Why I do What I do... What Keeps Me Going

I received a text message a couple of nights ago from a parent that left me speechless and emboldened to press on. As each school year ends and I pack up my classroom, I smile quite a bit because I have so many fond memories of my time with the youngsters. I also start planning how to be more efficient and make better use of my time in the following school year. I'm reminded as I put crafts, books, tools, games, and various other supplies away of all of the things that I hoped to accomplish this year that got pushed to the sidelines. I re-purpose to be a better teacher in the next year. 

And then I pray that I was able to teach these kids something great about Jesus! Because at the end of the day, at the end of a school year, at the end of my teaching career, and at the end of my life... it wasn't about the crafts, read-alouds, or innovative cross-curricular games. It was about pointing all of the entrusted souls that I had the privilege to teach to Jesus! It was about showing them that there's someone greater than me! It was about teaching them to do all things whether in word or deed for the Lord! 

And so the text I received on Saturday night was a reminder that I touched the heart in one child. I showed him that reading is great! But even more so I was used to show him that reading for Jesus is better!
I am both encouraged and refreshed! Surely this is what summers are for.
Christian Educators, Mothers, Fathers, Principals, Aunts, Uncles, Sunday School Teachers, Babysitters, Brothers and Sisters... Press On!

Today's Your Day

If you want to read a great summer vacation book that includes a convicting reminder. then you should pick this up:

Parents, be careful, that one's going to bring a call to action (on your part) by the end of it. However, it is a must read, again and again.

Another great book, not to be confused with the above title I discovered last year while going through the bookshelves at the Goodwill. I am saving it for the daughter that I hope to raise "someday". If you have a young daughter, this would be a great book for you to read with her. It would also make a fabulous shower or graduation gift. 

Here's a little peek at one of the first pictures. It just might entice you to make a purchase of it.

Being Inspired by Public Speakers

I've been at a Literacy Conference this week held at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois. This is my second time attending, and as I was driving home today processing all of the events of the past three days, I thought it would be helpful to engage with my blog. It's been two months since I've written any of my teaching thoughts.

I've learned so much in these past couple of months. I feel somewhat neglectful that I haven't written any of my new learning on here, but guilt will just keep me away longer, so here is one of the many things that I've learned this week.

Good public speakers do multiple of the following:

• Talk with their hands
• Move around. I'm not talking about swaying from one foot to another. I'm referring to intentional moving about within an aisle or on the stage. 
• Speak about something they have a passion for
• Relate/show an awareness of their audience
• Laugh at themselves
• Give breaks for verbal processing time
• Build you up with positivity
• Inspire you to be better at your craft, but don't make you feel like you can't make small changes to improve
• Tell powerful stories
• Make their one or two points very clearly

I also want to recommend a very inspiring book that Denise Brennan-Nelson wrote and showed off in her keynote yesterday morning. This will be one of the first books that I read to my incoming first graders in August, so parents that might have me next year, please don't spoil it. Everyone else, enjoy!

This book inspired me to be the voice that continually reminds
my students, "You can do it!"

What does Easter mean to you? Thoughts from first graders

I wanted to post a few of my students' thoughts concerning what Easter means. They were really deep and meaningful, and they blessed me with their thoughts today.

Easter means to me that Jesus is risen from the tomb. He died on the cross and the people got Jesus' body and put it in a tomb and put the rock in front of it. And then he was risen. The rock moved!

It means to me... that God loves all of his children, every single one of them. It also means that God died for our sins and rose on the third day.

Easter is the day of Jesus' resurrection. 3 days after he died on the cross. He did it all for sin. When you go to heaven you can see his scars. Jesus did nothing wrong to be crucified. But he paid for our sins so we could go to heaven. He saved the world.

Easter means that Jesus died for us. And because he died for us is because he loves us so so so so much. And he will never ever stop loving us. That's what Easter means. Easter is not for candy. It's for God.

Can we skip the bad part?

