Wednesday, June 26, 2013

New Beginnings

 I have a confession, if you have a teaching blog, I have probably been stalking you for a bit.  Blogs, teaching blogs in particular, provide such inspiration to me. I happily peek at many of them as often as I can, scribble down ideas and add them to my bulging idea folder. You provide the fuel for my creativity and commitment to teaching. Teacher bloggers are amazing!  It's like a virtual village of creative collaboration and inspiration out there!  

 After the prompting of many teacher friends, very supportive family members, and one person in particular who is the she-who-must-not-be-named -nod/wink to Harry Potter but honestly you know who you are...  I have finally decided to come out of the shadows and create a blog of my own!

So here it is- my first post...
 I have so many ideas for this blog swirling around in my head. Mylifeasaliteracycoach is designed to be a work in progress (kinda like me). I'm still updating the sidebar with links.I hope to provide some tried and true tips about literacy,  instructional coaching, share my expertise and passion for teaching young children from my own daily experiences working with students and teachers.  I'd love for you to follow along so grab a cup of coffee and cozy up to my blog.  

Now for a little bit about me. This is me, so you can see I'm hard at work learning new technology tricks. I've been in elementary education for thirty-eight years. I've experienced the pedagogical pendulum swing over the years, but I have always set my instructional compass to what's best for kids. Over the years, I've been a reading recovery teacher, elementary counselor, and a long time avid practitioner of balanced literacy at just about every grade level K-6.   



Currently, I am the ELA Literacy Instructional Coach for the San Luis Coastal school district in California on the Central Coast. Most of my current responsibilities are related to curriculum and staff development supporting best literacy instructional practices aligned with the Common Core. I hope to be blogging about my work with students and teachers implementing the Common Core. My district embraced the CCSS by beginning implementation through Writers Workshop. Last year,  I had the magical experience of going to Teachers College and attending a week-long institute on writing instruction for coaches. I was totally convinced after attending that institute that we needed to bring TCRWP staff developers to our district. (Look for more about that in up-coming posts.) Last summer, we launched our work in Common Core writing with a week-long summer institute with staff developers from TCRWP. My work this year has been to continue the work the staff developers initiated by providing staff development training, coaching and providing literacy leadership.  In this blog, I hope to share about this work and my work as a literacy coach. 

 The Common Core demands will place on us requiring shifts in instruction as we prepare our students to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. If you believe, as I do,  we need to promote instruction that floats on a sea of inquiry.  That as educators, we need to encourage our students to be creative, flexible and engaged learners by differentiating their instruction. That we need to foster and encourage our student learners to embrace cultural diversity, critical thinking and collaborative problem solving. I hope you will come back regularly to visit me here and respond to my posts. Gosh, I hope that didn't come off as preachy-but passionate. You see, my current role has really required me to become invested in the Common Core and I am very excited about what these standards mean for our children. And as you can see by this post, I embrace life long learning. 

With the help of my business partner from Hello Two Peas In A Pod  curriculum on TpT and blogger extraordinaire, Jen Jones, of Hello Literacy I am making the leap into a whole new beginning for me...blogging!


I thought it symbolic to kick off my new mylifeasaliteracycoach blog with a first post about visiting my good friend Jen. She is a reading specialist in North Carolina at Lake Myra and I was fortunate enough to spend the week with her visiting her school.


It was an extraordinary week with lots of growth and new learning taking place. But I am thrilled to be starting and look forward to continuing to make new BFFs (that would be Blog Friends Forever). 

Thank you for your interest in checking out some of my TpT products! In the next few weeks, I'll be adding more items to my TpT store. You can sign up to follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers to be notified when I add items to my store. Thanks for following!

~Kathi


49 comments:

  1. I can't wait to see what's next. Welcome to the blogging world. I am new at teaching literacy (18 years teaching math and science), so you blog looks like it will really benefit me. Keep up the great work, I loved reading your first post!!

