Today I Crossed the Threshold

It's July 20, 2016.  School starts in roughly a month and two days, but my brain has been spinning since the moment this spring when I decided to make the leap to third grade.  If I'm being honest, I've spent a whole lot of time thinking about the things that are firmly in my comfort zone:  classroom decor, my classroom library, my literacy studio.  What I haven't thought about?  Math.  Science.  Classroom procedures.  Desk arrangements.

Today I was able to go into my new classroom for the first time.  My boxes had been moved over from the Junior High (huge THANK YOU to the District 28 custodial staff for that), and I had a van full of more that I had at home.  Walking through that door with my name on the sign was a surreal experience.

And this was my first thought:

This is Chicago-in-July hair.  I made three trips out to my van to carry everything in! :-)

This is what I looked at:

Right now I'm a bit overwhelmed at all I have to do in just four short weeks.  But I also know from years of experience that it will get done.  The bulletin boards will get covered and prepped to showcase student work.  The desks will get arranged.  The classroom library will get organized - or not... I'm considering letting the kids organize it.  Maybe.

I also know that I can't do any real planning until that environment is set.  Once I have that, I can begin envisioning the kids who will share my space and consider how we will go from twenty-something strangers to a community of learners who are willing to take risks on a daily basis.  I will be ready to meet with my teammates and begin collaborating on lesson plans and unit plans that will engage and excite our third graders.

It's funny, even just writing all of this down is making me feel better.  It's reminding me that I know what I have to do and that I always manage to get it done before my students arrive.

It's all good.  Right?

Right?

As Ready As I'm Gonna Be

 It's hard to believe my summer is over with!  On Monday, I report for my first official day of the 2011-2012 school year.  The kids start Tuesday, and I've been working hard getting our space ready for a year full of reading, writing, talking, and thinking.

(This photo is the view from my doorway.  The room is much smaller than it appears in this photo.)

Just this week alone, I spent six hours with my learning team working on two of our genre study units.  We chose learning targets, identified possible mentor texts,  planned some mini-lessons, chose notebook work assignments, and wrote rubrics for our free verse poetry study and our memoir study.  I'm excited because I think this hard work will pay off as we seek to provide intentional instruction in our workshops every day.

(This is the view of the front of the room from my desk.)

I've written lesson plans for the first two weeks of school, focusing on launching my reading & writing workshops, and I've sent my picture of my summer reading book stack to our media specialist to make into an ALA style READ poster.  I've made my copies.  I've weeded and rearranged my library.

(This is our meeting area/reading corner.  I used to have sofas, but they got really smelly in my "garden level" classroom.)

Now I wait and wonder.  I wonder about my new kids - what will they be like?  Will they be readers like my last two groups; kids who devour books as quickly as I do?  Will they see themselves as writers and embrace the genres we will study?  Will they gel into a community where risk-taking is appreciated and undertaken?

(Most of my classroom library--arranged by genre)

 I wonder about myself as a professional.  Will I take all I have been reading about, thinking about, and talking about and work it into a classroom system that makes sense?  Will I work on my own writing and finally embark on the kind of scary project I've been mulling over in my head for the past four years?  Will I ACTUALLY start my doctoral program the way I want to?

(The back corner where my desk sits.  I haven't had the urge to get rid of it yet!)

One of the best parts of my job is that I get a fresh start every August.  Each school year I have the chance to be a better teacher than I was the year before.  I love the challenges that come with the territory of teaching young adolescents, and I love the laughter they carry with them through my classroom door (pictured, left).

So bring it on!  I'm ready (I think).

Welcome to the Inaugural Post of Making It Work in the Middle!

School starts just one week from today, and I finally feel like I'm ready to start tackling planning.  Last year was a difficult one for me, both professionally and personally, and I'm looking forward to a better year this year!

One of the ways I am setting myself up for success is through this blog.  I'm hoping to post here on a regular basis as a way to process my thinking and learning this year.  One would think that after 17 years of teaching seventh grade language arts I would have it all figured out.  Not quite!  What I discover, year after year, is that the more I know the more I realize I have left to learn.  I am lucky to work in a school district that values professional learning, and as such I have access to amazing mentors such as Ellin Keene and Diane Sweeney.  Just as important are the mentors I have sought out for myself, people such as Donalyn Miller, Teri Lesesne, Jim Burke, Kelly Gallagher, Patrick Allen, and the many other teachers who are part of my online professional learning network.  Each of them challenges my thinking every day.

One of the books I'm reading right now is Day by Day by Ruth Ayres and Stacey Shubitz (Stenhouse, 2011).  Ayres and Shubitz have formatted this book in such a way that it compels the reader to reflect on her practice and strive to become better.  Right now, I'm still on chapter 1, "Routines."  As I've begun my planning for the first few weeks of school, I've thought about the routines that help to make my reading and writing workshops run smoothly.  I know that establishing and practicing these routines is essential to the success of my workshops, but sometimes I get bogged down in the day-to-day minutia of my class that I forget to practice them with my students!  If anyone else out there is working through Day by Day, I'd love to have someone to share my thinking with!