I've had a lot of time to reflect back on my fourteen years of teaching. At the end of each school year, I ask myself what I could have done differently to help my students be successful. The best way, I have found, is to research experts who have gone before me and have created learning environments where their students have shown growth.

I went onto several different professional blogs and contacted a few professors. After several recommendations, I narrowed it down to a few that I then purchased on Amazon. Since we have been out of school, I've had a lot of time on my hands to read and reflect. 

Over the next few weeks, I am going to be sharing a few things that I found to be an "aha" moment if you will. I'm going to warn you; however, that some of these thoughts will really make a few people question a lot about themselves and their efforts in the classroom. Good! Isn't that what we should be looking for? 

Author Jim Knight writes about "The Four Pillars of Impact Schools" and I think it's something really important for all of us to look at. We will be taking a look over the next few weeks on what the pillars are, but for now, I wanted to share a few things from the opening of the book.

"Professional learning must embody respect for the professionalism of teachers, by involving teachers as true partners in their professional learning."

Wow! What a statement! Do you agree with what Knight says? I sure do. It is so important for administrators, school boards, and even the superintendent to see teachers as professionals. Knight believes that all professional development has an impact on teaching excellence, which in turn, impacts our students. If teachers are given the opportunity to attend professional development that inspires them, their students will also be inspired. Isn't that what we all want? So why is it that year-after-year teachers attend several trainings just to leave feeling even more overwhelmed than before?

"Professional learning should provide a clear focus for sustained growth, and teachers should be collaborators in writing their school improvement plan to ensure that everyone (a) understands, (b) agrees with, and (c) is committed to the improvement plan." 

Have you ever taught at a school that required an improvement plan? I have. It's not very fun. But, if teachers are included in writing this plan, the professional environment shifts to something more positive. Teachers will agree to help out their schools a lot more if they feel that their professional opinion matters.

Until school districts start treating teachers as the professionals they are, we won't be seeing the change we desperately need.

You've worked so hard to find the perfect books for your Book Clubs. You've given up almost all of your weekend writing the most perfect discussion questions for those perfect books. You even showed up an hour early to school to arrange your desks in the perfect spots to encourage a Socratic Method style of discussion your students are going to love. The best part about all of this is that you knew your students were going to nail this discussion question like a #boss that you even invited your principal to join in!

So why are you crouched over in the fetal position in the teachers lounge crying like a baby? What could have possibly gone wrong?

What really happened was that half of your students didn't do the chapter reading at home. Of the other half that did the reading, half of those students were not in the mood to have a meaningful conversation with their peers. The last half of students actually read the assigned chapter, but they didn't know how to even have a productive conversation and ended up yelling over each other.

How can all of this be avoided? Can your students actually have a productive conversation during your Book Clubs? The answer to that question is: yes.

First of all, students have completely lost what it means to have a conversation face-to-face with someone else. Texting has ruined that for everyone under the age of 25. Why actually look someone in the eyes when I can just type it into my phone and wait for their response? So, the first thing you should teach your students is how to have a conversation. Discuss the volume of their voice, making eye contact with whoever you are talking to, building onto a discussion by using words like: I agree...I politely disagree....I would like to add...Also, students need to understand that someone isn't always going to agree with you, and that's okay!!

Next, your students need to understand what they should talk about during their Book Talk discussions. Before they even enter the classroom, they should have notes written down or things highlighted in their text to share with the group. You can either have prepared questions for them to fill out, or you can do my favorite thing: Dialectical Journals. My students would each have their own spiral notebook. Inside they would divide the pages in half vertical. On the left was a quote they read that meant something to them. They may like the way the sentence was written, it may have evoked a feeling in them, or it helped answer a question that we had asked in a previous session. We would then all take turns sharing our quotes and others would comment about them.

Lastly, our students need to know when it's time to move on in a discussion. This is extremely important when the discussions start to get a little heated. It's great that your students are excited about reading, but there will be times when it can go a little too far. For example, my students had just read an article about a high school that banned hugging. Even like friend-to-friend hugging. I had some students that were perfectly fine with the no hugging policy, but then I had students who thought the world was ending. This discussion got so out of hand that I had to call parents. Some of my students didn't even get the opportunity to talk that day because it was dominated by two students who didn't see eye-to-eye. I never really discussed with them how to move on and continue with the discussion in a proper manner.

