. Most of all it was a celebration of the children and their accomplishments as friends, individuals, and as a team.

Parent Teacher Conferences, or "Interviews"

These are held once a year, mid year. There are two philosophies, like in Oregon. We send a note home asking parents to choose a time slot. If you never hear back, you have two choices. You can forget it. Or, you can assign them a time and send the note back. And hope they come in. I'm of the mind that every parent deserves a time to talk with the teacher. Whether the child is doing well or not, kids need to know that their parents and teacher communicate. So, silly me, I sent home the notes and signed people up! Can I work more, please??

Again, no extra day or time allotted for this, really. We use our prep time and our half day of professional development. I can, however, ask for someone to "backfill" my class. An executive staff member will come and teach anything I ask them to, or anything they want, if I ask them to, for as long as I need them to. Not bad! But finding a place to meet when the school is operating fully as usual is tricky. This meeting room here? This corridor there? Someone's office here?

All the parents were very supportive and positive, which was reassuring! A few told me their child's year was the best one yet. Don't they always say that - those proud new parents still at the beginning of the long public school experience? Even the parents get excited with a new spelling list for the week in Second Grade! It was great to get to meet with them and hear friendship concerns, homework woes, and sport cheers.

Is it vacation yet?

Can you tell I got swamped??

Guess what I've been doing since the last entry? Stressing out like a true teacher! Well, here June does not mean end of the year parties, field trips, and good byes. We're not even half-way through, so it was Report Card Time! You know what that means. Hours of organizing work samples, assessments, and data. It means doing one more assessment to make sure they really read at Level 24. Does he know counting coins this week? Please? Oh, and the obligatory cold that comes with this time of year - it is winter, afterall! So, bundled up on the couch with the Kleenex box handy and a cup of tea, I filled out the reports on my laptop all through the weekend.

No, there is no report writing day allotted for this. My principal did, however, give us each half a day of professional development time to use. The reports themselves are like ours at home, but the difference lies in the comments. One is to write in detail each unit taught under each content area. We also write detailed descriptions about each child's progress in literacy and math. In addition, we write a summary paragraph for each student. Whew! It was a great process, save for the inevitable computer glitches, frustrations, panics, and near-loss-of-data episodes! But, hey, no worries, mate!

Finally, the reports are handed in on a thumb drive to our Executive staff for review. They proofread every one of the 411 reports. They print them, Glenn signs them, and they are returned to us with beautifully printed envelopes complete with Macksville's school emblem. Kinders even get a color photo of themselves on theirs. There is a large box on the front of the envelope for each child draw a picture before it is taken home. How lovely is that!

They did come to me, however, before they printed mine, and asked if I minded them changing some of my spelling. They needed to change some vowels, c's and s's, some s's and z's. "Practise/practice" and "colour/color." Whatever! You can tell I haven't switched my laptop from American to Australian. Here on this blog you might be glad for that! I love to smile at moments like that! It's so fun.

Linda, were your ears burning??

I walked by our executive teacher's office (I know, that's a topic for another entry!), and on her desk was a photo-copied (I've quit saying Xerox copied, cuz they all laugh at me for saying odd things) version of Linda Hoyt's Revisit, Reflect, Retell. I came to a screeching stop and smiled so big! It's like walking down the aisle in the grocery store and seeing the little roll packages of Oreos! A sign from Home!!

I found Deb and exclaimed how I was thrilled to see her interested in Linda as well! She spoke of her vaguely that she seemed like a very interesting educator and she was just learning about her. Ahhhh!

I tried to not leap out of my seat and blabble on and on about loving all of her books, going to numerous sessions, interviewing her for special projects in grad school, and how she was once upon a time a lowly teacher at Sunrise Elementary!!!!! I restrained myself and mentioned how I'd brought many of her response sheets from Re,Re, and Re with me here and how her videos are certainly worth purchasing. I did mention she was a Portland girl . . .

It's a small literacy world. Let the revisiting begin!

Maths

Yes, I said 'Maths.' That's the first difference. This was, initially, the most confusing part for me, the maths program. Now that I'm rolling along, there is nothing to it, and I'm finding it very fun. I may have touched on this in months past here on the blog, but I'm finally able to put into words how I do maths each week.

Albany has made an effort to streamline our math curriculum per grade. That is, breadth, not depth, is the catch phrase. So, we are to teach a certain number of strands over a term before we change to the next set for the next term.

Here the strands are taught, perhaps two per week, and then reviewed (or "revised") throughout the following terms. So at first, to see a practice page of "mentals" that included 4 - 5 strands at once seemed very overwhelming. My mind was thinking, I have to teach a lesson for all five before I can give them this! Well, they are basically already aware of all 5. It's up to me to review and extend each of the five. I know that now!

