Our district has a two-hour delay today. Yay!!! Instead of refreshing the school website every 5 minutes to see if we have closed instead, I figured I'd update this blog.

Over the summer, I stumbled upon this post by Scholastic and was inspired to create my own class mascot. I immediately went on Amazon and bought this dude:

I introduced him to the class in the beginning of the year and he stayed on my desk for months. I got questions about him almost every single day but I never found the right time to officially introduce him. A few weeks ago, I made time for him. As a class, we came up with some ideas for possible names and then we took a vote. They came up with some really cute ones! Chubby was my favorite but in the end the class votes showed Sparky was the winner.

The kids were so excited to have a part in naming him but they were even more excited when I said Sparky would go home with them on the weekends! I bought a notebook from the dollar store and created the cover above. I laminated the cover because I know it's going to get a lot of wear and tear! Every Friday I send Sparky home in a little backpack with the journal. The students are supposed to bring it back in the next school day, usually Monday and then share with the class about what they did. 

 I created a parent letter describing the project and also included a calendar of when each student would take Sparky home. This way parents could let me know if that wasn't a good weekend (ex: going on a vacation, wedding that weekend, etc.) 

I taped this letter inside the journal so parents and students have an idea of what to write about. Now that we're a few weeks in, most of them will probably just refer to the other journal entries from students.

Here's an example of the calendar. Underneath the black is where all of the students' names are. This helps parents know when their weekend is coming up.

It has been so much fun reading the entries.  I had one student who brought it back to school without any writing. It made me a little sad but at least he brought it back! I have some student work samples below. This student really went above and beyond!

Sparky had an indoor snowball fight. So cute! 

Sparky played school and got a report card!

I put the journal in my writing center. When students have extra time or finish their work early, they can read the journal and spend some time with Sparky.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I love this project and can't wait to see what else my kids come up with! Do you use a weekend writing journal in your classroom or a class mascot?

Clipart Credit

The Vidal Scholarship Fund: Humans of New York

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

If you're on Facebook, you've probably already heard of the popular page Humans of New York. If you haven't, then stop what you're doing and go there now! I love this blog so much. Brandon Stanton photographs strangers in New Yorks and asks them deep, personal questions and amazingly finds out shocking and sometimes devastating stories. Sometimes there is a really inspiring post like the one below. He interviewed a young boy named Vidal. When Brandon asked him, "Who's influenced you most in life?" Viral answered, 

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

"My principal, Ms. Lopez."

"How has she influenced you?"

"When we get in trouble, she doesn't suspend us. She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter."

Little did he know, that comment about Ms. Lopez would lead Brandon to go hunt down the principal Ms. Lopez and eventually lead to a creation of an enormous fundraiser that (as I type) is at around $800,000. I'm confident it will be $1,000,000 in a few days. The funds will be used to send students on field trips to Harvard, create a safe summer program, and also be used for scholarship funds. Just amazing!

Along with the fundraiser, he has also been interviewing the staff and students at Vidal's school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy. I'm going to let the photos and stories speak for themselves. If you'd like to donate, click on this link and help send some kids to Harvard! 

https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/let-s-send-kids-to-harvard

 

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

“I grew up down the block, but I used to get bussed to school in a white area. There were always a lot of people in that neighborhood who would make us feel like we didn’t belong. They would try to send a message that blacks aren’t allowed. But the principal of the school was a Jewish man named Irving Rahinsky. And every morning, when we got off the bus, Mr. Rahinksy would be standing there at the curb, waiting for us. He would shake each one of our hands as we stepped off the bus, and he made us feel like we belonged. So now that I’m a teacher, I come in early every single morning, so that I can stand right here and make sure my students get a hug and a handshake when they arrive.”

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

“I can teach a lot of things. But it’s so hard to teach effort. It’s so hard to teach want. And there are certain days when it seems like the scholars don’t care, and you feel like no matter how hard you try, nothing is getting through, and the negative thoughts get louder and louder, and it’s easy to feel worthless. And today was one of those days. Normally I’m always the one with a smile on my face, cheering everybody up. But today was one of those days.”

