Late Night Adventure, tame variety

One of the pleasures of being on spring break is having no schedule to stick to. There are only a few times this week that I need to be somewhere at a particular time. Last night was one of those times - I had an orchestra rehearsal from 7:30 to 10:00. My husband is not playing this concert (coming up in April), so he decided to go downtown (Chicago) to see a concert. He asked on Facebook if anyone wanted to go with him. Facebook can be so useful! And a young friend of ours said he wanted to go.

They went off to catch the train to Chicago and I drove in the opposite direction to my rehearsal. After two and a half hours of Beethoven I arrived home at 10:30. This is normally after my bedtime. But the two of them were sitting at the kitchen table, eating cookies and talking about music, so I joined them. We talked about the concert they saw (mixed reviews), Robert's new job which starts new week, his plans for the future, orchestras, conductors, concerts, and recordings old and new. We talked about people we know in common and what we're all doing this summer.

By then it was 1:00 am. We still hadn't run out of things to talk about, but it was definitely time to go to bed.

And since it is spring break, I slept in this morning!

Snow, granola, and Six Words

Shock. Dismay. White blanket covers all.

Much to my surprise, when I walked into the kitchen this morning the back yard was covered with at least an inch of snow and it was still falling heavily. What!? All the snow had melted and it seemed like warm weather was on the way.

So it seems like a day to do stuff at home, at least until it stops and the roads are plowed. I decided to make granola. I love my granola recipe, which I found a year or so ago on npr.org of all places. It's called Indulgent Granola, and it certainly is. It includes honey, butter, cinnamon and cardamon along with oats, nuts, and sugar. While you can use any nuts, the article suggested pistachios and they're now my favorite for this recipe. Unfortunately, it's hard to find shelled pistachios, so I sat at the kitchen table shelling 2 cups of pistachios. This gave me plenty of time to think about the snow.

I thought I might write a poem. I thought about how the first flakes back in November are so unassuming, pretty little sparkles floating in the dark. Then it gets to be a drag, all that shoveling, driving on slippery streets, slogging through dirty slush. The poem wasn't coming together, so I started making Six Word poems.

Pretty little sparkles, floating in darkness.

If you haven't heard of Six Words, you can check it out at sixwordmemoirs.com. There are a lot of creative people playing with the idea of summing up an experience, an idea, a personality, in just six words. I plan to use Six in Schools for Poetry Month.

Silent snow descends. Snowblowers roar back.

And a last thought:

Snow. So pretty. Your time's up.

A Slice of Local Politics

My husband and I took a walk this afternoon around our neighborhood, even though it was snowing. And sticking. Grrr. Walking and exercise is on my list for spring break, so around the block we went.

Our local elections are coming up in about two weeks. Quite a few of the yards in our neighborhood had signs for candidates. "Vote for so and so for Village President," and so on. Most local elections are not contentious here in the suburbs. Often there's no opposition and really low voter turnout. However, this time there is an issue and it has created an opposition slate to the current village president and trustees.

Some months ago the village board was seriously considering a proposal from a developer to turn the town golf course into a mixed use area. It would have a mix of shopping, offices, and living, like condos or townhouses. Our town doesn't have a real downtown or a "Main Street." The trustees were selling this as our new downtown and a way to make more profitable use of the space.

The problem is the village already tried to create a "downtown," by building a shopping mall. It's a shopping mall, not a downtown or a center of anything. It's not even a very successful shopping center. Some are wary of repeating this experience. Another problem is that our taxes would increase to pay for the development. And, possibly most important, the golf course acts as a flood plain for our area. If it's developed, where is all that water going to go?

The trustees were trying to paint a rosy picture of all the benefits of this plan, but they were soon accused of not being transparent, not addressing the issues, and not listening to the opposition which by that time had organized. Petitions were circulated, a Facebook page was set up, and now we have a slate of candidates running on this issue. The developer withdrew the proposal, without publicly giving a reason, but the controversy continues.

