Feeling Blue!

What are you doing this month? Can you find 14-20 minutes to spare each day? For yourself? Just to move? October 14th was the kick-off for the Big Blue test and it lasts until November 14th. Log your workout minutes each day at the website http://bigbluetest.org/.  The goal this year is to have at least 20,000 people log their minutes and $10,000 dollars will be donated to nonprofit research to find a cure. You can even download an app to mark your minutes. I was reminded about the importance of exercise after receiving my A1C today.  It wasn't good.

Managing Type 1 diabetes hinges on three components, exercise, diet,and insulin. I have been sidelined from working out since July 22nd when I had ACL surgery. I have been managing my food intake closely in order to offset my lack of motion. I didn't account for my need for extra insulin. In fact, I know that I threw away at least three bottles of insulin thinking they had gone bad.  (It's not hard to do in Florida during the summer!) I realized today that I needed to change my basal rate---it didn't happen because I realized it three months too late.  Hindsight is 20-20. Every other number looked great today, the small victories.  The larger victory, my understanding the power of exercise in the management of my disease.   Luckily, I've been released to do cardio for 20 minutes a day as part of my physical therapy this month and my endo has helped me adjust my basal rate. The A1C will come back down.  I never thought I would be so happy to have the opportunity to exercise.  The Big Blue Test just provides even more motivation to do so.

This movement, however, isn't just for diabetics. I hope you join me in taking care of yourself this month, just by stepping out with me.  Cardio is not only great for the body, but also the mind.  .

OLW: Check-in

Where are you with your word? This month's OLW work is to stop and assess where you are with your project. I started the One Little Word Project in January and am three-quarters of the way through. Some months my intentions and actions were actually completed and others less so! In hindsight, I needed a larger reminder each month and/or a scheduled appointment to contemplate my word, my action and intention. Planning in my life works better.  I have three months left to try this out.

I did indeed brave the possibilities in January while contemplating my word and intentions.  I could have worked more on my actions for February by truly braving the heart although I did so more physically by completing my first half marathon though less family-wise as my original plan was. My March-May intentions, brave the silence, brave the storm, and brave the challenge were work related. I was able to keep my word in sight and use it to guide me through meetings and interactions at work. I did okay.

I chose brave the world for June and little did I realize when I chose my intent in January what braving the world would really come to mean for me.  It meant dealing with a hobbled injured self.  My accident literally changed my entire summer.  I managed and remained steadfast.  My word kept me strong.

I did indeed brave the wild in July both in actions and intent. I even got my February assignment done, building a vision board.  My mentor Janet Allen aptly named one of her works, It's Never Too Late and for most things in life including my word that is true. July was my most intentionally active month in pursuit of my word. Perhaps my impending surgery made me more so or the few distractions from work made it easier.

I needed to most remember my word and intent for August and September as I faced many changes in my professional life including a new principal and the installation of two reading programs. Those changes layered with my weekly physical therapy were challenging and overwhelming at times.  I needed to embrace braving the unknown and the adventure more than ever.  Had I kept my intentions in mind, less tears and frustrations might have been kept better in check. Fortunately I still have time to brave the impossible which is my intent for October as well as work intentionally on my November and December actions.

How will you finish of the last quarter of the year?

IMWAYR: More Magic

I couldn't help myself. I know I made promises last week about what I would read, but got sidetracked when the sequel to Discovery of Witches landed on my doorstep. It is one of the dangers of our library system, home delivery.  You can't really control when the books show up.  I held out until Saturday. Frankly, I didn't have time to read all week with Open House and lesson study to prepare for. I certainly made up for it on Saturday by starting and finishing Shadow of Night. Again I would suggest that this book is more appropriate for older readers.  It is written for adults, but I would hand this series to sophomores, juniors, and seniors too.  ****SPOILER ALERT**** Enjoy meeting a host of historical figures through the timewalking of Diana and Matthew. This sequel stands up to the the first.  Now I have to wait until the conclusion comes out in 2014.  That's okay! I have other series books awaiting my hands, Rick Riordan's The House of Hades and  Veronica Roth's Allegiant this month.  I am also finishing Let's Not Go to the Dogs Tonight, a memoir of a girl who grew up in Africa.  I'll tell you more about it next week.

Open House

Two weeks ago I wrote about why I slice and working to cultivate my writing habit was one reason. I am excited to share that I was being a productive writer when I "skipped" slicing last week, because I was finalizing a piece that will actually be published in October.  Good excuse right?  But that's not what's really on my mind with this late night slice.

I got home from Open House about 30 minutes ago. As usual, I walked away feeling a little disappointed as I always have at this school for Open House. I would love to meet more parents.  This setting is the second school setting where I have been disappointed by the turnout. Certain classes are full of parents.  

We have 3000 students in our school. 3000 parents did not show up tonight.  In my position as reading coach, we do a reading parent meeting as an opportunity to meet potentially 1200 parents that have kids who are in a reading class.  Only two parents showed up.  We sent a letter home and we called.  Last year we tried other ways of reaching out after surveying parents about how when and how we should host meetings. We've even tried food!  What we are doing, we aren't doing it right. It's disappointing.

