Just yesterday, my 4th grade team got together to discuss the end of the year events and found ourselves overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done.

Now here is the irony – we have steadily complained about the late end to the school year (June 27), often joking about how we will have so much time to do things.  And now, we are in this crazy mad dash to the end, trying to get it all done!

There are assessments to give (now that the state MCAS tests are done), projects to complete, writing assignments to assign, units of study still to teach in science AND social studies, assemblies to attend and assemblies to put on, field day and field trips, middle school visits and, the fourth grade favorite – the fourth grade celebration to prepare for, practice and perform!  And of course, we have to have some sort of normalcy when it comes to math and literacy instruction… right?

Why does this seem to happen EVERY year?  No, really – why?  Is the school year not long enough?  Or are we expected to do too much?  Please don’t tell me that we should omit some of the involved end-of-the-year activities like performances and projects – those are too important.

So, how does it all get done?  Or does it?  Well, let’s face it – the end of year certainly comes and somehow we manage to get through it.

This is not a post where I describe a situation and pose a solution, or even play Sally Sunshine or Inspirational Jane.  I’m simply curious to hear your experiences at handling the end of the year.  So please, let the conversation begin!

~EMP

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Practice what I preach…that has been a saying in the back of my head for the last few weeks. Our state testing for math starts today and it has been a real challenge balancing test prep with innovative, meaningful teaching. In the past few weeks, I’ve had to squeeze in math topics we hadn’t gotten to yet and complete many test preparation exercises and work. I feel like I’ve been on a mad dash to the test, trying to make sure we get it all in. And all the while, I’ve tried hard to balance myself and my students with some fun and creative lessons and projects.

In some ways, I’ve succeeded.  A couple of weeks back, my colleague, Chris and I combined our classes for a studio day where students took pictures of the land and water (one of our science units) in our school’s backyard and wrote haikus inspired by their own photography.   For Mother’s Day, our entire fourth grade team decided to work on a project that integrated our study of Mexico as we created Mexican yarn art Mother’s Day cards.  And what has turned out to be one of my class’s favorites: the many math dances we have come up with to help solidify math concepts – the topic of a future post, for sure!

But I have to admit: it’s been hard.  The weeks that lead up to THE TEST are stressful for teachers.  There is a lot of pressure put on us to make sure our students do well.  Sometimes it’s from administration, sometimes from colleagues, or ourselves.  So much rides on these tests and how OUR students do.  It’s been hard to fit it all in.  A few times I contemplated giving up the good stuff so that I can jam pack the day with as much math practice as possible.

But if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times to the many teachers I have come in contact with at art integration workshops and courses.

You have to make the commitment to just do it! Provide those meaningful opportunities for your students. The lasting rewards are well worth the time you spend in class and the experiences will only deepen your students’ love of learning.

Yes, I feel as if I am coaching myself sometimes.  These last weeks I’ve found myself saying more than once, “I’ve got to practice what I preach.”  It keeps me in check and hopefully makes me a better teacher.

Related posts:

1. Arts 4 Learning – Putting Integration into Practice
2. Putting Arts Integration into Practice
3. Why Practice Reading Skills Away from Reading?

It started over a decade ago as my personal style of teaching; a manner of integrating the music I love into my teaching.  In no time, I began to write down my ideas and lessons in a book entitled Inspired by Listening, published it and started selling.  Soon it was a personal mission to get the good news of the arts out into the world of education: to help teachers realize their potential, their hidden abilities in the arts and their ability to use those talents in their teaching.  Advocacy, lesson ideas, workshops and still, the promotion of my book.  But in the recent months, The Inspired Classroom has become so much more and I see it fitting at the end of this school year in particular, to take a moment and reflect on the new, re-focused direction that has become TIC.

ONLINE -
Back in October 2009, I was yearning to revamp my website.  It was looking outdated.  It had some good content, but it was not user friendly.  Incidentally, my older cousin, Greg Boghosian was also starting on a new website venture, igetnewengland.com, and we talked, and talked and talked about resources and ideas.  For a short time, I used SocialGo, but for it to fully do what I wanted, I would have to pay quite a bit of money.  I spent a month on it, but knew, in the long run, I would need something different.  Greg told me about WordPress.org and after too much time researching it online, I finally bit the bullet and started designing.  (How addicting widget and add ons can be!)  What you see now is still a work in progress, but I am very happy with the basic layout and function of the site.  (P.S. I’m always looking for some constructive criticism on the look and use of the website, so feel free to let me know what you think!)

