Post Play-doh Lesson Recap: How did it go?

Berry says we need to find what
 makes us feel like royalty.

Here in the Central Valley of California we go back to school EARLY, so August 6th was my first day with students: I met my 110 junior/senior combo Speech Communications students. They were very, very cute - in a tall, tired, teenager kind of way.

I took a chance on the Play-doh lesson (described two blog posts ago) and here is a recap, with photos.

1. Greeting the kids at door with color cards.

I played my Spotify Speech Communications playlist, opening with “Safe and Sound” by Capital Cities (With very little effort, music really sets a tone for you - blog post to come).

The color cards ended up being funny, because, of course, the macho dudes would get “sea-foam green” or “darkish coral” - their little perplexed faces made the whole thing worthwhile. Then I noticed something really cool: a couple of the kids picked up on their confusion and started to walk around the room and help them decipher play-doh colors. The bonding had begun.

I busted eight of my new rascals trying to “swap play-doh” so they could sit with their friends. I arrested them and they had to go to “play-doh prison” and become greeters with me at the door. We laughed about it. This was valuable information for me: these kids will need lots and lots of love and attention. They are used to manipulating situations and are pretty good at it, so I need to keep them close to soften their rough edges.

2. Getting kids settled

Once everyone found their “ohana pod” I had to do some feng shui to balance out groups-lots of changes the first few days, gotta stay flexible with class sizes and morphing rosters. Right now my class sizes are at 38, 36, 37...big and boisterous.

Name tents came first:

• piece of 8 ½ by 11 paper
• tri-fold to make table tent
• in dark marker - FIRST NAME LARGE (very important that it be the nickname or name they prefer - ie Nick for Nicholas)
• in 4 corners: favorite app, favorite candy, favorite food, favorite sport or music
• Give kids 10 minutes to complete
• Roundrobin-style have kids introduce themselves to their pods letting teams know they are to actively start memorizing names of their ohana.
• After introductions, ask if anyone wants to volunteer to say their team’s names while the team hides nametents.
• A few brave souls will usually volunteer and then it will probably catch on and a few more will try. (I try not to push kids on the 1st day in regards to performing...that comes later.)

3. Finally, on to the Play-doh…

See previous blog post (http://goo.gl/U1YfQ5) for full Play-doh instructions.

Once they started, I walked around the room with a clipboard and my seating chart to take notes. It was really a telling glimpse into their personalities. Wow. Here’s a snapshot of some of the actions I observed:

Eyan was going for a
bright, cheery design.

1. Some jumped right in and knew exactly what they wanted to make.
2. Others didn’t want to ask for the three other colors from their teammates.
3. Some just sat and kneaded the play-doh like bread or made perfect orbs that they rolled around the table.
4. Some talked the whole time, others were mute.
5. Some found “tools” around the classroom to imprint, cut, measure, and sculpt while others just “wanted to be done” and laid out a cursory flat blob.

This sort of info is like nuggets of gold for a teacher. Most importantly, I’m making notes as to who my extroverts are compared to my introverts. These two subsets need to be taught very, very differently yet honored equally (blogpost to come on this one!).

4. The Works of Art

Once most kids were done, the pods shared Round Robin style once again with their own pods. Since we were running short on time, I then asked for a volunteer from each group with one stipulation: they must WANT to present. I don’t like to push on the first day. There is plenty of time for that...but not on the first day. You may lose your introverts that way if you push too hard, too soon.

Miriam said she feels "weighed down"
by life.

A hero emerged from each pod for each class. They came up to the front and put their creation under the document camera and shared what inspired them. Photos show a sampling of some we heard from.

Edith focuses on positive.

It was a beautiful, enjoyable day. The kids were a mix, some didn’t do much yet were able to observe and watch the more boisterous kids; others committed fully and shared openly, enjoying their time in the spotlight. I was able to see what kind of attention each student is craving/needing this school year and to see who interacted naturally with many  and who squirmed just talking to one other person. We played music, my Spotify Speech Warm up playlist as they created and laughed and talked and, most importantly, enjoyed our first day of school. 

I repeat, we enjoyed our first day of school.  

Impacting our Students Through the Thoughts, Words, and Actions of LOVE

On Friday, July 31st 2015 I had the honor of presenting one of the Ed talks at the Better Together California Teachers Summit at Brandman University in Visalia, California.

