Allie Meier-Post 4-Chapter 4-Teach with a Sense of Urgency

  I enjoy the quotes that are presented in the book at the start of each chapter. They are short but hit home and are very meaningful. This chapter in particular hit home with me. I feel that I do teach with a sense of urgency on a regular basis. How people interpret a "sense of urgency" might be different. Making every moment in the classroom count is what I strive for on a regular basis. The thought or wasting precious time in the classroom makes me uneasy. My first few years my sense of urgency was driving primary by anxiety where this year I continue to have the same attitude about having a sense of urgency each day, but I am relaxed and strive to have fun with my students to keep their engagement. I loved the top five things list to ensure students become excellent readers. This year more than any other year in my career my students are self selecting books, getting their hands on multiple titles daily and I am really starting to see their self drive and love of reading come alive. Going from a scripted program with a basal vs. relying heavily on using your classroom library solely to teach reading has keep me a little nervous, at least the first month of this school year.
   On pp. 48 it talks about working toward independence. That is one aspect of my classroom that has made a complete turn. My students are not relying on me, they are gaining confidence, learning strategies to guide them, and are more actively engaged in conversation and learning experiences with their peers more than ever. In my short few years as a teacher I have never seem first graders become so independent this early in the school year. On a side note my concern is, are they ready for independence yet? My model for reading and writing this year are separate blocks of our schedule. We do Daily 5 in the morning and do our writing workshop model in the afternoon. I do however integrate our writing workshop into Daily 5 during my short 10 minute mini lessons. We will discuss what we are working on during writing workshop and I encourage students (as one of their choices for Daily 5 working on writing) to practice what we did days prior in writing workshop. In most cases I do not have to remind them but they will instinctively choose to write a letter during their working on writing rotation when we are in fact learning to write a friendly letter during writing workshop.
  I am however still trying to improve and make my mini lessons during Daily 5 meaningful and I did find the text-solving activities and word solving activities useful suggestions for lessons during that time.