“Harvest” a Good Book – the @BookItProgram Principal Challenge #youngreaders #cpchat

Today is November 9, 2015 – the first day of the Principal Challenge. It is part of National Young Readers Week, sponsored by Pizza Hut.

Last year I went “hunting” for a good book. Students gave quick book talks for me, and I documented their suggestions for the whole school. This year, our theme is to “harvest” a good book. Our artist-in-residence is a local author, Lisl H. Detlefsen. She wrote a children’s book about a cranberry harvest, a top industry in Central Wisconsin. Lisl and her family run a cranberry marsh. Her book is accurate, engaging and fun to read aloud.

I started the week off by coming into school with my gardening gear – gloves, seeds, my hat, rake, ho, and some locally grown produce. I referred to myself as “Farmer Renwick”, although the students’ first impression was that I was a cowboy. I’ll have to work on my costuming for next year’ theme.

Once I shared a little bit about my own hobby, I tied it the concept of harvest to a book I read aloud to classrooms. Teachers signed their classes up for half hour slots during the day and met me in the LMC. Each book was selected for its gardening/harvest theme and its age level appropriateness.

Grade K-1 selections:

Grade 2-3 selection:

Grade 4-5 selection:

Inviting classrooms to sign up for a read aloud with me for the Principal Challenge had a number of benefits. First, the students got to see me in a different light. I was out of the office, dressed up like a farmer/cowboy, and able to share about a hobby of mine (gardening) that was connected to authentic literature. Second, I modeled instruction in front of my faculty. They observed me teaching their students. They also witnessed me making teaching mistakes during the read aloud and discussions. Finally, we set the stage for our artist-in-residence coming later this week. (Not to be forgotten is also qualifying our school for possibly winning 101 copies of the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book!)

Principals: It’s pretty simple to set something like this up for your school. The best part is you have the rest of this week to make it happen!

(Picture: Previewing Time for Cranberries with my son’s 3rd grade class)

Where I Am Right Now with Being a Connected Learner

In this post for Powerful Learning Practice, I explore whether or not teachers should disconnect from their personal learning networks over the summer. I can see both sides of the argument, simply stated here:

I think this is a dilemma that many professional educators face. Do we get away from all things school-related for the summer? Or should we stay connected to and continue to develop our personal learning networks and nurture our professional growth?

In the comments section, Joy Kirr shares her perspective:

Matt, What I know right now… is that I’m PASSIONATE about teaching. I take breaks, it’s true, but my summer is all about growing myself and striving to make next year even BETTER. I think, if we strive for mastery, it is because we WANT to, and we know we’ll never get there – such is the allure. 🙂 So, yes, I agree that we need to fit in valuable time with family and friends while unplugged from other teachers. I also believe that if it is truly our passion, no one can keep us from it.

I happen to share a similar passion for lifelong learning and education as Joy. Like her, I seek to better myself as an elementary principal for my students, as well as my own desire to be the best I can be. For example, I am taking my first MOOC, about teaching and assessment in the 21st century, through the University of Melbourne. There are assignments and certain expectations, and I am certainly not obligated to complete it. Yet I am one of 13,000 people enrolled in this course. That is a lot of educators who have the same dispositions as Joy and me, who want to grow themselves.

After the post was shared, I have had time to reflect on it some more. This is the nature of learning: It is never done, and the more we learn, the more we want to learn more. One thought I had was, are there any instances where I am disconnected, but I am still able to utilize digital-based resources? Immediately, I though of the garden blog/journal I recently created with Postach.io. To share images, audio, and/or text and publish it on the blog, all I have to do is put the media into a note within the appropriate Evernote notebook. Tag it “published”, and it pops up.

So why not get a regular garden journal to document any discoveries from this hobby of mine? I did have one, actually, but I had a propensity for leaving it outside as I became enamored with one of my beds. It did not last long after a few rains.

So there it is. A way to use connected tools while still staying disconnected. Maybe these two worlds are not as mutually exclusive as I may have initial thought. At the same time, a key in keeping our life in balance is realizing when it is out of balance. That usually means being too connected. When I realize this, I put away my digital toys and do something that doesn’t require electricity, unless it involves running the sprinklers.

Learning is Messy

My son and daughter, ages seven and five respectively, wanted to help me put together this garden last night. My son’s job was to assist me in stacking and sliding the cedar boards together. My daughter distributed the screws to me, one at a time, when I was ready to drill the boards together.

This set up worked fine, until my son decided to chop off the tops of some of the bee balm growing by the house with his toy sword. This led to my daughter, in her attempt to redirect her brother, dropping one of the wood screws. My wife saved the day, finding it in the grass later that evening.

It would have been easier if I had just built this raised bed by myself. I really didn’t need the help. But then again, my son would not have been exposed to 90˚ angles or dovetail joints. My daughter would have been deprived of appreciating the initial fruits of our labor, even if they would result in “yucky” zucchini. In the end, we did achieve our goals. It took a little bit longer than anticipated to get there, but we arrived together.