As Easter is approaching the Bible lessons get closer and closer to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Today's lesson was the story of the woman who washed Jesus feet with her hair. At the end of this beautiful story, the book that I was reading accentuated that the men sitting in the room didn't just get angry with Jesus; instead they started to plan how they were going to kill him.
After I read that part, many of the students responded with a quick intake of their breaths. One of them so sweetly raised their hand and voiced a sincere question. It was this- 
"Can we just skip the bad part and find out the good ending?" Clearly my students have come from Christian homes. They know their stuff. Jesus is going to go to the cross soon, and he will bear the burden of the sins of the world.
I was so theological in my reply-
"Well no, we can't skip that part because Jesus has to die for God to forgive us for our sins. Someone has to be punished for our sins." And that was that.

However, driving home today I got quite a chuckle out of how my students really want me to skip the death of Jesus. They want the good news that He is alive.

But then I got to thinking... 
How often do I ask God to skip the hard parts/trials in life and tell me the good ending?

I've lived through 27 Easters. I know that Jesus has to die on the cross for me to have the freedom from sin that I dwell in with my life. I wouldn't ask God to skip the cross. But I do often ask the Lord to skip the hard trials and seasons in life and just take me to the good ending. I want to know constantly what do I have to learn from a trial when I'm still in the middle of it. How blessed am I to teach with little ones who teach me even more about the lessons I need to learn myself!

James 1:2-3- "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds."

Deep and Meaningful Literature

I discovered two great books by Kathryn Otoshi this year. Both resulted in deep meaningful conversations concerning bullying and friendships.

Today I shared another deep book. The main character feels insignificant because she's small, and this book follows her journey to discover what she can do to play an important role somewhere. Cloudette was so relatable because at one time or another, each of us has felt insignificant. Each page included quirky illustrations that made my students laugh, and it was one of those moments when my teacher heart pitter-pattered with utter happiness. 

Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld

What is a stagecoach?

What do you do when your students ask you what is a stagecoach?
They have never watched Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman or Bonanza. So I drew a picture for them.

Clearly I need to take horse drawing lessons. This picture had my students and me laughing quite a bit.

Fairy Tales

We've been doing so many fun things in first grade these past few weeks, that I wasn't sure where to start...

Recently, we compared different versions of fairy tales. It was lots of fun.
Here are a few of our favorite stories:

Both Mañana Iguana and Tortuga in Trouble mix
in some Spanish words, so they are great tools
to teach students a few words in another language.

This book had the children laughing hysterically. 

Inferring

Recently in first grade we've been inferring. To teach the students how to infer, I tell them that more goes on in a book than the things that we read in the words on the page. There are other conversations that can occur between characters, there are feelings to perceive, and there are hidden clues to figure out. Then I find that what it really comes down to is practicing inferring and using the word "infer" in its real context. Two great books for inferring are:

Grandpa Green by Lane Smith. This book was so fun to infer with that we read it through 2 times so that we could get a grasp as to the story that it was trying to tell. What a beautiful tribute to a Grandpa! The students absolutely loved this story!

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart. This book was such a beautiful story about a little girl during the Great Depression. The illustrations by David Small were profound and loaded! It opened up the opportunity to explain to students what went on in many American homes after the stock market crashed. I think it is so important to tell these kinds of stories because it is easy to forget that there is a world outside of our own or that life in America wasn't always everything it is now. Be careful with this story. It just may bring a tear to your eye.

Character Voices

One of my favorite student made birthday cards given to me a few years ago said the following:
"Dear Mrs. MacLeod,
I love when you read to us using special voices!"

Reading aloud to my students is one of my favorite things, and using special voices for each character has been something I have worked hard to develop over the years. 

Today one of my students pointed out that my special voices are what makes listening to stories so much fun. She loves it. And I was about to read a book by one of my favorite authors: Mo Willems.
There is a Bird on Your Head!