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

“Sometimes the gaps are so large, you don’t even know where to start. The lesson plan says that you’re supposed to be teaching about tectonic plates. But if they’re going to understand tectonic plates, they need to understand density. And if they’re going to understand density, they need to understand mass and volume. And if they’re going to understand mass and volume, they need to know how to multiply. And some of the scholars don’t know how to multiply. The gaps can be so large you don’t even know where to start. How do you fill the gaps created by years of miseducation? Sometimes it feels so hopeless you want to give up. But I was up at 2 AM the other night, reading all the comments people were writing on the posts about Ms. Lopez, and I just kept scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, and it reminded me that I have a purpose and I need to keep going.”

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

“I was a teacher in Nigeria. I had 41 students in my classroom. Most of my students in Nigeria had no shoes, no clothes, no food. Nothing, nothing. But they wanted to learn. They showed up every day wanting to learn. When I told my colleagues that I was going to teach in America, they said: ‘Don’t do it. The students there don’t want to learn. They will scream all during class.’ In a way, they were right. My classrooms in America were much different than my classrooms in Nigeria. There were fewer students, and more resources, but there was not the same desire to learn. I’ve had to learn to teach motivation. And I’ve found that the only way it can be done is to show it myself. I try to teach each child as if they were my own. If the students see that I am trying my hardest every single day, many times they will respond by increasing their own effort.”

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

“I used to be a public defender. One time I represented a man who was facing thirty years for crack possession. He hadn’t graduated from middle school, and he had a previous record with several drug charges. I worked on his case, and I managed to get his sentence reduced to twelve years. He was always so good about thanking me, and after the case was finished, he wrote me a thank you note. It really bothered me that we live in a society where this man felt he needed to thank me for getting him a twelve-year prison term. I didn’t decide to become a teacher until two years later. But I always think of that note as the turning point. I still keep it in my classroom.”

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

"Vidal is very loving. I sometimes worry that he might be a bit too loving, and someone will take advantage of him one day. Anything that needs to be done, Vidal does it. He does laundry. He cooks. He cleans. He always tells me: 'Mom, you rest. I'll do it.' One time he didn't have any money to get me a gift for Mother's Day, so he wrapped up some things we had around the house, and gave them to me."

Photo credit: Brandon Stanton

"What's your biggest goal in life?"
"I want to make it out of the hood. I don't have to go that far. But if I can just live an inch outside, then I'll feel safe and know that I'm straight."

That last one really gets to me! I hope you enjoyed this post and feel as inspired as I do. If you would like to contribute, here is the link again! https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/let-s-send-kids-to-harvard

Happy Teaching!

Mrs. Wokanick

Instant Success with Happy Notes (FREEBIE)

For the first few months of school, I had a stack of readily copied behavior forms when students acted out in school. I really only used them during exteme problem behaviors like when a student would physically or verbally hurt another student. I used them for documentation, accountability, and to alert parents of a concern. They are useful and I definitely need them, but I was forgetting one very important tip I received at the beginning of the year. Don’t forget to send the positive things home too! With that in mind, I made these simple “happy notes.”

On the first day I used them, I gave them to a student of mine who may not get the most positive comments most of the time. He was so excited to get his happy note that he propped it up on the corner of his desk so he could see it all day. All it said on it was, “You’re doing such a great job!”

When he came in to school the next day, I asked him if he showed it to his mom. He smiled and said, “Yessss.” I asked him what she said about it and he shyly said, “I don’t remember” and scurried off to his seat. I continue what I’m doing and about a minute later, he came running over and said that she gave him a big hug and said, “That’s my boy!” Happy tears!! I wish I did this sooner.

 

I just copied them onto yellow paper and keep them in my desk like this.

Every now and then, I write one out and privately give it to a student at my desk. I make a valient effort to not make it a competitive thing or use it as an incentive. It’s not a prize that students get. It’s just…a happy note! :)

Click on the link below the picture to get your FREEBIE! I hope it helps increase your positive communication with students and their families.

Click for your freebie!

Welcome to the neighborhood!

Hello everybody! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I created this website in August with the intention of blogging about my very first teaching job ever. I imagined that I would be updating it every few days from the very first day. Well, after 21 first graders poured into my classroom, the last thing on my mind was a blog. Now that I'm halfway through the school year, I feel like I can finally catch my breath and take some time for reflection and sharing. I'm excited to post more and share about all that I've learned (and about some of my challenges too). I am so inspired by many other bloggers and I hope someday I will have something to offer to other educators!

Happy Teaching!

Danielle Wokanick