    Julie
    My Journey to 5th Grade

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    1. Julie thanks for being the first person to follow me on my blog. I followed you back and would love to be able to use your bloglovin button on my blog. Would you mind sharing it with me?

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  2. Welcome to the blogging world. I have always wanted to go to the Teachers College. Matt Glover used to bring a lot of amazing educators from there to a conference here and it was so wonderful! Good luck with future blogging and TpT. Can't wait to see your products.

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    1. Michelle how fortunate you are to have Matt Glover work with your district. He is one of my absolute favorites! I think his work with young children is so inspiring. The staff developers from Teachers College are tremendous. Gotta say, attending the coaching institute at TCRWP was amazing and coaching in Queens was one of the highlights of my teaching career.

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  3. Welcome! It's addicting, yet so fulfilling! And welcome to TPT. Best of luck.

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    1. What a whirlwind week this has been learning how to set up a blog and TpT store. It's convinced me blogging is addicting. With nice folks like you reaching out to welcome me it's confirmed that it is very fulfilling.

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  4. Welcome aboard -I love that you are a literacy coach! Now, when the coaches at my school are too busy to help one more teacher {me} I'll just hop onto your blog!!!! Thanks a bunch!!!!

    Holly
    Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade

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    1. Holly,
      Thanks so much for the warm welcome. I really appreciate it. I look forward to following your first grade blog. Aren't firsties the best! That grade was my niche for several years.

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  5. I am thrilled to see you begin your blogging journey! Your design is precious and I cannot wait to see what great things you have to share! Welcome! Welcome!
    Kacey

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    1. Thanks ever so much Kacey for the warmest of welcomes. I am following you back on doodle bugs. What a darling site!

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  6. Welcome to the blogging world!! It's a wonderful place to be :)

    ❀Jodi
    Fun In First

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    1. Thanks so much for welcoming into this brand new-to-me world of blogging. I am following you back on Fun in First! Having taught first grade for most of my teaching career I've gotta say(like you) first is where my heart is.

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  7. I am so excited to find your bog (which is so cute, by the way!) Welcome to BlogLand. I am looking forward to visiting your site often and learning lots of new things...

    Kim
    Finding JOY in 6th Grade

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    1. Thanks Kim for reaching out and leaving such a sweet welcome post. I visited your site and will be definitely coming back often. My last teaching assignment was a fifth/sixth combo. I am always looking for ways to support my intermediate teachers. I'll be sure to send them to your site.

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  8. Hello and welcome to blogging! You are going to LOVE it!
    Maria
    Kinder-Craze

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    1. Maria- thanks for the sweet words of welcome. I am following you back on Kinder-Craze. I love that your room is so warm and inviting. It looks like such a happy learning environment. Thanks Again!

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  9. Welcome! I have a feeling your blog is going to be a go to literacy resource for me! So glad you're here! :)

    Kim
    Carried Away in...K!

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    1. Kim thanks for being one of the first to post on my blog. I am following you on Carried Away in...K and will definitely share you as a resource with my Kinder teams.

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  10. Welcome to the blogging world! I adore Lucy Calkins, so I am excited to read your posts about the work your district is doing.

    Krazy Town

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    1. Thanks for welcoming me to blogland. I adore Lucy too. In fact, some of my most treasured memories are of quick chats with her when attending institutes and her presentations. She is such an inspiration to me. Love the San Antonio bloggers post you did. What fun!