Below are the transcripts and Google Slides from my talk. As a Speech and Debate teacher, I am constantly talking my students down before they speak, telling them to relax and enjoy the adrenaline rush. I sure enjoyed some of that on Friday. I was nervous speaking to the people I respect the most: teachers! 

Please feel free to share your stories of love in the classroom in the comment section below or email me at litcoachlaurie@gmail.com. Love is not just the best part of our jobs, in many ways, it's the only part.

EDTALK: BETTER TOGETHER TEACHERS SUMMIT JULY 31, 2015

Impacting our students with thoughts, words, and actions of LOVE

Today I want to talk about something timeless, something that applies to all grade levels, all personality types, and all content areas, and any California standard or curriculum they could possibly throw at us:  I want to talk about LOVE - the concept of LOVE and how it relates to the classroom.

The year was 2003 and I'm 32 with my 1st teaching job at Gahr HS in Cerritos. A tough schedule: 10th and 12th grade remediated English who had just been through a parade of subs. I got the job in November on emergency credential- my interview was basically the principal checking to see if I had a pulse due to the massive teacher shortage at the time.

I started out naively enough with my students wanting to “get to know them” & was met with my first very realistic interaction with a boy named Evan. Evan, a tall, handsome sophomore on the Varsity basketball team, slumped in his seat shouted out "you ain't never gonna know me."

All 36 sets of eyes fell on me: “Well, I'd like to,” I said sheepishly.

He replied with, "You ever have a lady hide her purse because you walkin on the same side of the street?" “You ever have a security guard follow you around at Rite Aid cuz you went into get a soda?”

I had to reply no. He stuck his earbuds in and went silent.

I greeted Evan at the door every day, asked him about his basketball games and even clipped a newspaper article of him shooting a 3 pointer. I picked short stories with defiant strong young men as protagonists in hopes of hooking him. I thanked him for being so opinionated and told him that his strong convictions would be an asset in life. I gave him loads of attention-sometimes well received, sometimes not, but I knew I was on to the love thing when he came back next year to visit my classroom mumbling as he looked at the floor that he wished his teachers “wanted to get to know him.”

I knew I was not a BETTER TEACHER than these veterans he compared me to, by any means, but I did three things during my rookie year: I thought of the kids with love, I communicated with words of love, and I my actions portrayed love. I learned names fast and used them often and made eye contact with every kid at least three times a day. I knew the color of their eyes.

FEISTY EVAN was my first lesson on love in the classroom - I was his student, ironically. And for the past 12 years and 4 schools later it has been my overarching pedagogy, my greatest lesson plan, and my most effective classroom mgmt tool: LOVE.

With such a broad topic it’s difficult to streamline the most important aspects we can explore in the classroom, but I’ve attempted to break it down into the three vital sections: THOUGHTS OF LOVE, WORDS OF LOVE, and ACTIONS OF LOVE.

1.)THOUGHTS OF LOVE

When you think of your toughest student...what thoughts come to mind? Over the past 12 years, I’ve had some rough ones, as I’m sure you all have, and thinking about these kids through a lens of love is DIFFICULT.

One of my students that really challenged thoughts of love for me was Savanna. She was a girl that filled the room from down the hall. I could hear her...Mrs. JOOOONNNESSS...She was really quite regal, the queen of the 200 building with 8-10 underlings surrounding her hoping for a scrap of attention. Savanna’s thirst for attention continued into my 1st period English 1 class. She was always on volume 20. I’ll never forget Act 2 of Midsummer NIght’s Dream when she shouted from our make shift stage, “Mrs. Jones, what if I by accident I say Puck’s name wrong and pronounce it ______? THANK YOU, SAVANNA!

Thinking of Savanna with love was really tough but that changed one day during our student study team meeting after school when I met...her mother. Her mother was Savanna times 1,000.  She cussed, she berated all of us for “giving Savanna Fs,” and she actually threatened to hit Savanna in the middle of the meeting. Our AP stopped her.

Savanna needed me to love her. I would get nothing “playing hard ball” with this girl. She was living in hell and school was her escape-it was obvious. Love was my only chance. She didn’t care about grades or threats. Love was my only chance.

So, everyday before Period 1, I would take 3 minutes to think about Savanna lovingly, to picture her home life, to visualize how I would greet her with a warm smile, and thank her for coming to class that day and being my “Morning coffee.” Better than morning coffee!

I had a complete turn around with this girl. The funny thing is she didn’t change that much, I did. And because I viewed her through a lens of love, I was more patient, I could anticipate her misbehaviors and circumvent them like casting her in a bigger role, or having her play music for our writing sessions. She passed my class, and I now smile when I think of her...instead of cry.