One of the two parents remarked, "The other parents must not care." It must look like that although  I never believe that statement when parents or teachers make it.  After twenty years of teaching, I still haven't met a parent who doesn't care about his or her child. I realize that some parents are ecstatic once their children reach high school and let them negotiate the process.  Some parents are exhausted and done.  Some parents are working.  All I know is that for teachers who have been at work since 6:30 this morning, what mattered most were the parents who came.  Tomorrow is another day to continue to reach out to parents and work with their kids.

Magical Reads

I was excited to start and finish Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches this past week.  It is book number 1 in the All Souls Trilogy.  What do you hand students in 11th & 12th grade who loved the Twilight and Harry Potter series?  You might hand this book to them.  It is grown-up, but it delves into the world of witches, daemons, and vampires.  Not only is there room for magic, but science and history fill the pages as well.  Are you looking for a grown-up book that will help you escape the world of muggles?  This book might be the just-right  one for you.  It kept me from finishing my book club book and doing all the work I needed to finish, but the escape was worth it. I am disciplining myself before I start book #2.

Another vampire book that you might hand to upper grade readers might  be The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  It was written for adults, but students who were nourished  by magical reads such as the Beautiful Creatures series and Ms. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children might enjoy leveling up.


I am rereading the Percy Jackson series with my daughter.  We are finishing The Sea of Monsters this week. It makes me happy that we have books that we can read together. She wants me to read aloud to her again. which she rejected in 2nd grade.  She is a fourth grader now.  Now that we are co-reading, we take turns. We even have her dad reading with us some nights.  I have a professional book, Using Data for Instructional Improvement,  to finish this week and am planning to start two memoirs this week, Carlos Eire's book, Waiting for Snow in Havana and Alexandra Fuller's Don't Let's Go to The Dog's Tonight. 


Happy Reading!

Writing Dayz

Don't you think the cool thing about teaching is that we two New Year's, one in September and one in January, to work on celebrating and establishing new goals? Writing routinely is a goal for myself this school year, which includes posting a weekly Slice of Life. Last week I messed up!  I did get up at 3:30 am last Tuesday. I did start writing my post. I wrote a decent first draft. I like to proof.  I put it aside for later in the day. I should have posted it then. I should have known that later would not come. Waking up at 3:30 doesn't bode well for the rest of the day. I ended up trounced by the fever flash-flu and ended the day curled up in bed. Rather than writing when I got home, I made a decision that at that moment meant more, getting well. Sometimes in our life we will have to make choices, but failure to achieve your goal doesn't mean you didn't succeed. Instead I learned a lesson about how to better met my writing goal the next time that happens.

I focus on getting good at one thing each year Last year it was working out, the exercise habit. Sidelined by recovery from ACL surgery has granted me a little extra time since physical therapy doesn't take as long as working out.  Therefore I have time to work on establishing my writing habit.  When I am released in January from PT, I hope to have established a writing habit, but also know that I need mile-markers along the way to keep going.

Much like my exercise where I chose some runs to celebrate and set goals of time and length, I have established some short-term and long term goals for myself. With my students, I learned that setting small concrete writing goals by marking our lines per minute with fluency Friday actually helped most of them improve.  It made writing tangible for them. Participating weekly in the Slice of Life is a tangible goal for me versus writing an article to get published, a goal, however, that looms long-term.  If I can't discipline myself to write once a week and work a little each day at writing, then I won't reach my long-term goal. I've made it through two Slice of Life monthly challenges in March so I will continue working on being a weekly contributor year-round. Happy Slicing!

Service Learning

It takes a village to raise a child.  As often as we talk about the hours that teachers spend, but volunteers are also an integral component of healthly functioning of a school.  I wanted to celebrate the work of my student volunteers. Schools thrive on the volunteer work of students, especially at high school whether they are delivering schedules or shelving books.  My service learning students, however, provide a unique service at my school. Rather than take a class for no-credit or working in the office as clerical staff, they have elected to tutor reading and math students, working side by side with teachers in their classroom during the day. This past year was the fifth year that I have managed these students as an opportunity for them to earn credit and back to their school.

My colleague calls them "Lit Leaders" and she takes as many as she can get in a class. In her class, you will often find them reading to students in small groups or one-on-one, while others help manage the reading centers. You might see them sitting by a student in a math class as a designated tutor for a specific student or circulating among the students during practice time.

Some students enjoy the work so much that they take the course for two periods or take it on a second year. Last year two seniors opted-in for two periods to help out with math classes. Many of the students who joined this past year were students who had passed the FCAT or ACT mid-semester and this class provided an opportunity to help students just like them.

I've found the  best format is for students to work with a specific teacher and class daily.  They too develop relationships with "their students", relationships that matter. Alejandro was profoundly impacted by his work with one student who quite simply started coming to school more often.  In his second year as a "Lit Leader" he became instrumental in helping his teacher manage small groups while she worked with students during guided reading. Gabby discovered that the ELL student she was working with was brilliant in math and became his advocate with the teacher and guidance counselor to have him enrolled in upper level math classes. Tyronna is looking forward to hosting a chat and chew with her students outside of class to promote reading. 

This year I am using Remind101 and Google Forms to stay in virtual touch each week. I'm in the processing of connecting them to the just right teacher right now.  We're expanding our program with more students in math classes. As the year unfolds, I can't wait to see their impact on students and their ideas.