I was also starting to dabble in blogging.  Not too sure what it would mean for me, I figured I’d give it a try.  Every so often, I’d get on my soap box and start typing away about what was on my mind in terms of education and arts integration.  I started on blogger.com and then also posted my blog on SocialGo.  Finally, I made the complete switch over to WordPress and my new website.  The best thing I did with blogging was find some cohesion to my posts.  Through a marketing idea I received from Published and Profitable, I got the inspiration to do monthly series.  I’ve been working these series since January and have found them most motivating.  They keep me focused and give me a purpose to blog regularly on my publish days of Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Through the years of giving workshops and doing book talks, I had a decent collection of emails from educators interested in arts integration – but had never done much with them.  Constant Contact had been growing and so I thought I would give the 60 day free trial a try.  I was not lacking for content and was soon building a short, but sweet enewsletter to send out.  My 60 free trial only lasted 20 days because I had such a good list of contacts and I outgrew the free trial limit!  (This was a good problem.)  By November 5, 2009, my first newsletter was live!

Things were finally starting to really click, but by now it was time to move into social networking and that meant tackling Facebook and Twitter.  Up until this point, I had no desire to join, but felt it necessary, so I did.  It was fun to get onto Facebook, reconnect with people from my past and start a fanpage for TIC, but Twitter was what really changed helped me to evolve.  I met so many interesting and wonderful educators and was soon building my own PLN online!

COLLEGIALITY -
The thing I am most proud of doing with The Inspired Classroom is that I have stayed true to my mission to reach out to teachers.  It started with my “non-threatening” approach to exposing other teachers to arts integration through my book and workshops.  But that turned out to be just the beginning.

Back in November 2009, with the help of my colleague, pal and fellow rump shaker, Beth Cavalier, The Inspired Classroom launched the first Teacher Field Trip.  These are arts-based events that help teachers with the “get inspired” part of teaching.  Our first trip was to go out dancing, next we went to the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston.  We have listened to music, read poetry and made pottery.  This is only the beginning.

One of my favorite things to do still is give workshops and my focus always remains on integration whether it be music, storytelling, poetry or technology.  This past year, the principal at my school, Lou Charrette, gave me the go ahead to start a PLC that focuses on arts integration.  I call it PLaiC.  Our group consists of seven teachers in the district from PreK-12 and we are looking forward to working together again (maybe with other teachers too) as we share ideas, resources and inspiration.

The Inspired Classroom has been able to reach out to other teachers is through guest blogging.  My first one was a teacher I worked with in Hampton, NH: Pam Harland who teaches library at a high school in Plymouth, NH.  Last month I had five guest bloggers ranging from teachers I have worked with to educators I am fortunate enough to have in my Twitter PLN.  Ted Souppa, a third grade teacher in Florida has been a guest blogger for two series on The Inspired Classroom.  I love that TIC has been able to reach out to teachers in this way, helping their voices be heard.

Finally, this summer my sister-in-law, Kristina Peterson, a high school English teacher and I started a summer book group that is meant to be just for the pure enjoyment of reading: something we often forget to do!  We started a Wiki and have a group of people who are reading and discussing our book choice of Eat, Pray, Love.

INSPIRATION
The word inspiration, when put in the context of a teacher, sheds light on such a variety of topics.  Still, near and dear to my heart is the arts, my specialty being music.  But inspiration means so much more and I am embracing and running with that idea.  The real focus is teachers because when we take care of ourselves, then our students reap the rewards.  When we are inspired, then we can be inspiring to them whether that be through the arts, technology, a method of teaching or a point of view.  The Inspired Classroom has really stuck to the “get inspired” part of the motto.  My hope is that anyone who attends a workshop, a field trip or visits the website will somehow get inspired and bring that inspiration to their position in education.

Join us… It is my hope, my desire to have many teachers visit the site often and share knowledge as well as collect it.

THE FUTURE OF TIC
My most recent journey at The Inspired Classroom, in an odd way, reminds me of the evolution of American music.  It has not been a one track trip from point A to point B.  Instead things are an intertwined web of resources, outlets, tools and people.  I am constantly challenging myself and being challenged, making mistakes and picking myself up again, trying new things and finding yet another cool tool with every click I make.  It is hard to keep up, I’m not going to lie, but I am enjoying the ride.  So, for as long as I can, I’m buckling up!