It was a switch to come into a maths program and not be familiar with the materials. That is, I'm used to knowing what's in my cupboards to pull from, which resource book I can get more fraction pages from, which teacher still has my Judy clocks, which of my math story books goes with counting coins, etc. I brought quite a bit of Kim Sutton materials with me, including double dice, place value dice, resource books and CDs, to leave for my partner when I go. Hopefully she is using mine in Albany and loving them as much as I do.

I'm lucky to have a wonderful volunteer in the room two mornings a week. She loves being with us, and I love having her, so I'm set! Tuesdays are rotating math groups, a la Liberty with Mrs. Ramsey and Mrs. Mathios! We're able to pre-teach, re-teach, and give some manipulative/building time to the kids.

I'm also lucky to have one of two resource persons who comes 5 days a week for an hour. He or she is assigned to help my aboriginal students. One is truly low, and benefits from an independent learning program that comes from me (no Mr. Nimmo equivolent here). My second student just needs a lot of one on one to focus and buy in. Beautiful boys, both of them.

The kids work from a big glossy maths book, again, a new strand for every page. So I go through and lump the strands I think we could practice with and group teach the graphing pages, the spatial pages, and the intro to multiplication pages.

We teach the same material with a few exceptions. In Albany we would be teaching double digit add/sub with regrouping. I don't see that in the maths book here. Instead, they are asked to consider 'groups of' like I used to do with my third graders. Spatial relationships are taught in the maths book, for example, in front of, behind, etc. Describing properties is also a topic they learn, such as curly, smooth, bumpy, rounded, and straight. Time is only taught to the hour and half hour here. In Albany we ask they know to the minute by the end of second grade. The money, of course, is different, and much easier to teach! No dimes, quarters, and nickels to confuse anyone! But, since there are no pennies, we teach them to round to the nearest 5 cents! No one seems to mind paying the clerk .40 cents when the price tag quoted .38 cents! Who in the U.S. wants to pay more than the price tag says?? No worries, mate.

Yes, the entire class is in the room at the same time. No grouping here. We buddy a lot and coach each other. The small groups are invaluable. I've gone to mostly small group work each day with a practice page and fix and finish time. Kim's dice games save the day. When they finish, there is almost always an option to begin a dice game. We do number chats on the overhead and record in a maths booklet/journal. I think it would be correct to say, with the exception of my one "lowbie," that I have no "low" maths students. I have those that aren't motivated or confident (my girls :( ). I have the naughty bodies, for sure, who can certainly do the work, but who are distracted, distractible, and/or distracting. Put them all in a small group for this or that, and they shine. Assessments may take them for-ev-er, but they can do the work. It's a juggling act, but with Kim Sutton by my side, I love maths every day, and the hour flies.

Teachers Federation Council Meeting, Sydney

I was invited as a Special Observer by my school's union rep to attend the Federation meeting in Sydney on Saturday. With the tug and pull over their state testing last month, I was very curious to see how their organization operates. When the meeting began, I was welcomed by the president in his welcome speech, but not waved to or put on the spot, thank heavens! With so many surprises and unknowns in this experience, I was glad this one came off without embarrassment or stuttered "thank you it's a pleasure to be here" input by me!! Whew! I could sink into my squishy auditorium chair and soak it all in. I didn't catch everything, I must say. I either couldn't understand the accents in the microphone (telephone conversations are the same for me and for Australians listening to me, too, I've learned) or my rep was translating or explaining details of the organization to me as we went along.

The meeting opened with "Questions Without Notice," and included reps from all over the state raising concerns and asking for the Federation's input. One such question involved violence in the schools, both physical and verbal, student to student or student to teacher. The recommendation was that notes should be taken and incidents documented, but at this time the Parliment (and therefore the Federation) was not making any decision or taking any actions on this topic. I hate to think that something big needs to happen before someone does "take any action."

I also attended the Women's Caucus, which, besides serving Cheerios and toast with Vegemite at a table that resembled our kitchen counter any given morning with cereal bowls, milk bottles, and coffee mugs, included discussions around lactation breaks, equal pay, and percentages of women in principal jobs and executive council positions. With such a relaxed-looking meeting, complete with baby strollers parked here and there, I expected a relaxed agenda. On the contrary it was the most efficiently-run meeting I have attended since landing here! These women knew how to get business done!

The Israeli attacks on humanitarian activists was discussed in detail during the full council meeting. One Australian teacher who had been on exchange in Palestine gave her emotional account of students living with 2 hours of electricity a day. One student would do his homework under one of the security lights he found. For me it was interesting to hear world-wide politics being discussed with respect to the women and children involved and what Australia's education system's responsibility might be to support them.

