Everyone Has Genius in Them

Are you always looking for a way to motivate and engage your students? I don’t know about everyone else but once I thought I found the perfect inspirational speech, reward system or negotiation tactic it quickly seemed to have a shelf life and fizzled away. Back to the drawing board I was. We all want to our students to love learning and to want to learn without the need for the speech, reward or negotiating.  Well, what if we looked at motivation and engagement on a larger scale?   Think back to that one student (every year I felt like I had at least one) that is an expert in something... for me it was Evan, a dinosaur expert. He knew EVERYTHING about dinosaurs. I had my very own personal first grade Paleontologist. Perfect. Clearly, he was not discovering his love for Paleontology in my classroom. We had a fully packed schedule that did not offer time for Evan to further his career.  I mention this because Evan is so interested in dinosaurs that he went home and read ; and before he could read words, he was reading pictures and watching videos on dinosaurs; and playing with dinosaur toys; and the best part … he was teaching anyone that would listen about dinosaurs. Evan was a genius when it came to dinosaurs. Evan’s genius did not develop after one project or reading one book.  What if we handed students the time to discover the genius inside of them? What if we gave students the opportunity to teach us something? What if we gave students the chance to engage in learning in a way that interested them? Enter in Genius Hour.

What is Genius Hour you ask?

Genius hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom.  It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school.  In a nutshell, it is letting students follow their passion using inquiry to read, work on new designs or master new skills.

“Genius Hour is a precious time.  It is when students are allowed to develop their own inquiry question about whatever it is that they want to explore, learn, or create. I want students to be engaged in their learning. This does not mean that we'll be playing games, laughing and joking the entire class period. This means that I want students to be invested in what they're learning. I want them to "own" the learning. “(Joy Kirr - 7^th grade teacher)

From what I have researched:

·        * This idea stems from : businesses like 3M and Google

o     3M started it in the 1950's with their 15% Project.  The result? 

 Post-its and masking tape.  Google is credited for making the 20% Project what it is today.  Google asks its employees to spend 20% of their time at Google to work on a pet project...a project that their job description doesn't cover.  As a result of the 20% Project at Google, we now have Gmail, AdSense, Google News, and my favorite, the Google Teacher Academy.  Using 20 Time in the workplace allows innovative ideas and projects to flourish and/or fail without the bureaucracy of committees and budgets.

·      *   Genius Hour is NOT everyday

·     *    Teachers incorporate this concept in many different ways in ALL grade levels

 If you want to look further into Genius Hour start here:

http://www.geniushour.com/

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=829279

I have also started a “Genius Hour” board on my Pinterest account. http://www.pinterest.com/OAteachcoach/

Instructionaly Yours, 

Michele 

A Year Just Passed Us By

WOW! A lot has happened this past year. I went on our blog to update a few things and noticed that our last post was over a year ago. Having young kids people tell me all the time “treasure every moment because before you know it a year goes by, then 5, then 10 and all of a sudden they are married and have kids of their own”. YIKEEEESSSS a year has gone by in a blink of an eye. So, to those that have been following our humble little journey here are some updates.

·     Kelly got hitched this October and is loving life as a newlywed. She is currently the Math Coordinator at one of our local BOCES.

·     Diane is currently a 3^rd grade teacher at a local rural school. After the crazy day of managing a classroom she goes home to her husband and 2 beautiful kiddos (4 year old and a 14 month old).  

·     Michele (that’s me!) I am the Instructional Coach at another local rural school in Western, NY. I am also a proud wife and mommy to a 3 year old and 20 month old.

·     Our book: The Math GNOMe and Common Core Four: Creating the Math Common Core Classroom has been picked up by a fabulous publishing company called Creative Teaching Press and is scheduled to meet the masses by catalog in a few months. We are beyond excited. This has been our humble little project for close to 3 years now and we are delighted by the journey by which is has taken us.

Our intention has been to create resources and share ideas for educators by educators. (Which we knew was very difficult to find - which is what lead us to this project)

We want The Math GNOMe and Common Core Four to simply be a theory of practice.

We hope and expect that teachers take this idea and make it their own.

We look forward to creating a community in which we can all share all our educational ideas as well as our adaptation experience of the Math GNOMe & CC4. 

We are inspired by amazing educators we have come across (well-known and unknown) and present to you framework, a starting point, and vision to create lifelong independent learners both for teachers and students. 

 Welcome (back) to our Blog ~ The Work Wives 

Amazing Resource

Quick post for an amazing teaching tool ... check out teachingchannel.org !
 Real teachers...teaching...in real classrooms...using common core !  - you're welcome :o)

Time to Shop!

Ahhh yes, the holiday season is all about giving thanks, spending time with those you love, joy, peace, happiness &... SHOPPING

Visit our Teachers Pay Teachers Store on 

November 26th & 27th for 28% off ALL our products.

Click HERE

Something for the Parents

Last night I finally got to catch up on some light magazine reading. As I was perusing my October 2012 Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine I stumbled upon a short article about CCSS.  It is entitled Cheat Sheet - Common Core State Standards (written by: Stephanie Eckelkamp - page 20). The short half page article laid out simple noticeable changes that may occur in your child's classroom as a result of CCSS. Amazing. I was looking for a short simple way to explain Common Core to my parents! Here are a few other resources for your parents to visit. Think about printing out an article you like and handing it out at your Parent Teacher Conferences.