The Elephant and Piggie books are especially fun to read out loud because in most books they are the only two characters (so I only have to master two voices), and there are lots of engaging emotions in these books. 
As I read today, this same student who mentioned my special voices pointed out the two times when I made a mistake in the inflection. It was the funniest thing! My students are clearly spoiled as I reread the line that she told me I said incorrectly. 

We read another great book today during which there were howls of laughter as the main character, Beatrice, outsmarted the Giant. I highly recommend it!

Good Communication... A Learned Skill

Good communication is definitely a learned skill... as seen through the writing of a first grade student:

This comes directly from a note written to a best friend. I will omit names for protective purposes.

You are the best! You are kind to me. You can be a little unkind. But I like you still! Best friends forever! Love.

Then again, there is a refreshing genuineness in this note. 

Profound Thoughts in First Grade

Last year because I was a first year teacher I was always nervous that I was going to offend a parent if I allowed certain discussions to occur. This year I have grown more comfortable in my teaching style and with discussion, so we've had lots of great Biblically based discussions. My main goal this year has been to teach the truth of God's word and the grace of who He is so that students can have a better understanding of the world in which we live.

This plays out in two ways in my classroom:
1. We are having more discussions on what the Bible stories actually mean, and the characters in the Bible. We talk about the things they did wrong and the things they did well. We talk about what we can learn from them constantly. Last year I just avoided discussing the negative things about Bible characters. But the Bible has many flawed characters, and they can teach us valuable lessons as well.

This brings up my favorite prayer that was spoken in the walls of my classroom just yesterday afternoon. We have been praying for a certain student's grandmother who is in the hospital. This was one student's prayer, "I pray that her grandma won't be scared like an Israelite, but that she would be like David."

2. The second way that this plays out in my classroom is that we talk about the hard stuff in a first grade appropriate way.
Today when I was reading a Max Lucado book that includes many great stories, the topic of divorce was mentioned in the very beginning of a story. I think this was the first time I actually said the word divorce this year.
This topic first came up when I was retelling the story of Jacob and Leah and Rachel. The look on the kids faces when I mentioned Jacob's extra seven years that he was going to work for Rachel was confusion because he was already married to Leah. So I stopped and I reminded them that God is perfect, and when he created marriage he created it to be between one man and one woman. Then I reminded them that we live in a broken world where people steal, kill, break the 7th commandment, and sin. I love to explain it as the brokenness of man and not of God, and then I love to point out that God is SO GRACIOUS to man! So that's what we discussed in September.
When I said divorce today, a child blurted out, "What's divorce?"
I took a deep breath.
And a student decided to explain it before I even had a chance. They shared, "It's when two parents fight and argue so much that they have to live in separate houses so that they won't argue anymore."
I reminded them this is not how God designed marriage to be, but He gives so much grace. And divorce can be hard, but God will always provide great comfort and strength!

I'm learning so much! I am getting a little glimpse into my inadequacies and spending more time asking the Lord for wisdom in how to teach and instruct these little ones. I hope that it's okay that I've shared this here. It is not intended to offend, but to tell you what I'm learning in first grade. :-)

Poetry & Song

Two of my favorite ideas that we are doing this year in first grade are to incorporate Poetry and Songs into our classrooms. We got the idea from Debbie Miller's book Reading with Meaning, and many of our resources come from both of Maria Walther's books- Reading Instruction for the Differentiated Classroom and Month-By-Month Trait-Based Writing Instruction.

I was disappointed to discover last year that my students did not know the Mother Goose poems. These were little poems that I grew up knowing such as "Old Mother Hubbard", "Little Bo Peep", "Humpty-Dumpty" and other classics. So this summer, my co-teacher and I planned to bring this in to first grade.

The greatest asset about using poetry in my classroom culture is that the children memorize so many poems, and then when they look inside their specially made poetry binders, they can practice saying and reading them while pointing to the words. It's a great way to indirectly get them to learn new vocabulary and thus improve their reading.