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  11. Hi, Kathi! Welcome to Blogland! Just so you know-I absolutely LOVE your phonological awareness packs! My kiddos looked forward to the activities each day, and I saw the difference! So glad we have a place to read more from you!!
    Laura
    Peace, Love, and First Grade

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    1. Thank you Laura for the warm welcome to the land of blogging! I am following you back on Peace, Love and First Grade. I am thrilled to hear the hellotwopeas phonological awareness curriculum made a difference in the literacy lives of your firsties. I am so proud of the work Jen and I have created and so touched to get feedback like yours. Good luck with your shoe project. I did that a couple of summers ago. Here's a tip... take a picture of each pair of shoes and put it on the outside of the shoebox so you can see which pair is in the box. It's a great visual organizational strategy. It saves me gobs of time in the morning when I am rushing around :)

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  12. Hi Kathi! So glad you joined Blogland! I am looking forward to reading your posts! :)
    Cheryl
    Crayons and Curls

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    1. Thanks for the welcome. I am following you back on Crayons and Curls. I will be working very closely with my kinder teams providing literacy coaching support this upcoming school year. I will be sure to share your blog with them.

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  13. Yay! As a new teacher, I am very excited to use your blog for tips, advice, and ideas to implement in my future classroom :) I'm glad she-who-must-not-be-named finally convinced you to do this! I have my cup of coffee and I'm ready to cozy up to your blog.

    Ally

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    1. Ally- thanks for leaving a sweet post. This coming school year as part of my role as lead literacy coach in my district, I'll be providing a new teacher literacy institute after school each month. I'll be sure to post about that in my blogs this year- so grab your cup and cozy up! BTW- I'm thrilled she-who-must-be named convinced me. <3

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    1. Teresa thanks for being a new follower. This is an adventure for sure. I love that you post that you are a teaching addict :) I will be sure to share your blog with my fourth grade teams. You had me at.. imagine: with all your mind/ believe: with all your heart/ achieve: with all your might

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  15. Welcome! I admire Jen's work and I can tell I'll learn a lot from you as well. You do seem like two peas in a pod. :) I'm off to check out your mentor author links. GREAT list!

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    1. Awww- thanks for your sweet comment. Jen and I have been two peas in a pod since the beginning. I was her mentor teacher when she first began teaching and we've been together ever since and will be forever and always. Hope you find some good reads in my mentor text list. Thanks again for following me on my journey into blogland.

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  16. Kathi, there are SOOOOO many reasons I'm excited to follow you! Welcome to the bloggy world!!!

    I am SUPER excited to hear more from you! :)

    Our district's reading specialist's got to go to New York this past year and our district is moving to full reading and writing workshop with the TCRWP model. Four trainers are coming to our district in August for Homegrown Institute and we could NOT be more excited!

    And, your blog design is fabulous!!!!

    Big welcome cyber-hugs coming your way from this girl!
    Smiles - Lisa
    Growing Firsties

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    1. Lisa- thanks for your welcoming cyber-hugs. Lucky lucky you that TCRWP is coming to your district for a homegrown institute. You will LOVE it. I was responsible for organizing and running our summer institute last June and the following week helped a friend run another TCRWP summer institute in her district in Southern California. Both institutes were fabulous. This next week I'll be participating in the taping of a webinar with Lucy on her new units of study. I'm super excited!

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  17. I will be starting my first year in a new district as a K-12 district reading specialist, focusing mostly on coaching teachers. So I was very excited to find your brand new blog! I hope to learn a lot from your experiences!!

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    1. Congrats to you Amy. How exciting to be working with such a variety of grade levels. Coaching is so rewarding. I know you are going to love it.

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  18. Hi Katherine! I was so excited to see a blogger from San Luis. I am a first grade teacher in Cambria. Hello neighbor! I was lucky enough to be invited to the common core training the San Luis Coastal teachers had for math and, wow, I learned so much! Now I'm ready to learn about LA common core. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas. I hope to meet you some time.
    Julie Bales heyjbales@sbcglobal.net

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    1. Hey back neighbor. Yes, our math institute was very successful. So glad to hear you were able to attend. We did the same type of week long institute the year before with staff developers from Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. I'll be sharing many of the ideas about Common Core writing in this blog from my work with them.
      Hope to meet you as well some time. Gotta love the Central Coast :)