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/parents-guide-to-common-core-standards/

On this site you can print out grade specific parent information brochures.
http://www.pta.org/4446.htm

This site also provides a Spanish version
http://educationnorthwest.org/resource/1547


*You can also check your state specific CCSS site. Ours is New York State.

http://engageny.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Shifts-for-Students-and-Parents.pdf

PS: Make sure you go VOTE TODAY!!!

Conference Update

It was an honor to participate in the NYSSBA Rochester Expo. We met many board members, administrators and education advocates. It was nice to share with them how we have adapted to the CCSS using the Math GNOMe. The feedback was wonderful and from the comments we received this was something that will be brought back to many surrounding districts to have a closer look. Thank you to all that stopped by our booth!

Come See Us

Attention all educators around the Rochester, NY area ... We will be at the The New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) 93rd Annual Convention & Education Expo in Rochester on October 26 & 27. Come see our booth along with some of the fabulous things we do at Byron-Bergen Central School. We are sharing a booth with our Technology teacher and our Robotics lead teacher. For more information on the Education Expo visit

 http://www.nyssba.org/clientuploads/Convention12/home.html 

Exhusted Teachers

One of my friends posted this article on her Facebook last week.

http://theeducatorsroom.com/2012/09/the-exhaustion-of-the-american-teacher/

I think that every educator can relate to some portion of this article. I think we can all agree that we are all tired AND it is just the start of the school year.  We are constantly taking on new endeavors given by our state while trying to become proficient in teaching the new mandates and at the same time attempting to explain the WHY to parents. ( Why does my 10year old need to know this? or Why is my 6 year old taking so many tests??" etc) After reading this article I am still exhausted but I do feel better knowing that this is a nation wide issue. 

So, as parent/teacher conferences approach just stick to the facts, leave your exhaustion behind and talk about what you know for sure ... you know your students...you know their strengths and weaknesses. Do not let political turmoil, education reform or personal feelings take over your conference. We may not have solutions for the way teachers are being portrayed but you can avoid being a scapegoat if you keep conversations to the point, factual and focused on the individual student.

Unlike the article ...my ending quote would say something like

 "Get Up,  Fix what you can in your circle of influence, Continue to Make a Difference because Exhaustion is a sign of Doing" 

Back at it !

Let me first wish everyone a successful school year ! I hope all of you had a restful summer and had a chance to explore the CCSS (Common Core State Standards) at some point this summer. Maybe your district offered training, perhaps you attended a Work Wives Workshop, or just researched on your own. We would LOVE to continue the Common Core conversation this year and by now we are all back at it ... 

EXCEPT for me (Michele...one of the 3 Work Wives). I am pleased to announce that I welcomed my baby girl on August 22. Lena Rose was a health 8lbs and has been an absolute joyous addition to our family. Some bragging pictures are a must :o)

Leaving the hospital...all smiles and a bit of nerves...we ask ourselves - Can we handle 2 under 2??

Miles is a proud big brother!

 

Happy In Polka Dots

 To update you all on the rest of our Work Wives... Diane is expecting her second baby in November and Kelly has completed her Administration degree (Wahooo). I could not be happier for both of my Work Wives. We have also experienced some excitement and change in our school. Our administration has been shifting and we welcome a new elementary principal to our building. Kelly has changed grade levels from 3rd to 1st. I will be going back to teach 2nd grade with open arms as I was able to loop with 11 of my 1st graders from last year. Diane will continue until her leave as a 2nd grade teacher. We are all experiencing larger class sizes too. We average about 23 students in our classes this year.  With all this change we also need to embrace SLOs (Student Learning Objectives),  teacher evaluations AND of course CCSS. Is that enough on everyone's plate??? We hope that this blog continues to be a place where we can talk about our frustrations, come up with solutions, ideas of implementation and celebrate all our successes.

If you are an educator trying out The Math GNOMe and Common Core 4 please let us know how it is working for you in the classroom. Let us know if and how you may have modified it to fit your classroom and teaching style. We are open to suggestions and comments, as we are very aware that this is a learning process for all of us.

We hope you will find this blog useful and will let your friends and fellow colleagues know about us - follow us here and on Twitter. We are also available to present for workshops - half day, full day or in depth 3 day on our Math GNOMe and Common Core 4.

You can also purchase our book, The Math GNOMe and Common Core Four: Creating the Math Common Core Classroom on Amazon.

Please check our Teachers Pay Teachers store periodically for lessons, freebees, and other useful teaching tools to compliment the CCSS in both Math and ELA. 

Picture taken from http://leading-learning.blogspot.com

TPT 2 Day SALE!

Announcing the Teachers Pay Teachers Back To School SALE! 

We are excited to participate in this HUGE event. 

20% OFF all our products on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

Enter Promo Code: BTS12  for an addition TPT discount 

2 Days ONLY - 8/12 & 8/13

 Visit our store :

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Work-Wives

 Happy Shopping & Best Wishes for a successful school year!