So as we walked around, there were the signs. Sometimes opposing candidate signs next door or right across the street from each other. There are plenty of houses with no signs, too. It will be interesting to see if more people come out to vote in this election than normally for local offices. Lots of vocal people doesn't necessarily mean that most voters care.

Interestingly, I haven't heard of any golfers weighing in on the possible destruction of the golf course.

1st day of Spring and Spring Break!

I made it to Spring Break! I left school shortly after dismissal in a rush. Such a rush that now I have to go back to retrieve a few things I should have taken with me. I was in a rush to catch a train to downtown Chicago to go to a Chicago Symphony concert at which Yo-Yo Ma was the soloist. It was certainly worth the rush and the extra trip back to school. This morning, Saturday, my husband and I got up to attend the bar mitzvah of one of his young cousins. So it wasn't really until this afternoon that I felt I had really made it to spring break.

I was tired. It has been a long couple of weeks with report cards, school auction (major fundraiser), service learning, debates, quizzes, tons of grading. So I didn't want to do anything! The newspapers have been piling up and so I grabbed a bunch, lay on the couch, and read. This gave me the feeling that I was purposeful - I was reading the papers, which is why we get them - and then I could recycle them and so declutter. And I read some interesting articles, including a good one on how not getting into the prestigious colleges of your choice not only won't damage your future success, but may end of being the best thing to happen to you. (If you'd like to read it, here's the link.)

I tried to take a nap, but I'm just not a good napper. So I decided to make a list of things to do during spring break. Even before making this list, I know I will not be able to accomplish everything on it. Let's just think of it as a menu that I can choose from.

1. Start walking and exercising again. Three days of outdoor ed is coming up in May and climbing up the dunes at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is a killer if you're not in shape. Besides, it's good for you and makes you feel good!
2. Catch up on stuff around the house, like cleaning.
3. Practice! Not that I don't practice every week, but not only is a week off the prefect time to get more practicing in, my daughter and I are playing a duet concerto together in May.
4. Get together with friends that we haven't seen in a awhile.
5. Taxes. Sigh.
6. Catch up on blogging. I have two other blogs besides this one. In one I write about music-related things, and the other is for reflecting on my project to include more problem-solving lessons, including some design thinking activities, in my teaching. Both these blogs have been sadly neglected.
7. Cook and bake! I love to try new recipes when I'm not in a rush.
8. Read. It began with a search for information on Revolutionary War hero Joseph Warren in order to help a student research his report. Now I'm interested, too, and have a good adult biography on Warren. I also have a biography on Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man so she could join the Continental Army. I need to review that one for another student. After those, there's a stack waiting of mysteries, nonfiction, other biographies, and so on.
9. Study for my gifted education endorsement exam. Sigh. I hate dealing with bureaucracy and trying to figure out how to apply, sign up for the exam, and access the online state department of education has not been fun. From what I hear, the exam is no fun either.

And of course I'll be blogging here each day.

Learning through debate

It's the last day before spring break! This is foremost in everyone's mind today, students and teachers alike. However...

The 4th grade had been preparing since last Friday for our first American Revolution debate and today was the day to present it. The proposition was, "Parliament has the right to tax the colonies." The two classes were grouped into pro and con, and within each side divided into working on the opening statement or preparing for rebuttal. We invite three adults to be our judges, which not only removes us 4th grade teachers from the judging, but brings a different perspective in. This year our judges were our head of school, the director of teaching and learning, and a middle school language arts/social studies teacher.

I've been doing this debate with 4th graders for 11 years or so, and it's so interesting to see what happens at the actual debate, after the several hours of preparation. One year one of the teams got into an argument about who was going to read the opening statement and they ended up with a boy who came completely unprepared and couldn't finish reading it. Another year, one of the nonspeaking students got so agitated that he leaped up and started to correct one of the rebuttal arguments. Other years they have done so beautifully that we are just so proud of them. No matter what happens, our judges are so kind and find positive things to say. And, they come away from this really understanding the issue of taxation without representation.

