Zones of Regulation

Sean Callahan, Field Park Social worker, has provided us with a few resources centered on the Zones of Regulation -

The Zones of Regulation have been introduced across elementary settings in District 101 and helps establish a vernacular for students to express their feelings in self/others, and also identify strategies to manage their feelings or zones. During these times, it is important for students to continue to identify their feelings/use their strategies as we deal with the disruptions to our daily routines and subsequent feelings that result.

• This handout is a good introduction to the curriculum. 

• This Zones check-in is a great tool to check in with your child and discuss their strategies to use.

• Here is a great article centered on regulation and Covid-19

A Course Correction

Check out this article from the NY Post

“As for parents worried that all this non-academic time is dooming their kids’ futures, research at the University of Colorado at Boulder found that the kids who have more free time to create and structure their own activities develop stronger executive functioning skills — that is, better planning, problem-solving and follow-through — than kids whose lives are more continuously structured by adults.”

I'm not sure about you, but I'm finding myself constantly telling my kids (sometimes yelling at my kids), "Mom is WORKING, kids are PLAYING. Find something to do." My kids used to be absolutely awful at figuring out their own free play activity, and they still struggle in this area. But I've noticed, as time in quarantine has moved along, my kids are actually getting a bit better at free play. I've observed longer sessions of unstructured play, new bonds between siblings, more creative play, and less time in my face. Don't get me wrong, I got at least 12 interruptions with questions as I attempted to take my first shower in days yesterday... but I'm seeing growth.

This article made me realize that perhaps what feels like neglect (when I push away the picture book my child is asking me to read- I know... I'm evil) might actually be a gift.

Spheres of Control

Image from Elena Aguliar's Bright Morning Website

This is an image that I refer often to in my role as an instructional coach, and I've been thinking about it in my own life these last few weeks. There is SO much that we don't have control over right now, so I'm working on thinking about where I'm putting my energy. 

I don't have control over the fact that my daughter is not getting the instruction and social interaction that is best for her age and developmental level, and that is hard for me! However, I do have control over how joyful our learning is at home. I can influence her confidence and love for learning through reading high quality books with her and valuing her mathematical thinking as we work together. 

I don't have control over the fact that my 4 year old twins don't get to go to preschool or interact with peers, but I can take this time to snuggle them more than I usually would. I have control over how much I read to them, take time to put out some messy projects for them, and really bond with them in a way that is hard to do when I'm working all day. 

I don't have control over when this social distancing will end, or what it will look like when it eases up. However, I can influence the amount of gratitude my family spends time focusing on as we stay socially distant. I can build in routines to state what we are thankful for at each dinner conversation, and remind myself to stay vocal about what I'm thankful for so the culture of my house stays positive on what we have - not what we don't have. 

This is not easy for me in other areas.  I don't have control over the millions of children who are suffering right now.  I don't have control over the plight of our amazing health care workers. I'm working on accepting these facts, and shifting my energies to what I can control and influence. Today when I find myself fixated on what I cannot control, I will look back at this image and consider where I'm putting my energy. 

Hope you can find ways to give your own pep talks today... thanks for listening to mine!

Teaching Reading - Part 1

Teaching reading to K-2 used to scare me. Really really scare me. It seemed like magic that these teachers could somehow get these wiggly kids with short attention spans to go from recognizing letters to READING. There must be magic dust involved. My teacher training focused on  grades 3-8 reading, you know.... when they could pretty much already read.

As an instructional coach, I've had the privilege to partner with our fabulous D101 K-2 team of teachers the last 4 years. I also had the chance to spend a week learning to teach 1st grade reading at the Teachers College in NY last summer with Lucy Calkins. I'm not scared anymore, I am still in awe of K-2 teachers, however I feel like I'm starting to be able to articulate in my own head some key moves for teaching reading. I plan to have multiple posts on this, but I'll start with what's been working with my own 2nd grader.

Full disclosure: ALL CHILDREN ARE DIFFERENT which is why teaching is so challenging and exciting - I'm just sharing my experience with this one spunky 2nd grader. This type of instruction is called startegy instruction.

STEP 1 - Choose an awesome book- Pick a book that is interesting to both you and your child. This book should be SLIGHTLY above where your child can comprehend on their own. You can test this by having your child read one page. If they make just a couple mistakes, but generally get the gist - you are good to go. You might also choose a book with meaty content that your child can easily decode, but that's very interesting to discuss. Your child should be interested in the book - you might try the site Good Reads or google "best books for 3rd graders" for ideas. Chloe and I choose Because of Winn-Dixie.

STEP 2- Switch off reading every other page - By taking on part of the reading load, you are not only giving your child a break but you are sharing in the experience of reading. You are making it a bonding experience while providing an excellent model of fluent reading.

STEP 3- Listen to your child read- are there decoding issues?  This might be trickier since you don't have training, but you can do it! What types of mistakes is your child making with decoding? Is it that they are just skipping hard words? Mumbling through them? Stopping all together when they get to a word they don't know?  Note the problems and get prepared to teach into them. For Chloe, my very much NOT precise daughter, I noticed she was just flying through the page. She'd replace words with other words and mumble through tricky words. Even when things didn't make sense! So we made this goal together and it sits by her each time we read.