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  19. Hi Kathi! Welcome to Blogland! I look forward to following your blog. Your job sounds very interesting!! I am a 2nd grade teacher from Ohio and am also working on my school counselor internship this year. We are finally switching over to the Common Core this year, so I look forward to reading more about your journey! Welcome! :)

    Kate
    EduKate and Inspire

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    1. Kate thanks for following my blog. I've been inspired by your blog as well. Congrats on working on your school counselor internship. I have my school counseling credential and really enjoyed my work in counseling. I hope to write more about my experiences in our district in implementing the Common Core. I hope to share on TpT some of the ELA CCSS curricular mapping I have done. Great to hear from you and I look forward to continuing to follow your blog ( love your blog's name by the way).

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  20. Kathi,
    How wonderful you followed your dreams and the learning curve to create your own blog so that you may share your expertise and wealth of knowledge with others as they aspire be the best literacy teachers for their students. Your blog with be so helpful to teachers, new-to-the-profession and experienced, as they strive to develop and refine their instructional practice. A big wahoo to you!
    Tina

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  21. Tina, thank you for following my blog. Yes, starting this blog has been quite a learning curve for me, but one that I was inspired to make after visiting teachers in North Carolina. I appreciate your kind comments and support more than you know.
    All the best,
    Kathi

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  22. Congratulatioins on your new blog!! I am very excited to be following you! I have been teaching primary grades for 26 years and have become addicted to so many wonderful blogs. I am very interested in learning some ideas to help my struggling writers.

    Best wishes,
    Lisa
    schmidlj@milwaukee.k12.wi.us

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    1. Hi Lisa! Thanks for joining my blog. I hope to dedicate a lot of my posts on best practice writing instruction. Let me share a tried and true tip that's worked magic for me in writing instruction- drop assigned writing topics. In my opinion, student engagement is key in reaching reluctant readers and writers. Giving students choice in their writing topics is a huge writing barrier breaker. Writing is such a personal and transparent experience, don't you agree? This year many of my teachers and students were involved in opinion writing as part of our Common Core writing adoption. It was so exciting seeing all the children writing up a storm about topics that mattered to them. For example, some of our third grade students wrote very impassioned opinion pieces about why our hometown hamburger restaurant appealed to them more than a large famous chain hamburger restaurant; others were writing about their favorite pizza joint and why. In both of these cases, students provided evidence to support their opinions. Some of these kids were using evidence from Yelp and Urban Spoon to support their opinions. It was just amazing what these third graders could do when writing about what truly mattered to them.

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  23. Congratulations Kathi. I am excited to be following your blog. I just earned my K-12 reading license last summer and want to keep up on getting new ideas. I am currently a first grade teacher and have been for 30 years. I have not had much success finding a reading specialist job because I have spent the last 30 years teaching in Catholic schools in our diocese. Therefore, I don't have the exposure to seeing what a reading specialist's job is on a daily basis and don't have experience using the resources teachers have in the public schools. This puts me at a disadvantage. Anyways I'm hoping that through following your blog I can get a better Idea of what the job entails.

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    1. So glad you joined my little blog. Congrats on getting your K-12 reading license. Being a reading specialist is such a rewarding position. I hope to share in upcoming posts the shifts we need to make in our reading instruction as called for by the demands of the Common Core.

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  24. Welcome to the blogging world! I can't wait to see what things you have to share with us!

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  25. Thanks Kelly! I am so happy you are here.

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  27. I am so glad to have found your new blog! I am a second year 2nd grade teacher in North Carolina and really admire your teacher bff! I look forward to reading more on your blog :) Have fun!!

    Ashley
    That's So Second Grade!

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  28. Welcome! I too just joined the blogging world and I am addicted! :) I am your newest follower on bloglovin. I can't wait to read your posts. I still have so much to learn about Common Core and love to follow such passionate people as yourself. :)


    Jennifer
    myflippedclassroom.blogspot.com

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