Today we had awesome opening statements from both sides, but one of the rebuttal teams had not really grasped the concept of listening carefully to the opening statements, making a few notes, and then rebutting as many points as possible. They received compliments on the strength of the one argument they presented, but the win went to the other side.

In a few weeks they'll be using what they learned to debate whether or not the colonies should declare independence from Britain.  

Opening statement - yes, Parliament has the right to tax the colonies!

My plant

This very nice plant was an end-of-the-year gift from a 4th grade class one year. I was looking at it and thinking about the names on the pot -- I think this was my first class when I moved from kindergarten to 4th grade. If I have calculated correctly, those kids are now about 20 years old. Wow!

It was my choice to move to 4th grade. I loved kindergartners, but I was ready for a change. I teach in a small independent school and that year the only position open was 4th grade, so I took it. I had a great partner teacher. She had developed a lot of the curriculum we used, including the entire social studies from the Pilgrims (a simulation that included "sailing" on a crowded "Mayflower" and an Colonial America/American Revolution unit that took 5 months). She was an incredible mentor for me that year.

However, it was a really difficult year! I had a whole new curriculum to learn. I had to learn what 4th graders were like and what to expect from them. I had to go on 3 days of outdoor education. And I had some of the most difficult kids of my career that year, plus several serious medical conditions.

I did the best I could with the difficult kids. I got a handle on the curriculum, and every year after I learned a little more. I found out that I loved outdoor ed! And at the end of the year, the parents and kids gave me this plant, which has thrived in my kitchen ever since. This sounds like a metaphor, but I can't decide what for.

Perhaps it's a metaphor for different kinds of growth. As the plant has grown, I have too, as a 4th grade teacher. I have learned an awful lot about American history up through the American Revolution. I have tried different ways to teach reading and writing. My class is blogging, for the second year in a row. I'm blogging!

As for that class, I know they have grown, too. Several have kept in touch with me, and I'm so impressed with them as people and learners. One important gift they gave me is perspective. The "bossy" child grows into a leader. The eager to please boy grows into a thoughtful commentator. And now I know that the challenging students I continue to have every year will grow into confident individuals.

And my plant continues to thrive, too.

Service Learning Immersion Day!

Today was Service Learning Immersion Day at my school. We have two of these days every year. There are no classes, we just do service projects all day. In the Lower School each grade is assigned a service area; 4th grade has children in need as our topic.

For our first immersion day, last fall, we went to Share Your Soles, a not for profit that collects gently used and new shoes, cleans them, and ships them all over the world to distribute to people, including children, who need them. We had a show drive before we went and took about 150 pairs of shoes with us to donate. At the Share Your Soles warehouse we all - adults and kids - helped to sort the shoes into categories. We also had an opportunity to learn about he organization and why shoes are so important. I had never thought about before we started going there, but wearing shoes not only prevents injuries, but also diseases. In some places, children cannot attend school if they don't have shoes. Black school shoes are a special category at Share Your Soles.

For our spring immersion day, though, we stayed at school and worked on two projects. We made 19 fleece blankets for Project Linus and cut out hundreds of construction paper shapes for Mother's Day projects for the Clearbrook Center, an organization that serves children and adults with developmental disabilities. It was a busy day - our floor was covered with bits of fleece and construction paper scraps. Our students worked quite cooperatively and the relaxed atmosphere gave them time to talk in ways they usually don't. I'm thinking of one group, busy cutting the fringe on a blanket, listening to one boy saying he was going to see his father, who he hadn't seen in 9 months, in the next few days. The other children in the group responded so sympathetically to him, while expressing that they could not imagine not seeing their fathers for such a long time. Maybe the act of actively helping others who we do not know extends to empathy for those we see every day.

We ended our day with writing some reflections and then taking a group photo with all the blankets and construction paper pieces that we made today. No classes, but so much learning!

In the midst of making blankets for Project Linus