I want parents to smile when they see my name on their kids’ school schedule because they know I will love them and take care of them. I want to honor this important trusted position as TEACHER. It's big- that's why I'm so proud to respond to people when they ask what I do. I'm a teacher and I love kids. It’s pretty huge.

2.)WORDS OF LOVE

The way a teacher talks changes how students perform, think, and feel. The words that leave our lips create the classroom world we live in: we control it.

Reframing how we communicate everything into worlds of love will transform your classroom into a place everyone wants to be - you included. There is a fabulous book dedicated to this entitled: Choice Words by Peter Johnston. In Choice Words, Johnston says, “the children in our classrooms are becoming literate. They are not simply learning the skills of literacy. They are developing personal and social identities-uniqueness and affiliations that define the people they see themselves becoming.”

He gives the simple example in the book of a teacher reprimanding a student instead of a punitive statement like “Stop doing that or you are staying in at recess” the teacher says in a lower voice, “That’s not like you.” The teacher’s words, though simple, confirm that this “bad behavior” is atypical and it assumes that the student is a good person.

I had to do lots of reframing last year with a student who challenged me Stephan - the chronic pencil sharpener: up/down, up/down, up/down. You know the guy. It started to drive me a little crazy-I would brace for it. This problem could have been solved easily:  SIT DOWN. I could have banned him from the sharpener.  OR, I reframe the request with WORDS OF LOVE.

The next day in class, I squatted down beside him and said “Thank you, Stephen for being such an avid pencil sharpener - a man after my own heart -because I too cannot stand a dull pencil. My thank you present to you is 5 lethally sharp pencils. Use them all and when they dull out, take the first or last 5 minutes of class to sharpen because I want you to take your time and perfect that lead point and you can’t really give it the time it needs in the middle of class - you’ll be rushed.”  

I never had another problem again. I showed him love instead of hate even though I hated the behavior. That’s important, the behaviors are not going away but the power of our words can get them headed in the right direction.

3.)ACTIONS OF LOVE

Here’s where we really start working. This is the tough part.

The actions we take to show students love can take on many, many forms.

I want to share a specific story about an action of love I took with a boy named Jaime: Jaime was an angry 14 year old from Pixley.

He didn't crack a smile for the first month of freshmen English: It was as if he was daring me to try and make him do it. It was a little game we played. I greeted him everyday at the door, complimenting him on the artwork on his t-shirt: a scantily clad girl straddling a rocket or Marilyn Monroe sporting a rotting skull face. He looked up at me stone faced, and walked on to his seat, never carrying a book or a backpack or a pencil...just Jaime.

One day, Jaime proudly donned a new t-shirt with a very familiar face: Tupac Shakur.

"Did you wear one of my favorite poets to class just for me, Jaime?" I smiled as I patted him on the shoulder.

"No, it's Tupac," he rolled his eyes, "He's a rapper."

"I know...he's one of my favorites-what a genius."

THIS IS WHEN I TOOK AN ACTION OF LOVE.  I grabbed The Rose that Grew from Concrete from my shelf and tossed it under the elmo projector.

We conducted an impromptu Socratic Seminar and deconstructed three of Tupac's poems with Jaime leading the way. He knew everything about him and gladly became the expert in "cool." He compared Tupac to his father, imprisoned near by at the Corcoran prison: at night Jaime explained he can see the security flood lights faintly in the distance. He said it made him feel close to him.

Everyone modeled their own poem using one of Tupac's for inspiration. Jaime’s was beautiful. So beautiful that I grabbed it and told him I was going to submit it to the Fresno State Young Writers' Conference contest.

I explained to Jaime that “It’s a writing competition and if your piece gets chosen, you get to ride up with me to Fresno State and spend the day with me. Does that sound fun to you?”

“I don’t care.” That was my yes.

Jaime did win a spot that year to Fresno state and spent the day in breakout writing sessions with graduate students, eating Panda’s orange chicken! and enjoying the “hot college chicks” (his words, not mine).

He is happy now, living an honest life in a simple town. Want to know how I know this? Because he came back to visit me last month after 7 years.  He came back to visit me.

I know the crazy dichotomy of our profession : it’s a brainy business but we work with young people which absolutely requires us to use our heart.

So, I leave all of you with one more item for your to do list as we open our classrooms: How will you think about your students with love, communicate with love, and show them love this year?

Thank you.

