C4T October Summary

All They Wanted

Mrs. Becky Goerend is a fifth grade teacher from Iowa and she has been teaching for six years. She loves attending conferences on assessment. During the conference Solution Tree PLC in St. Louis, Mrs. Goerend (Mrs. G) received a big slap in the face. Many of your students would ask her "How long does it need to be?" and in her mind she knew the question really meant “How short can it be to get by, Mrs. G?” other students caught on and began to blurt it out. She realized then that her students needed more writing examples. Without the conference Mrs. G would not have never know that her students needed more visuals. Mrs. G admitted that writing was not her best area, but she knew she had come up with a way to make it a strong area for her students. Her first steps to improving her students writing was to have more models posted and implement “Mentor text.”

Mrs. G post hit right at home for me because writing has been something that I have always struggled with. Many times, I will check and rewrite my work until I have completely ran out of things to correct. Mentor text sounds like a great ideal just by the title of the activity. Mrs. G did not go into details on how the Mentor Text works, but I am checking her blog periodically to get more details. One great tool an English teacher shared with me is to first read it out loud, next read it backwards, last share it with a friend or two.
Another Lesson from the Garden

In Mrs. G’s post on Another lesson from the Garden discuss how spring season has finally arrived and new plants are sprouting and old ones are dying. During this time Mr. G suggests that you “clean out the old plants so the new ones can grow.” She talks about how this technique could also be used in our “lifestyle.” Mrs. G states “If we allow the old to protect the new little plants, it shelters them from the cold for a while and after time the old must go for the new to grow.”
As a teacher, I feel that Mr. G is correct. With the metaphor that Mr. G used I applied it to my students and transition time. When it’s time for student to move on for the old activity into a new one, a teacher should implement transition. This allows the students and teacher to be free to grow (calm down) light shine on them (star students), eat (lunch), and rest (nap time).