High Five! Strategies

When I began my teaching career, I taught middle school social studies. Thankfully, I didn't teach a testing grade level so I never had to worry about the dreaded TAKS test. Two years ago, I made the transition down to 5th grade and with that came an exit level STAAR reading test. As a teacher, I was overwhelmed with all of the "strategies" presented for testing prep and I remembered as a student how difficult it was to recall everything and panic about whether or not I remembered to do all 57 strategies: Read the questions first, read the passage twice, circle vocabulary, read the passage again, write a 3 sentence summary after every paragraph, read the passage again, write your name backwards at the top of the page but only with purple ink and while hopping on one foot. {Well, maybe I exaggerated a bit on a few of them but you get the idea.} I found that my students were more worried about remembering their long list of strategies rather than actually putting those strategies to use. I decided to narrow it down and create an easy and simple way for the students to remember their testing strategies: The High Five! Strategies 

When students get their test, the first thing they do is find a blank space or page to write down "their hand" so that they can refer back to it if they forget what strategies to use. {For some reason, it took a couple of tries before they actually realized that just writing these down didn't mean they were actually using them!}

It's no secret that with the transition from TAKS into STAAR, we saw questions that required more higher order thinking skills. Instead of a question asking "Why is Bob sad?" the question now reads "Based on the passage, the reader can conclude that Bob is sad because..." Strategy #1 is to go straight to the questions, read only the question, figure out what it is asking, and rewrite in a way that is easier to understand. 

Since the questions were rewritten first, we don't have to stop, get frustrated because we don't understand and forgot everything that we just read in our passage while deciphering the questions. 

Strategy #2 is to look for the vocabulary words throughout the passage and use context clues if we do not already know the meaning. This too helps us keep momentum while reading the passage since we are not having to pause and decipher a word.

Strategies #3 and 4 are done together. We read about half of the page then pause for a short summary. Some students will write only a couple of words and some students will write full sentences. Have you ever been reading a book, magazine or newspaper, gone to turn the page and realized you have no idea what you've just read? Your eyes did the reading but your brain didn't do the processing! The point of the half page summary is to catch that before we've read an entire passage. If you can't write a couple of words to summarize what you've just read, then you didn't really read it. Better to catch that mistake now and re-read 3 paragraphs than a two page passage! 

Strategy #5 is to answer and prove questions. Students will prove their answers differently but they know if they can write down where they found the information or explain how they came to that answer, they have a better chance of answering the question correctly. It also helps me to determine where they might have gone wrong in their thought process. I tell them that they are not allowed to turn in a math test without showing their work or their math teacher can't explain what they did wrong. It's the same theory for reading. I can't help them see their mistakes if all they've given me is a blank reading passage with only an answer choice circled. 

The High Five! Strategies are done differently with each student. Some will need to rewrite all the questions, and some will understand them just fine the way they are. Some will need to use context clues to determine all of the vocabulary words in a passage, and some will already know all of those words. Some will write a few words to summarize, and some will write sentences. They each make the strategies their own but it's their roadmap. Their cheat sheet. Their testing aide. Their High Five! 

Thank a Teacher!

Teaching isn't an easy profession. Yes, we get summers off and spring breaks and holidays and so on. Yet we put in well over a standard 40 hours of work each week. Anyone who said teaching is easy has obviously never set foot inside of a classroom. We have good days and we have bad days. We have high days and we have low days. We have strength days and we have struggle days. We have days that make us feel like super heroes and we have days that make us want to walk out and never look back. 

We look to the little things to brighten up our darkest days. Whether it's a handwritten note or an original piece of student's artwork, those little things light our days more than our students realize. 

But more important than that is the validation we get from the parents. You give your children to us for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 months a year. We spend more time each day with your children then we spend with our own children. We need to know that you appreciate us and support us in what we are doing. Nothing makes me feel more like a super hero than a parent thanking me for helping their child grow or letting me know just how much of an impact I've had on their child's life. 

As a parent, I never let a holiday, school party or birthday go by without showing gratitude and appreciation to Audrey's teachers. It doesn't always have to be a fancy or elaborate gift. Just a token of our appreciation for all of their dedication to our child. 

For Valentines Day, I put these together for Audrey's teachers. Each cup held a Starbucks gift card and a handful of Hershey's hugs and kisses candy. I created a printable tag that said "Thanks a LATTE for all of the hugs and kisses you give me every day!" I let Audrey color and scribble on them then attached them to the straws.

A simple gift like this could be used for teachers, friends, family or any special person in your life. I'm sure you have a "latte" people to be thankful for! 