STEP 4- Ask questions and see if you can come up with a thinking/comprehension goal- As I listened to my Chloe fly through pages and I asked a few open ended questions, I realized that she was really taking things at a surface level as she read. I wanted her to pause and think a bit deeper, maybe even start to infer. Because of Winn Dixie has some awesome character development, so I choose a goal centered on thinking about characters both on the inside AND outside.

STEP 5- Let the CHILD do the hard work - These are the goals Chloe and I will work on for the whole book. She doesn't write about them, we just discuss. When we read, we always look at the goals first. When I'm reading my page I try to model when I have to STOP, and re-read because it didn't make sense. I try to model what I'm learning about characters on the inside and outside. But here is the hard part- when Chloe is reading I work VERY hard not to jump in too soon and ask - "did that make sense" when she starts mumbling. I will stop her, but I want her to learn to stop herself so I let her struggle a bit. When I ask about characters I try to leave my questions open ended to see if she can figure it out, "so what did we learn about Opal there?"  It's not easy, I often slip and jump in too soon.. but I'm working on it!

I'm new to this blogging thing, but if someone wants to know something else about reading - post a comment. I'd love to hear what parents want to know more about!

How do you spell....

Taken from @letmeknowhowitgoes (follow Meghan Hargrave on Instagram for more awesome tips)

One of your kids is asking (ok whining) for a snack, another kid is asking you to put on her princess's shoe, you are trying to compose a work email, and your E-Learner asks you how to spell a word. It is tempting to just spell the word for your child, so tempting that I've done it often. Often enough that I started to notice my 2nd grader asking more and more often - creating a dependence on me to spell her words for her. So when I saw this post by Meghan Hargraves (see image above), I quickly reflected and knew that I needed to shift some of my own "crisis teaching" practices. 

I needed to remember that the only way that Chloe will learn to spell is by working and thinking about sounds while attempting to phonetically spell. Accuracy is not the goal for beginner spellers, instead it's about encouraging my child to try and try again while staying reflective and thinking about what she is doing. My CHILD needs to do the hard work if I want her to learn to spell, I have to stop doing the work for her.

Here are the steps I took:

I pulled out 2 post-its and told Chloe, "Today I'm going to teach you what to do when you get stuck and you are not sure how to spell a word. Then when you don't know how to spell a word you will go to these strategies and not have to ask someone else to spell the word for you. These post-its will be like your spelling super-power."

I told her I was going to show her how to use these strategies, then we'd try together (this is the "I do" stage or model stage of guided practice). I talked about how yesterday I was writing in my blog and I needed to write the word ferocious. I explained that I was going to use an easier word, but I decided to be brave. So I...

• Said the word out loud slowly and listened to the parts.
• I wrote down the beginning and the end f          s
• I chunked the word up part-by part - Fer- o - cious (I showed her how I started with tious, but it didn't look right- so I changed it to cious).
• NOTE: I'm doing the work at this part - not asking questions- so Chloe can see the steps

Next we tried a word together (this is the "we do" part of guided practice). We talked about a character in Winn Dixie, the book we are reading together. We decided to spell friendly. So we went through our steps:

• We said the word out loud slowly and listened to the parts.
• We wrote down the beginning and the end
• We chunked the word up part-by part

Finally, I had her write her E-Learning assignment (this is the "you do" part of guided practice). I told her to get my attention when she is being brave and spelling a word so she could talk about what her brain is doing and how she's using the strategies.

Chloe has not shifted to a spelling master overnight with this instruction, but she has moved ever so slightly towards independence. She's doing the work of thinking about sounds, therefore learning and reflecting each time she writes. She's closer to not letting the unknown get in the way of what she's trying to say. Did she ask me how to spell a word again - yes (insert eye roll here). However, when she asked I pointed to the post-its and nudged her towards spelling independently without having to hold her hand.

  

Parenting and Teaching (???) in Challenging Times

Click here to find Kari Gough's (Forest Hills Social Worker and D101 parent) thoughts on parenting and teaching in challenging times. 

Covid-19 Hierarchy of Needs for Schools

I came across this image on twitter (thanks @jaydostal) and I feel it absolutely represents where our D101 families should be placing priorities right now. For those of you unfamiliar with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, here is a little overview of the psychological theory. In short, it's a theory that states people have needs that need to be satisfied before we move up on the pyramid and can begin filling other needs. As teachers, this is why we know we prioritize community and belonging before learning can take place. It's the reason why students struggle when they don't have enough to eat  or are not sleeping enough. It's why we prioritize socio-emotional wellness and continually work to create a culture that meets our students needs in this area.

In this current context of shelter in place, our D101 teachers know that you and your family might have battles that you are fighting. You might have a healthcare workers in the family, jobs might be at risk, two parents might be working demanding jobs while balancing E-Learning, multiple children with various needs in the family might be E-learning, and more. Please know that your teachers and administrators are here to support you and are have our hearts and minds in the right place. Take care of your family first, and realize school is SECOND.

Your D101 teachers miss their students, care for your students, and are doing their best to try to find the "just right" amount of tasks and assignments. Please be patient with us as we figure out E-learning, communicate early with your teacher if you are experiencing issues, and know your family needs come first. Skip a task if you need to, reduce the amount of problems your child does, or switch up the reading assignment - it's OK! You know what your kid needs more than anyone else right now.