I love finding poems that relate with the current units we've been studying.

The songs that we are learning have been numerous and fun. We've learned songs like "Frere Jacques", "Baa Baa Black Sheep", "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho", "Kookaburra", and so many more. These are fantastic to use during transition times. I start the song, and the students join in singing. By the time we're done with the song, they need to be ready to learn. I have copies of the songs in bins at each of the tables, and students are allowed to practice reading these as well. Why is this valuable? *Ding *Ding *Ding. This is another valuable source of indirect vocabulary instruction!

Renovating Basal Readers

When I was a child in first grade, teachers used things called Basal Readers to teach reading to children. These were thick textbooks with collections of popular children's books all assembled inside. We would turn to the same page and the teacher would have students volunteer to read each page outloud, and then he/she would guide us through the questions at the end of the story and that was what we did for Reading time.

In my classroom today I teach reading by sharing a story aloud as well as teaching a specific word family or phonemic idea. I have easy books, medium level books and hard books, and I differentiate by putting my students into a book that suites their specific needs. It has been said that this is a much more effective way of teaching reading than using the "old" basal readers.

What should I do with all of those old basal readers in my cabinet? By the way, they still have wonderful stories assembled inside of them, and these stories are still relevant, but I can't teach each student the old dis-engaged way of how I learned to read because this generation needs more hands-on experience in books.

I got the following idea from a good friend and previous classroom teacher. I cut off the covers on some old basal readers and used the binder combs to assemble each story into a book. I have dozens of books ready for my students to read. 

 

One of the students that read one of these books actually thought I had written it because of the binder combs. These books are just as great as the books in our library, but they are also easier to send home because if they get ruined, I don't even have to worry about them. I have so many, and I didn't spend lots of money buying nice hard copy books to send home.

I love that some of them include skill pages to give the child something to do with their mom and dad when they are reading it at home.

The other thing that I do with "old" basal readers is that I send them home with my good readers that need more practice with fluency because they can keep them for a few weeks and practice reading and re-reading the stories to ramp up their fluency and reading voice. 

Challenged and Refreshed!

Over the past few weeks, I have just felt busy and a little bit drained of my fiery passion as I felt bombarded with paperwork and keeping track of student assessments, as well as pleasing the parents, and making sure my room is clean. I could keep going, but you get the idea. It's easy to get lost under the pile of things to do.

These past two days I have been encouraged and refreshed attending the Nexus ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) sponsered conference. Our school had a live satellite video that showed the event taking place in real time. It was an encouragement to be challenged from the Word of God. I was reminded to think back to the time that I was first called by the Lord to go into teaching. I was encouraged to give my best in the classroom, and focus on continually speaking the Word of God on a daily basis... and even before I had time to reflect today, I was encouraged by a woman I don't even know in the ladies' bathroom today. She encouraged me to share my ideas, even though I explained to her how I often feel too new to give anything to the field of teaching. She encouraged me to take the time now to blog and share my ideas with teachers who are stuck in the staleness that may come with years and years of teaching the same grade.

I will have you know that I always view seasoned teachers with admiration, and I desire to soak up everything they can share. I am humbled by their expertise. 

And the truth is, I'm not afraid to share my ideas, I just don't think that they're always worth sharing. But who am I to judge? I have a rhyme and reason that I do the things that I do. So going forward, I will try to share the little things that make my classroom special and the things that I do with intention to inspire others. Please know I do this with the most humility. I know that I have so much to learn.

Suz

IT'S CHESTER!!!

It's Chester!!!

Chester is one of our favorite characters. We have read all three books written by Melanie Watt- oops, I mean Chester! You'll have to check these stories out if you haven't read them. This cat is quite the comedian and has a precious mouse sidekick to add to the appeal. Ever since we have read these stories, the students quote Chester constantly. 

So I have reasoned with my students previously that I can't possibly be the one painting the characters onto the desk because I'm not a good artist.