Meet the McGregors

In my first post, I mentioned that Mondays would be all about meal prepping. However, this weekend we painted our master bedroom and bathroom in preparation for our new furniture that should be arriving in the next few weeks. Once all of that was finally finished at about 3:00 Sunday afternoon, spending several hours in the kitchen was the last thing I wanted to do. I did manage to throw some lunches together for Nick with some things I had in the fridge and pantry. I have 2 days of staff development this week which means 2 days of having a 1-hour lunch break. {Outside of school. In a restaurant. With only adults.} So meal makin' for myself wasn't so necessary this week. For dinners this week, I'm taking from my pre-made freezer stash that I haven't fully depleted yet. {Be on the lookout for a freezer cooking post!}

So instead of Meal Makin' Monday, today is Meet the McGregors Monday!

Obviously if you are reading this, you know one or all of us, but I thought I'd tell you a little bit more about us, some of our methods, and what makes us 'us'. 

Nick and I met during April of our freshman year at Texas A&M University. We lived one floor apart from each other in the same dorm all year but did not meet until our mutual friends introduced us. He had me with the first four words I ever heard him say, "What's up, I'm Nick." The day after meeting Nick, I told my friend that I would marry him one day. We hit the ground running on April 14, 2005 and never looked back. That's the McGregor Method... 

We were married in March 2009 on Friday the 13th even though some people thought we were crazy. Not believing in bad luck, but believing that you make your own luck, that's the McGregor Method...

In August 2011, our world became better than we had ever known when we laid eyes on our precious daughter for the first time. Loving someone from the moment you meet them, that's the McGregor Method...

After 5 years of marriage and 9 years of living life together, he still makes me laugh until I cry at least once a day. We know what methods work for us and what methods work our family. I know that unless something is on his calendar, it ain't happening or I never told him about it. So I send him text messages or give him a handwritten note with his upcoming "Nick-tenarary" items and he puts them in his calendar in his own way. That's his method and I respect it. He knows that I will prepare a weeks worth of meals in one day, but sometimes I can't seem to put my shoes on the shoe rack or my dirty clothes in the hamper. That's my method. He respects it and bought a house with two separate master closets. That's the McGregor Method...

Even our 2.5 year old has her own methods. Every day we see a little bit of me and a little bit of him in her. We can't wait to watch that little personality develop over time. Laying all of your babies, animals, blocks and flash cards face down in a pile and patting each one of them until they go night night, that's the McGregor Method...

 

As the saying goes, "We may not have it all together, but together we have it all." 

That's the McGregor Method...

Powerful Posting (or not...)

How do you start the first sentence of the first paragraph of the first blog entry on your first blog?

As a language arts teacher, I teach my students about the power of that first sentence. Your first chance to hook your reader. Yet, here I sit staring at a blank screen searching the back of my mind for that perfect hook. Clearly, I’m failing so let’s just jump in…  

I’ve thought about having a blog for a while now. After all, I’ve been avid blog reader for quite some time. I check in daily with family fun blogs, entertaining blogs like Skinny Meg, connected educator blogs like Technically yours, Teamann, and my favorite guilty pleasure, Mama Laughlin. So while reading and browsing others, I’ve had the thought of “Hey, maybe I should do that!” cross my mind. But then doubt creeps in and I think that no one except my own parents will probably want to read my blog (Hi Mom & Dad!). And I’m also reminded of my strong dislike for writing. Short story…

You see, I majored in History at Texas A&M University. The last semester of my final year I was required to take a senior seminar covering military history. The entire semester was spent writing and preparing a research presentation. The topic I chose was about the history of the media during times of war. I spent five long months preparing an 83 page research paper to present to the class. {Well, maybe in reality it was only a 25 page research paper, but when you’re 22 and the only thing standing between you and graduation is that one dreaded paper, it feels like 83 pages.} After that class, I avoided writing like the plague. Sure, I would write small 100 word essays with my fifth grade class, but other than that you wouldn’t find me jumping in any further than that.  

Now that’s it’s been almost 6 (SIX?!) years since that tedious research paper, I think I’m finally able to move on and find a love of writing.

Enter: The McGregor Method

Like I said, I’ve been reading blogs for over a year and one of the other hesitations I’ve had with starting my own is that I wasn’t sure where I would fit in to this blogging world. Am I lifestyle blogger? An educational blogger? A mommy blogger? A healthy living blogger? Then one day, I realized it didn’t matter. I could be all of those things because I AM all of those things!

I like do crazy things like meal prep once a week, color coordinate my closet, complete lesson plans up to 9 weeks in advance and all kinds of other fun things {insert eye rolling here}. My husband and daughter are no different, we all have our own methods.  I often get asked how we do it all, so I’ll be sharing The McGregor Method with you in all sorts of ways.  Join me for:

Meal Makin’ Mondays
Teachin’ Tuesdays
Wordless Wednesdays
Tiny Tot Thursdays
Freestyle Fridays

{Can you tell I like alliteration?}

Some of our methods are practical, some of our methods are hilarious, and some border on obsessive-compulsive. But they’re our methods and they make our life better and maybe they’ll make your life easier too. Read ‘em! And if you love ‘em, pin ‘em and share ‘em!