Related posts:

1. The Inspired Classroom
2. Reflections on Beat Night – Poetic Experiences
3. Reflections on #140conf

A few days after FCAT, my principal sent around an email advertising the 2010 Lee County Student Film Festival.  I asked my class if they would be interested in making a movie.  They were astoundingly enthusiastic about it.  They decided they wanted to make an animation, a stop motion animation like we made together when we read a story about animation earlier in the school year.  We set up a time of the day to work on the idea.  We had been dealing with a roach problem in our classroom all year long, so they wanted to make a movie about roaches.  I think my love of science fiction influenced them into making them robotic roaches from space.  They finally decided to make a story where the robotic roaches land in a spaceship and eat things in the classroom.  Everyone was drawing storyboards about things they wanted the robotic roaches to eat, crayons, erasers, Mr. Souppa’s tie, and so forth.  Then one of my students made an extremely interesting statement.  “Too bad the roaches could not eat the FCAT.”  Everyone suddenly stopped drawing and coloring.  Everyone just fell silent.  Then they all looked at me, seemingly at the same time.  “Why not?” I said to a round of cheers.  Suddenly they had a real story.

I had the experience of making a film, so that made it easier to teach them, but what a truly monumental undertaking for a group of third graders from a Title One School.  Still, they had confidence, critical thinking skills, and creativity.  They made models from materials we had around the classroom.  They understood that footage had to be shot in order of convenience, not chronologically.  They thought of ways to set up shots, with much less advice from me than I would have anticipated.  My students quickly defined roles for themselves; some had the patience to take the pictures (12,561) and others had the ability to move the models at just the right timing.  Some of the students even discovered they were better at setting up the set then participating in the filming.  Our end result was an animation to rival ones I have seen produced professionally.  They titled it: Invasion of the Robotic Roaches.  It can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVNN8eJxB2M.

My students won First Place Overall Elementary in the 2010 Lee County Student Film Festival.  My group of third grade Title One Students beat two of the most affluent schools in our school district.  I had never been more proud of a group of students than I was of this group.  I did not care what their test scores said they were winners.  Just producing the film made them winners.  However, the test scores finally did arrive…the test scores that would decide their fate.  Would they meet that goal they had written each day?  YES.  Every student in Mr. Souppa’s class did indeed score a 3, 4, or 5 on the FCAT and was promoted to fourth grade.  No flukes, everyone made it.  How?  I have asked myself that many times.  My conclusion is that Mr. Souppa’s Glasser-Sterling Model, solid critical thinking skills, and creative discovery all worked together to make this group successful.  It made this group successful academically and creatively.

Can creativity and standardization co-exist?  Well, I say no.  Students that have the ability to think critically and creatively can beat standardization or eat it like in my student’s film.  Ultimately, I believe, I hope, this era of public education standardization will pass and we will again value knowledge and creativity working together, rather than just testing knowledge.  I think we can have the best of both worlds…not standardized.

This is a guest post by Ted Souppa.

Related posts:

1. The Best of Both Worlds: Part Two
2. The Best of Both Worlds: Part One

Glasser-Sterling has a much wider scope then I have described it, so when I say I used as much as I could…it amounted to not much, considering the scope of it as a whole.  So, I changed my classroom rules.  Instead of follow directions, stay on task, and show respect, they became: be prompt, be prepared, be productive, be respectful, and be responsible.  I had not changed my rules in a decade, but these rules were better.  These rules were more than just demands; these rules included the students inside of them.

Then I created an Issue Bin, where students could place notes under four categories: concerns, questions, kudos, and requests.  The notes were discussed during a daily class meeting.  I had to put a stop to them requesting a classroom Nintendo Wii, but they handled the other categories pretty well.  They loved writing notes.  During the first weeks of school many of the notes were placed in the concern category.  They were about how one particular student bothered them constantly.  We spent time discussing his behavior during the meeting…fully disclosing.  He stopped bothering the other students pretty quickly.  He stopped without disciplinary action too, a victory to be sure.

