What Mrs. Cain Has To Say

The 5th grade students of room 123 are a unique bunch. As a group, they are well rounded by possessing both artistic and academic abilities. With so many federal and state mandated standards, benchmarks and teaching objectives, it is difficult as a teacher to find activities that stimulate creativity as well as improve students’ academic skills. Scholastic Kids Are Authors writing contest allows for each student to showcase their strength in both areas. This project involves so much more than writing and illustrating a book about a bird. The first is the true desire to change Michigan’s state bird to the Kirtland Warbler. The students wanted to take up this cause last year and that is when I thought of entering the contest. What a great way to get their idea out to the public.To tackle a project with such depth, I needed to create a classroom full of writers. After a 1 ½ years of studying various authors and their techniques we were ready. Next the students needed to find their strength to help create the best work possible. Skills needed to accomplish a superior picture book are: making connections between what students have read and translating these facts and ideas into their own words, finding voice in writing, spelling, revising, editing, researching, clarifying facts, creativity, arts, collaboration with students & teachers, problem solving, contacting specialists, experimenting with different formats in both text and illustrations, letter writing, environmental awareness, economic current events, how a bill becomes a law, computer skills such as keyboarding, googling, scanning, formatting, emailing, creating a blog, photography and patience. Students must be tough because sometimes the words that were chosen don’t exactly fit. Many times the illustration that a child has spent time creating doesn’t compliment the text. The students have rewritten or sketched 50+ times before it makes it to our final product.As a teacher, this is one of those things that I ask my colleagues to remind me never to do again. The last two weeks before the project must be postmarked; I am crunching all the other subjects I must teach into a tiny time period so we can spend most of the day finishing our story. But when I watch these amazing 10 and 11 year olds work together with smiles on their faces because they were complimented by another student or finished something that they have spent 2 days on, I know that this has become more than a project in writing, spelling, and editing but also a life lesson in teamwork and pride.Thank you Mrs. Guetschow! We couldn’t have done it without you.

-Mrs. Cain