Well... this is how one child's logic worked as he tried to crack me.

Student: Mrs. MacLeod, I think you're the one painting the desk.
Me: Really? Well, it can't be me because I'm not a good artist.
Student: Well, actually the characters aren't really that good. I see smudges, so I don't think it could be the real authors sneaking in here... I mean, they don't look exactly like the book characters.
Me: Oh Really? (with a big grin)

I will make a general announcement soon that I'm the artist, but until then the logic of my students has been quite amusing. 

What if there are robbers?

On Friday I asked my students if they thought an author was going to sneak into our classroom this weekend and paint another character onto the desk. They threw out quite a few guesses as to who might appear, but then a student asked how the artist will get in if the door is locked.

Me: Well, I can leave the front door unlocked so that an author can sneak in and paint.
Student: But what about robbers? We don't want any robbers to steal our stuff.
Me: I know what to do. I will write a note that says if you're a robber, don't come in. If you want to paint something onto our desk, please come in.
Student: That's a great idea. 

I'm glad we made a plan. Who's it gonna be?

Our Debt Story- God at Work!

I have always used this forum to share things that I am doing in my classroom or great children's literature that I am reading, however, today I am going to use it to share our story for the glory of God. It includes lessons I've learned through the process of paying down our debt.

I have learned so much since turning 20 about money and God's amazing ability to provide it. I truly know the King of the Universe, the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills. 

I am starting my debt story when I was twenty because it was at this time that God provided my first semester of funds to attend Emmaus Bible College. I found myself led to this place, even though it was a 15 hour drive from where I grew up in Pennsylvania, and I couldn't possibly figure out how I was going to pay for four years of a private college education. God gave me all that I needed to attend my first semester there, and laid it on my heart to seek part-time employment and earn any scholarship that I could to provide for this education for the next 3 1/2 years. My part time employment allowed me to earn about $12,000 a year, But GOD provided the rest through so many avenues. I wouldn't have finished my fourth year in 2011 without various provisions from the body of Christ, and ultimately from the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills. I learned quite a bit through this experience including lessons in trust and reliance upon the Lord. 

Shortly after I graduated from college, I married my best friend, Colin MacLeod. God had convicted both of us about how to handle the money that God was providing for us. This included a conviction about the principle in Proverbs 22:7 that states that "the borrower is slave to the lender". We knew that we were enslaved to our debtors. Colin's debt became my debt when we married, and my debt became his debt as well. We made a plan, and I know that God honored that plan, but he also wanted to teach us a few things along the way. 

During the course of paying down our debt, we had a few expensive incidents occur. We had a big hospital bill from when I got sick one spring, we had various car expenses, and another bill came from a time when Colin had been employed in Iowa. It was easy to allow discouragement from unplanned bills to get us down when our plan was to have our debt paid off quickly, but early on we noticed how God provided the extra that we needed to pay these bills so that we could continue to pay down our debt at the same rate. We gained greater faith through this. I remember thinking that if I did my part, I needed to leave the rest of it in God's hands, and he would honor what we did to get this debt out of our house. 

Last fall I was going through our toiletries while making a grocery list, and I asked Colin how he was on his shampoo supply. He was still into a first bottle of two that I had gotten on a special buy one, get one free deal. Men use much less shampoo than women, for sure! I felt relieved that I didn't have to worry about his shampoo supply for a while because he had a second bottle under the sink. He told me, "I'm going to use the rest of the bottle I'm using until we're debt free." I knew it was more than a year away, so I laughed because we were fine, we had another bottle under the sink. God is in the details, however, because Colin used the last of this shampoo the day before we became debt free. It's not about me, and my ability to provide even shampoo; it's about God and his great faithfulness!

Through this time God also started to produce in my a generous spirit. I was able to give out of what I thought I needed, and He always provided the extra when that conviction came to give. God opened my hands which before had been closed around my money. He thoughtfully pried them open so that I would be willing to yield to his plan for my money.