I love Book Clubs, but they aren't effective unless you have modeled what a Book Club should look or sound like. I've included this video because I think it would be something you could show your older students before your first Book Club meeting, This is not my video, but I think it's great!! Enjoy!!

 I usuallOne thing I know my students struggle with is making good book choices. They either pick out books that are way too hard for them, or they make selections that are way too easy for them. Either way, they end up not enjoying the book and they beg to go back to the library. This cycle continues and continues until they just give up on reading all together.

What can we do to ensure that our students aren't just jumping ship on us? I just wanted to share a few ideas that have helped me in the past.

1. Book Tasting Party
At the beginning of the year my students participate in a Book Tasting Party. You may have seen them all over teacher blogs and even TPT has menus you can buy for them. These Book Tasting Parties are so much fun and my kids have loved them in the past. I set up the classroom to look like a restaurant. I put out table cloths, set up plates full of cookies, cute napkins, and even glasses of juice.  Every spot also has a book and a menu. The menu items are things like Mystery, Fantasy, Biography, and Informational. The students rotate and share the books they have at their tables. They are just "tasting" the books at their tables to see if they would be something they would like to read later. Not everyone likes the books they have "tasted" and that's ok! That's the point! To see what they like and don't like about books.

2. Book Talks
Anytime I have new books coming into my classroom library I provide a Book Talk. I stand at the front of my room and walk through the book with my students. I show them the cover, I read the blurb on the back, and then I read the first page or two to give them a little "taste" of the book. I try and do this a few times a month, or when I see my students getting into a reading slump. I've even had students do Book Talks for the class when they have finished reading a book they think their classmates would like. Students usually like reading the books that their classmates recommend, and the student feels proud when others like it. I usually give them a little coaching beforehand so they know what to say.

3. Read-Aloud
I have always found value in reading aloud to my students. Even when I taught 7th Grade English, I read aloud to them. Their favorite was Full Tilt by Neil Shusterman because it had so many cliff hangers and who doesn't love a book about a demonic carnival? I usually like to red a few pages a day and stop when I know something amazing is about to happen. They just love listening to me read. Plus, they usually want to check out books that are like the one I'm reading, and that's the main goal.

Here are some covers of my favorite read aloud books:

   The Wall
    By: Even Bunting
​  Blurb from B & N: A young boy and his father visit the       Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

   Veterans Day
   By: Marlene Targ Brill
   Blurb from B & N: Veteran’s Day is a day set aside to thank the men and women who risk their lives protecting America. Each year on November 11, we celebrate what they have done for our country. Learn more about the history of this important holiday, such as why it is on November 11 and what Americans do to celebrate.

It's the Day of the Dead! It's time to celebrate!

This past week my student and I focused on learning about the Mexican holiday Dias de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Do you know about this holiday?

About fourteen years ago my grandfather passed away. I was devastated. He was such an important person in my life and it was hard for me to accept that he wasn't going to be here anymore. That year, I was teaching ESL classes to 6th graders in Houston. One of my students had asked me if I was going to celebrate Dias de los Muertos in honor of my grandfather. I had no idea what she was talking about! I had never heard of this holiday! She told me that on November 1st and 2nd, her family got together to celebrate the lives of their loved ones who had passed away. It wasn't a scary or sad holiday, it was a time to party and celebrate the lives of the dead when they were with us! 

After a little more research, I was blown away with the richness of this holiday. It had so much history! There is proof that the Aztecs celebrated something similar around 3,500 years ago.

I know it can be difficult to share other cultures in the public school system. You will always have a few parents who are resistant when you teach their child something that they don't know a lot about. And I usually have one or two students who, at the beginning, refuse to listen to anything I have to say about this holiday because they think I'm talking about devil worshiping. However, after movies such as "The Book of Life" and "Coco," I've seen less and less resistance to learning about this marvelous tradition.

