Small...I mean BIG victories!

I can't believe it's been three months since I have blogged. I have spent some time thinking about what to blog about, because after all, I better make it good since it's been so long since I shared my thoughts and celebrations in my classroom!

After some thought, I've decided to share the small...I mean BIG victories that are currently happening in my class.

This year has been challenging and I know that there is always a reason behind why things happen the way they do and why I was "given" my class.

It takes determination, creativity, and time to reach every child. However, that is my job, so all year I have been on a mission...which by the way would not be possible without the special education teacher to whom I co-teach with daily.

In two words, I can tell you what has created the successes in my class this year...differentiated instruction, across the board. That means, small group, small group, small group instruction! Oh, and all of my kids get small group instruction, not just kids needing remediation. I'll come back to this on a later post.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I teach math in small groups. I do this so that every child will get what he/she needs. I spent the first several months of school holding my breath, hoping that what we were doing was working. Several weeks ago, I realized its impact when I was grading the math tests. One struggling math student scored a 100% on his math test. I wanted to shout from the roof how excited I was. I decided that may be a little inappropriate, so I just called his mom instead. :-) As I began to grade the rest of the math tests, I was so pleased with the scores of my struggling learners (and my non-struggling learners).

I had a moment...a moment when I knew that we were successful. Success is important in any job, but because this type of success involved 8 and 9 year olds, it was even more thrilling!

So, differentiated instruction is not just for struggling learners. In fact, that would be so unfair if I only differentiated for struggling learners. In January, I instituted an additional responsibility in school...computerized written response based on a read aloud or chapter book we are reading. (They respond to their reading all the time, so this is just one more way) They have to answer one post per week (they only get the opportunity 2 or 3 days per week to answer). I make a big deal out of this new responsibility and the importance of written response. I relate it to their lives, because I believe that unless they can connect to what is being learned, it will be meaningless. I mentioned that if they wanted, they could complete posts at home, but it certainly was not required.

One by one, kids started doing extra work, completing 3 or 4 posts per week. What makes an 8 or 9 year old want to do extra work!? Again, I had a moment. We look at the posts as a class and discuss what makes a good post. Doing this challenges the kids to make their responses better than the last. I had one girl say to me, "Mrs. Neft, I answered a post at home and I tried really hard to make it even better than my last one. I love the drive she has. This type of differentiation has almost been created by the kids, with me being the cheerleader. Cool.

I know I was born to teach. I know that the challenges I face this year will only make me stronger.

So, some may see these as small victories, but I see them as big victories. And, this is perfect evidence to support my educational philosophy that all kids can learn, they just learn differently.

Everyday, my students help me become the best teacher possible. Thank you to those little people who experience such big victories each and every day.

Just Write, Right?

I love to teach writing.

I also love to teach character education. 

During the essay unit we do, the kids observe or notice events, objects or people around them. Then, they think about what it/they mean(s) to them. It's always during this unit where I learn so much about my students. Essay beginnings such as: "What does being trustworthy mean? OR Why can't people do what they are supposed to do? flood my classroom.

Struggling writers no longer have as big of a struggle. Avid writers seem to write essay after essay; reflecting on the world around them. Yes, they are 8 and 9. And, yes, their views are fascinating and very real. And finally, YES they LOVE to WRITE. Why? Simple. They are writing about topics that interest them.

My kids also blog. They go on to our class blog and write. They edit and revise. They can't post without doing so. They write about what INTERESTS them. See, it's simple. INTEREST. You can view their blog to see the beginnings of their essays.

My kids' response to literature has improved.
Their discussions have become rich and engaging.
Vocabulary development is obvious through their writing.


I love to teach writing.

They don't miss a beat!

There are a couple of things that I have learned about teaching over the last five years. First, most of what you learn about teaching doesn't come from college classes...it comes from on the job experience. Second, a teacher's work is NEVER done. Third, a teacher plays many roles each day. And finally, and quite possibly the most important, the kids will never forget the silly mistakes you make.

Case in point: During Writer's Workshop, we are working on our essay unit created by Lucy Calkins. (I'll get to her in a minute). As I was modeling how to develop ideas, I wrote my name on the board and had the kids come up with three things about me that they could write about. Here is what they came up with:

1. When a humongous spider crawled out of my bag; I screamed and went running to get someone to kill it.
2. When my computer had a run-in with a semi-open gatorade bottle.
3. When I forgot to put our egg in our contraption for our egg-drop experiment.


Forget reading, writing, science, social studies and math...what my kids will remember about me is that I make mistakes...and that they were pretty funny. In actuality, isn't that what teaching is all about? Something to ponder.

3rd graders don't miss a beat, and that's what I love about them.

Back to Lucy Calkins. I love this woman. She knows everything about reading and writing. I don't have a single child in my class who is a reluctant writer. They all like to write. Maybe that's because of my enthusiasm, but my excitement stems from the fact that "I love Lucy."

I don't have a resource to share that is relevant to this post. However, I have tagged some many awesome sites on my delicious account.

5 weeks left. Pretty unbelievable. Have a good week!