About two months ago, we were praying one night, and I prayed for the faith of David for both Colin and myself. David is such a great example of someone that faced unbelievable opposition, but did not waver in his trust in the Lord. I knew at this point that our debt would be paid off in a few months, so I expected testing, but I wanted David's faith. Well, the very next morning we were awakened with a text from my neighbor telling me part of the tree in our front yard had fallen on my car. I knew before we went out there we must proclaim God's goodness to us. After I said, "God is faithful!" I just felt like a peace from the Lord wrapped around my heart. Then we went outside to survey the damage, and as we picked each branch off of the car, there appeared to be only a few scratches on the hood, no real damage. God was teaching me trust! Big time!!!

As we paid our final bill last Saturday, I felt such relief, and there is so much praise in my heart for what God has shown and taught to me through this time. I am writing this story to share with you in case you are not sure what God can truly do with the debts in your life. He is a redeemer! 

1. God transcends unplanned bills.
2. God is in the details, even the provision of shampoo.
3. You can't out-give the Lord!
4. God is faithful! 

He was faithful when we couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, and he was still faithful when I was worried about shampoo. He was faithful when a tree fell onto the car, and he was faithful when we clicked "Make payment" last Saturday morning! He will always be faithful! That's who He is! 

My Wink Gave Me Away

I have an antique desk that I found this summer through a friend from college. I had been looking for an inexpensive one for a few months to pursue an idea that I saw back in April that another first grade teacher had in her classroom. 

She had an old desk that she allowed her "Student of the Day" to sit in, and it was covered with hand-painted Dr. Seuss characters. I fell in love with it and began to dream big, but all of the desks that I found were over $100. When I saw a $10 old desk at a friend's garage sale, I knew that this was the one.

In August, my husband and I worked on sanding it and repainted it with a white primer. The plan for the year was to paint on book characters each Friday, and allow the students to discover the new characters each week. I started two weeks ago.

I am including pictures of my first book character. 

We read a book called Al Pha's Bet by Amy Krouse Rosenthal during the second week of school as we were reviewing our letters and sounds. This is a made-up story about the man that put the alphabet letters in order, as we know it. His name was Al Pha, and he made a bet with himself that he could please the King with the sequence of the letters that, at that time, did not have any particular order. The king loved his sequence that he created, and therefore named it the Alphabet because Al Pha made a bet with himself. It was a cute story full of puns and wonderful illustrations. 

I decided to make Al Pha our first character. I started by roughly sketching him onto the front of the desk. 

And then I painted him. I chose an easy first character to make myself feel more confident. I am not an artist, by any means! But I was very pleased with how he turned out.

Here he is compared to the copy of himself that I pulled
from the book.

On Monday morning, I could hardly contain my excitement. I was hoping the students would notice him quickly, so that I wouldn't have to keep his existence a secret for very long. They did not let me down. It was less than a minute before they were proclaiming that Al Pha was on our "Student of the Day" desk. I feigned surprise, and proclaimed that Amy Krouse Rosenthal must have come in our classroom over the weekend and painted him onto the desk. They laughed and smiled with excitement. I did not trick them however, they knew that I must have painted him. I proclaimed that I wasn't an artist, so how could I have done that?! I proceeded to wink at a particular student as I said this fact. To which he replied, "Mrs. MacLeod, I know what this (he winked at me) means!" I smiled.

It's going to be a rather fun year, as the characters on this desk continue to appear. 

AGAIN! AGAIN!

When my students like a book, they demand, "AGAIN!" "AGAIN!" the moment I close it. I usually give in and reread it. They laugh more than the first time, and my teacher's heart goes pitter-patter.

Below are two favorites from this week that I highly recommend you read with your child. These books go hand-in-hand.

I recommend reading this one first.

You'll have to read them to find out how they go together! You'll decide very quickly these are two books that you want to add to your child's home collection. Great stories! Great laughs!
Enjoy!