I would love to hear all of your stories of love this year.

You can reach me at:

Mission Oak High School

laurie.jones@tulare.k12.ca.us

twitter @litcoachlaurie

The 1st Day of School: Personal Powerful Play-doh Pods thanks to Dave Burgess!

Thanks to Dave Burgess’s Teach Like a Pirate, I’m staring at 120 containers of Play-doh and...I teach high schoolers. This summer, I had the pleasure of reading Dave Burgess’ Teach Like a Pirate. I love Dave’s teaching style: you know the term “extreme sports” well, he is an “extreme teacher.” Awesome stuff. In his book (page 26), he outlines his use of Play-doh on the first day of school. I ran with it and have developed a new opener this year that anyone can use (all grade levels/subject matters).  I will explain my version of Burgess' lesson step-by-step in this blog but first would like to discuss the importance of a dynamic 1st day.

It’s vital to open the year with fun, fun, fun. I avoid “the syllabus” like the plague the first three days for three reasons.

First, most often every other teacher is going over rules, grading, and homework policies...BORING...I can’t stand to think of them sitting through another one of those.

Secondly, at least in my school, our counseling office takes a few days to “balance” our classes, so kids I see on day one will not be the kids I see on day four. I may as well wait on the procedures until I have my forever class.

Lastly, but of utmost importance, I need that first class to be a B.L.A.S.T. I need them to go out at break and lunch and brag on our first moments together. They need to say to themselves: “This is going to be the best class ever.” Think of the power of that self-statement. This will become a self-fulfilling prophecy because in their minds they equate you and your class with joy. The chain reaction is...they will then bring joy to your room when they walk through the door next time.

Who said, “you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression?” I don’t know, but they were brilliant. Thinking we will have fun "later" is not going to work with a group of young people. Let them have fun FIRST, then there is buy-in and when you do eventually go over your syllabus and grading policies you will have them in the palm of your hand - kind of like Play-doh!.

Personal Powerful Play-doh Pods
1. Buy Play-doh in bulk online. I have 120 students so I had to spend about $70.00 for each kid to have a container.

2. Count out the amount of Play-doh containers you need for each class. Separate the Playdough into bags for each period.

3. Take index cards and WRITE the color of each Play-doh container lid on one index card per class. This was hysterical as my daughter and I tried to distinguish between “bright green” and “seafoam green.”  So now I have a bag of 36 Play-doh containers and 36 index cards that match each color (there are few doubles but not many - lots of crazy colors now!).

4. Go to your classroom and place one Play-doh container on each desk on top of a paper plate. I use the cheap plates that are thin and easy to write on. I have my desks in groups of four (I call them “Ohana pods”), and this lesson will connect to that number. Make sure there are no doubles in color - each kid in a group should have a different color.

5. On the first day, greet each kid at the door with a smile and an index card with a color. Tell them to match that color with a container of Play-doh and they have found their seat. I love this way of seating them for two reasons: they are not allowed to clique or group up with friends. This inevitably leaves some kids feeling alone and sad, and two it’s not a “seating chart” that you have created. It’s fun and leaves lots up to chance. I think it is the perfect blend of control and fun.

6. Once they have found their seat, ask them to write their first name LARGE on the perimeter of the paper plate. I also have them do a tri-fold name tent on a separate piece of paper. My focus on that first day is NAMES, NAMES, NAMES!

7. Now, without too much explanation, announce that they have 15 minutes to create something that represents who they are. The rules: they must use all of the colors in their Ohana pod. They can distribute colors anyway they like, but each creation should use all four colors of Play-doh. They also must memorize the three members of their group’s names. Ask that they put their phones away during the creation process and tell them we will be using them later.

8. Play some fun upbeat music during the 15 minutes and start working the room! (I enjoy 80s New Wave personally - Go, “Duran Duran”!). This is where I will float around and observe and chat with each of my groups, memorizing their names as I go. I carry a clipboard with my role sheet and take notes on their hair style, clothing, eye color, Play-doh creation, or something cute they may have said. This is also the time I observe who my shy kids are, my true artists, my rascals, my school haters, my flirts, and any other category you can come up with. I am a sociologist and these are my subjects.

9. At the end of the 15 minutes, have the kids write a title for their artwork on the perimeter of their paper plate (continuing from where they wrote their name). Now join two groups together (totaling eight kids now) and have them explain their creation to the new group. How does it connect to their life? How does it represent them?