Next my class and I set a classroom goal: Everyone in Mr. Souppa’s class will get a 3, 4, or 5 on the FCAT Reading and Math exams to be prepared to go to 4th grade.  Everyone, 100 percent of my students would pass third grade, a high bar.  I was told my goal was not realistic, but I did not change it.  My principal did not ask me to change it and I put it in my professional development plan, which I posted for the students to see.  I told them, “we are in this together” and I meant it.  Finally, my students tracked their data as a class and individually.  Because of time constraints we talked about the class data more than the individual data.  And I never really got around to setting individual goals based on the data, with the exception of my lowest scoring students.  Setting smaller goals for them did have an impact on their progress though.  However the ultimate goal of every student having a plan of action was never fully developed due to our time constraints.

As the year progressed, district mandates increased and took over.  I stated the rules less and less (mostly because they were a pretty well behaved bunch).  We had less time for the Issue Bin and it eventually blended into the wall like the other posters in my classroom.  Our meetings became less frequent and finally ceased.  My class did write that goal down every day though.  I continued to talk about how we were going to meet that goal.  Everyone was going to pass the FCAT and be promoted to fourth grade.

By January we were heavily preparing for the FCAT.  We worked on critical thinking skills more and more.  I taught my students to use critical thinking skills on test questions they could not answer (because they lacked the prior knowledge, did not recognize a specific word, or something got lost in translation).  I started realizing these critical thinking skills were enabling them to see right through the test questions.  Students that can think critically, students that can creatively problem solve are students that can find more than one answer to a question.  On a multiple choice question, a question with only one correct answer and three incorrect answers, it becomes transparent to critical thinkers which answers are wrong and which one is right.  Interesting discovery.

So we entered March.  March is FCAT month in Florida.  My students took the tests.  The high stakes tests were sent off to be scored and we waited.  They still wrote that goal down each day and we acted as if that goal was met.  My class prepared for fourth grade, not knowing if they made it or not.  Tune in Saturday…to find out if my class made it and the answer to the question: Can creativity and standardization co-exist?  The answer is with the roaches…

This is a guest post by Ted Souppa.

Related posts:

1. The Best of Both Worlds: Part One

Sorry, nothing about Miley Cyrus in this blog post. I am not reviewing the Star Trek episode of the same name, but the uncoincidental use of that as my post title, may not be lost on Star Trek fans that choose to read my words. In reflecting back on this school year, I find myself questioning if I can indeed have the best of both worlds in the education atmosphere we now find ourselves assimilated. Can creativity and standardization co-exist?

Before I can attempt reflection on this school year and attempt to answer that question, I need to paint a picture of my teaching situation. This is the end of my 12th year teaching at the same school, in Fort Myers, Florida. I entered the profession at this Title One School, not realizing what that meant exactly. I just graduated from a university in New York, where I learned how to utilize cooperative learning and design performance based assessments. I was taught to facilitate student learning by helping students’ use critical thinking and creativity, on their own terms. However, that is not the world I transitioned to from New York to Florida, in 1998. I was now teaching students with socio-economic issues, family crises, language differences, and behavior problems, stemming from the poverty in which they lived. These students were not motivated to learn and they lacked the prior knowledge to learn the way I was taught to teach. I had to learn how to manage behavior, teach from scripted materials, and find ways to fill in their prior knowledge gaps. And No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was just starting to work its way into the system. NCLB means standardized testing. It means high stakes standardized testing. I teach third grade, so students failing to pass Florida’s standardized test are retained. One year of their lives hangs in the balance of that test, so the stakes get no higher.

Over the last 12 years I have taken a huge amount of professional development trainings (which is a side effect of working at a Title One School). As it should, my teaching has been influenced by these trainings. I use a bit of Kagan Cooperative Learning, some of Differentiated Instruction, a great deal of Intensive Reading, and much of SINI Math Boot Camp. This year our school had a collaborative training with another Title One School, which rather successfully uses the Glasser-Sterling Model. This approach is proven to increase student achievement, improve behavior, and create an enjoyable classroom atmosphere. It taps into students’ internal motivation to set goals, analyze data, and make changes for the well-being and success of individual students. Fully utilizing the Glasser-Sterling Model was not an option for my school, so as with my other professional development experiences…I used as much as I could. Basically, it is Mr. Souppa’s Glasser-Sterling Model. Tune in Thursday, to find out how that went.

This is a guest post by Ted Souppa.

Don’t forget to catch Part Two and Part Three of this mini series!

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