It's so important for your students to learn about other cultures that are different than their own. Also, it's even more important to acknowledge traditions that some of your students have who may be too shy to share! Once my students started to really get into my lessons on The Day of the Dead, I had two of my students share that they celebrate this holiday at their house. My students were so excited to hear them explain how they light candles, build an altar, and eat the favorite foods of their deceased family members. They had a lot of pride in themselves that they could share their culture without being made fun of.

Here is the book I always read to my students when discussing this holiday. Living in Texas, the significance of the Monarch Butterfly is important because they pass right through us on their way to Mexico! Wait, are you mixing science with reading again? If you would like to share this book with your students, just click on the book and it will lead you to Barnes and Noble! We have to support the bookstores!!

The Learning Tree Studio is excited to announce its very own New Year's Workshop!!

New Year, New Classroom will be exactly what teachers need to keep them pumped and energized to finish the year strong with activities that students will keep begging for.

The morning will start off with teachers completing a variety of tasks ranging from 3rd to 8th grade and from all subject areas. What can you do with a hula hoop in a 4th grade Science and a 7th grade Texas History class? How about speed dating with some dead presidents and endangered species? You should come and find out!

The best part about The Learning Tree Studio's workshops? After a relaxing lunch, teachers head back to dig into their lesson plans and curriculum to add in the activities from the morning. That's right! Who doesn't love time to actually plan and create something that they learned at a workshop? 

So, sign up today! Spots are limited and going fast!

We can't believe we had over 750 tickets in our first giveaway. We truly are delighted to see so much support pouring into our dream of providing quality, hands-on training to teachers.

We have some awesome news to share!!

Because our clients loved this giveaway so much, we will hold one each month!! Continue to check back on our website blog for more tips and ideas from The Learning Tree Studio that you can use in your classroom. Sometime in November, we will host another giveaway!!

The last post about using everyday items in the classroom, I talked about paper plates. Boy, do I love my paper plates! Today I wanted to share with you another one of my favorite things...paper airplanes. Wait, what? You allow your students to make and fly paper airplanes in the classroom? You bet!

The other day I had some notes that my students needed to know about how to write a really awesome body paragraph in our essays. It was a lot of information to front-load on them. I knew that if I had just given them the notes and talked about them, they were not going to retain anything I taught them.

I had recently attended a workshop from the Writing Academy. If you haven't gone to it, you totally should. In our training we used a paper airplane to write our notes on. First, we made the airplane and put our names on them. We wrote down one thing from our notes page that we thought was interesting, and then that's when the fun began. After they had their sentence written, my students chunked the airplanes into the air and it was mass chaos for a few seconds. We found an airplane that was not ours and read what the first person had written. We then added a second sentence from our notes that was different then the first. We did this about five times before we tried to find our original airplane back.

Not only were my students engaged in the lesson, but they also had read over their notes quite a few times. They read what the other students had written, and they also had to read their notes page over and over to find new information to add.

My kids had so much fun doing this activity, and based on my observations the next day, they totally understood what they needed to include in their essays. Have you ever used this strategy before? We would love to hear about it!

I can't believe how much support The Learning Tree Studio has received in such a short amount of time. When I decided to start out on this journey of opening my own business, When I set out to pursue my PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, I was at a loss of what I would do with it. I prayed and prayed...and prayed and prayed...and God spoke to me. He said that I should take all of my knowledge and love of training others and the excitement I have for education and children and spread that with others.  

To say thank you for all of everyone's support, The Learning Tree Studio will be holding a giveaway to help us grow even more! The contest will start today and end on October 25th. Keep reading to find out how you can be eligible for this awesome prize!

Here is how to enter:
​1. Go to our Facebook Page: The Learning Tree Studio and tag as many friends as you can on the Giveaway post encouraging them to Like the page. Once your friends have Liked the page, they can head on over to the blog to enter themselves!
2. Earn points through the Rafflecopter !! Just log in with either Facebook or your e-mail and complete the steps. It's that easy!!
3. I will announce the winner on Sunday, October 26th.