10. After all groups have finished sharing, have the groups nominate three people who should share their creations whole class (the artists will have the choice to do this or not - I respect their right to pass on the 1st day).

11. This should allow for about 12 whole class presentations (usually resulting in your more outgoing kids and allowing the shy kids to avoid a panic attack). Whole class presentations come later in the school year when they are more comfortable.

12. Once the 12 or so presentations are done, we find space in back (you do need to create space!) and have kids place their creations next to each other. Then the whole class does a “gallery walk” (two groups at a time) to see everyone’s work of art.

13. I like to REALLY decorate my room with kid stuff for our “Back to School” night, which comes soon into the school year. High school parents are not used to see lots of decor, so they really dig it. I think they will love the Play-doh (Remember, it’s my first year doing this!)

My objectives for the above lesson:

1. Immediate team bonding in their Ohana pods.

2. Celebrates creativity. They will be creating in this class!

3. Fun! Learning should be fun.

4. Decorates our room for Back to School night.

5. Creates buzz on campus for kids that have my class later in the day.

6. Gives my nervous kids something to do with their hands as they talk to their teammates. This is very scary for some kids.

7. Gives me a chance to learn names using their creations as a memory device.

8. Allows insight into what is important to each kid. I use this information to create deeper connections to the kids and even plan lessons that will hook them.

Please let me know if you experiment with the Play-doh this year. I would love to compare notes. Have fun! laurie.jones@tulare.k12.ca.us

How do teachers plan during summer?

As I was on my walk this morning listening to the power remix of “Hungry Like the Wolf” on Spotify, I started thinking about, what else, school.

I thought about whether I was brave and tech-savvy enough to start the year out with blogging and end with podcasting, I thought about what non-fiction gem could be our school-wide read for the year (Make it Stick?, Choice Words?, The Shallows?), I thought about whether or not I should add another Writers’ Cafe event to Mission Oak High School’s calendar, I thought about how lame it was that my little town of Tulare has no cool bookstore/coffee house - should we open one? - How much is the rent downtown? - I thought about how my butt was sore (from walking), I thought about how good a chocolate chip scone would taste right now etc. etc. etc.

I was planning - subconsciously and mixed with lots of other stuff - but I was planning. It started me thinking about how my other buddies in education “plan” during the summer. It varies wildly, just as their methods in the classroom do, so, for this blog I will make a list of all of my teacher-friends’ planning methods that I have come across in my first four weeks of summer. Hopefully, some with inspire you!

1. One is in Japan for eight weeks spending time with his wife’s family but also touring schools to see how some of their educational culture could be instituted in the Central Valley (the students bow in respect at the end of each lesson - whaaaaaat?!?!).

2. One binges on Netflix - “Orange is the New Black” is up first to be followed by “Pretty LIttle Liars” and “Supernatural.” She calls it her “pop culture research” so she can banter with teenage girls about PLL plotlines in the fall.

3. One hits as many actual conferences as possible up and down the state of California, visiting towns she has never seen and engrossing herself in “edtalk” so that when she is home, she can shut it off for awhile. She “compartmentalizes.”

4. One surfs, and surfs, and surfs, and surfs.

5. One flies across the country to read thousands of essays at the College Board’s AP Reading. She claims it’s “the best PD there is and I reconnect with my BFFs I’ve made there over the years.”

6. One reads young adult literature: book after book after book. City of Angels series, Ellen Hopkin’s drugs, sex, and rock and roll series, a John Green marathon, and any graphic novel she can get her hands on. She will get the right book in the right kid’s hands next year if it kills her!

7. One is in China with a group of passionate American teachers soaking in the power of the Great Wall, eating Peking duck, and wielding ancient swords with the locals. (I'm serious, the dude had a sword!)

8. One reads non-fiction from psychologists, sociologists, education gurus, and other smart people underlining and starring every connection to his craft while absorbing the salty air and listening to the rhythmic ocean waves massage the sands of Huntington Beach.

9. One spends as much time with her own three children as possible-taking them to art class, roaming the public library, making brownies, and even “playing school” at the kitchen table with a relaxing and lovely 3:1 ratio.

10. One plays on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Instagram until their fingers bleed, allowing students to “friend her” now that they have graduated. This makes her feel like a kid again and also honors "a world her teens live in."

There are hundreds, possibly thousands more methods of summer “planning.” The one common denominator? Passion. Passion not only for teaching but passion for family, passion for video games, passion for reading, passion for travel.

Passion: discover yours and use it as your planning vehicle and everyone wins.