The Learning Spark

Teaching my kindergartners to read was so frustrating my first year. As kindergarten teachers, we naturally focus a lot on phonics.  After all, our main objective is to teach students the alphabet!  We spend a lot of time drilling and practicing letter names and sounds.  So, after spending so much time on letter/sound instruction, I'd bring small groups of students to the reading table and would give them books provided by our big box curriculum.  Suddenly, I had to tell students to stop sounding out the words and basically throw everything out the window that we had previously been learning. Example of a "repetitive" or "predictable" text. Another example of a "repetitive" or "predictable" text. "Oh, this word you can't sound out. Look at the picture, does it give you a clue?" I was so frustrated that these stories could not be read without me telling them the sentence pattern or having them look at the pictures fo...

Attending the 2018 SDE I Teach Conference in Las Vegas was so inspirational! I learned so much and got to connect with educators from around the country.  I loved hearing from a variety of speakers and teachers on all different topics. There was something to take away from each presentation and I loved being able to customize my schedule for the things I needed to hear.  Here are some of my highlights and top tips if you are planning to go: 1. Check In Early We checked in at the Venetian on Sunday evening and even then we experienced a long line...but it was nothing compared to the check-in line on Monday.  So, as soon as you get into town, I'd recommend checking in at your hotel. Also, SDE was nice enough to open up registration on Sunday evening as well.  So we walked around the hotel a bit and then made our way to the SDE booth.  There was no line and I was able to pick up my registration materials and take some pics without fighting my way through h...

When my two oldest boys were in swimming lessons, I remember watching them, amused, as they'd literally walk back and forth between the width of the pool while making big swim strokes with their arms.  I'd see other kids in the class actually swimming...but my boys? They were walking.  They were going through the motions of swimming, without actually swimming. This is often what we see in classrooms today.  Students appear to be reading...some even become quite expert at keeping up the appearance.  Their arms are doing their strokes perfectly...but if you look under the water?  They're only walking.   Let me explain. I had a student one year who severely struggled in school.   By the end of her kindergarten year, she only knew a handful of letters.  I remember placing a book in front of her as I administered our state-mandated end-of-year kindergarten test.  She vaguely looked at the words on the page and then studied the p...