One council member asked for reps with personal stories from their schools on how the state tests have affected their teaching, curriculum decisions, moral, etc. to jot them down and submit them to her as a data collection process. Anyone with verbal descriptions was welcome to meet her in the lobby to discuss. I followed her out and asked if I could listen in as a fly on the wall, since we have the very same issues in the states. Sure enough, rep after rep came to discuss the woes of teaching to the test and using the test as the teaching resource for grammar, writing genres, or comprehension. They complained of non-English students not having the experiences or vocabulary to draw upon. They talked of abandoning math games as a form of skill practice for more traditional skill drills. Sound familiar? What they don't have yet, however, is any of the computer details to work out. The tests are still given paper and pencil, with boxes stacked in the principal's office for each section.

No answers, just more of the same it seems. But it was acknowledged that the moratorium of last month, no testing if league tables are to be published, was the tip of the iceberg. That is, my thoughts had been, league tables? That's nothin'! Wait till the real issues surface and the real fight needs to be fought. But they do see the real fight coming. It's just in slow motion still here.

I was interested to learn that teachers are given pay increases for experience in industry and that years home with family are counted as half year in teaching field. To my knowledge no allowance is made for life experience in our Oregeon district, whether it be in the workplace or at home.

I also learned that the teachers' federation treats their Special Observers very nicely and that may be the only time I get to have such swanky quarters when I stay in Sydney!

Don't know how I can use this to change the U.S. world. Let me know if you have thoughts on it.

Reading

First thing each morning we spend an hour with reading materials of some kind. The school has sets of readers in a leveled series. The children are "benchmarked" with the program's running record system. Then I group the children and teach my own class.

I decided to have 4 different groups of 4 - 7 students in the room, and one student who works on his own at a very low level with volunteers each day. I collect sets of little books from the Book Closet where they are stored. I check them out and return them when finished for everyone else (K-6) to use if needed. Each group reads one book over 2 weeks. The teachers agree that the books have been there for many years and are well overdue to be replaced. If so, it would be done with our school's budget, and of course cost plenty.

To be honest, this is the first time in all my years of teaching that I've taught reading to my own class all by myself. Even in the 1980's, our reading group rotated every two weeks to a new teacher. I've had a chance now to put into practice all the many management techniques, strategies, and purposeful activities I've learned about over the years! Thank heavens for wonderful volunteers!!

I spend time over the 2 weeks on vocabulary, strategies, grammar, and enrichment between the 4 groups. I'm given the books, but the materials I make myself. Without many community committments, a large house, and extended family nearby, I have the time to make it all in the evenings!! I'm also thankful I brought with me Linda Hoyt and Sharon Taberski resources.

I'm able to use Book Bags with the children at least once a week. The children have an individual folder of a checklist, a book they've chosen from a leveled basket I've prepared, and a response sheet. They are involved reading, retelling to a friend, responding on the strategy we're focusing on, and editing their work. I meet with them one by one to check over their work, listen to them read, and chat about books and their interests. The children love the independence of these, and I love the anecdotal notes I gain from our conferences.

We also have an SRA box where the children choose from a variety of stories in a leveled color. They self test and correct with me. I use this once a week.

Each class has a collection of Home Readers that the children check out each afternoon to take home and read that evening. There are maybe 4 - 5 students who actually trade books regularly. And guess what? They read well! But you knew that.

I am responsible to keep the running records on the students, and I move the children to a different group, depending on their progress.

We are given professional development at school twice a month and we discuss strategies and strands to cover on a regular basis. The teachers k - 2 discuss literacy activities and we share many ideas together.

Also, there is one and one half (!) Reading Recovery for the very low readers. They work with one or two students at a time. Only my very lowest reader has this help 3 times a week for 1/2 hour.

Besides the reading hour, I read a novel aloud at the end of the day. I also break for stories whenever possible and always with the science and social studies theme.

Are they progressing? Yes. I wish it was more, though. I have two who haven't budged. They aren't progressing like I believe they could be. There are always those kids, right? We're not quite half way through the year, so I've got time to push them along.

I'm really missing the literature that I know so well and the ability to match kids with books for their level. I spend time in the library, but there are many many titles I'm not familiar with. I'm helping the children learn to choose books that are a good fit for their own reading level, but I'm not confident that I'm providing the right books for them to choose from. True confessions.

I've also had the crazy thought of designing my own mini A.R. program with a point system. I never thought I'd say that. But it could just be the hook I need for my reluctant boys, particularly. Hmmm. I'm still tossing that one around in my head . . .