Teaching Teachers

It's fast approaching, and I'm not talking about the supposed snow we are getting.The snow seems to be unavoidable and while many teachers welcome the snow I am the complete opposite.

It's on its way!

I think I've had my fill of snow this school year. Not to mention I don't want anything getting in the way of tomorrow. Tomorrow is the second annual Little Apple Tech Fest! While others are enjoying being off on President's Day, our students included, the teachers of USD 383 will be at the high school getting some professional development and getting hands-on experience with new ideas, implementation, and tech innovations.

Be sure to check out what's being offered here.

You'll notice that this year I am not just an attendee but I am also presenting!

My session at LATF.

I've spent the weekend thinking about what teachers may want to know about classroom blogging. I think I am as ready as I'm going to be. I'm nervous out of my mind and I may have checked the attendee list a couple times hoping I'll see some familiar faces. While I am defintely passionate about using classroom blogs with students and my own class has made huge gains in this area, when it boils down it's still presenting to other educators. I'll always get those butterfflies. I'll always get the racing heart. I'm just finally accepting that's okay.

 Here's hoping everyone walks away with an interest in blogging, the resources to create their own blog, and some fun blogs to follow for resources and inspiration!

P.S. 
Teachers: Do you get nervous presenting? How do you get around it?

Kid Bloggin' Wednesday (with some help)

*Pictures were taken by me this week. We needed to get focused back on the writing and avoid the arguing that ensued during our last attempt.

This is our 100 day's hats.

• Our class made it.
• They have different patterns.
• We get to make them.
• They are cool.
• They look like king and queen crowns.
• They are big.
• Miss Isbell made the hats.
• They are black and grey.

 Art Auction

• We made art.
• It's for our parents to bid.
• We did one center.
• We could choose our center.
• We painted.
• We used paper rolls to make sculptures.
• We used cloth to make a picture.
• We used shaving cream and food coloring to make art work.
• We made stuff out of paper. 

•  If we need help then we can look at the numbers.
• If you write then you don't know what to write count.
• The numbers go to 20.
• The numbers have the words to write.
• The numbers are colorful
• You could count it.

• This is our purple bag books.
• We read our purple bag books every night.
• We take our purple bag books home every day.
• We read our purple bag books every day.

Kid Bloggin' Wednesday

These are liquid properties.

• Our favorite is the viscous.
• Some are colored some are not.
• The viscous goes slow.
• We loved them a lot because they are fun.
• In the foamy there's bubbles on the top.
• The transparent, you can see through it.
• Some are bubbly.
• One is foamy.
• Some are bubbly and foamy at the same time.

*Only one team finished the activity today due to a lack of team work. We will try again on Friday to get posts from the other groups.

Winter Break = A Break, Right?

IT'S WINTER BREAK!

Can you tell I'm a little excited? Winter Break is all about resting, family, Netflix and naps! Teachers aren't the only ones who crave the break. My kiddos were super antsy before we let out and I am sure that this break did most of them some good. I know it's done loads for my sanity, which benefits us all doesn't it?

If you are a teacher you've probably heard this before, "Why do you need so many breaks? You have so much time off!" You also realize the huge misconception here. There is no real time off. There are constantly things to get ready, new ideas to try, and changes to make. Be honest, we're all addicted to Pinterest and teacher blogs, right?  Also, I don't know about your school district but ours requires that we put in a full day's work during the break. Of course, I could put in a whole week and still have more that could be done. Today I decided to start chipping away at those 8 hours.....Let's just say I didn't get very far.

As I sat at my desk I started making a to-do list. Looking around my classroom the list continued to grow. From changing the calendar to switching the seats, my work is definitely piling up. Now did I tackle that list? Did I chop it in half? Did I cross even one thing off? No! I packed up my bag and brought some work home. This is my break and if I have to work, why not do as much as I can from my couch.....while watching Netflix :)

So here I sit.....on my couch....watching movies......with a couch full of work. I know I have to go back and tackle my list. It'll be there tomorrow. I'll be there too :)

Here's to sweats, Netflix, and squeezing every last minute of relaxation out of this break!

P.S.

Teachers: What does your Break to-do list include?

Parents: What do you enjoy most about breaks?

Kid Bloggin' Wednesday: It's Almost Winter Break

 This is stuff about Hanukkah.

• This is our menorah.
• This is a dreidel and some chocolate coins.
• We like Hanukkah.
• 8 days last in Hanukah.
• We light the menorah.
• The menorah is colorful.
• Hanukkah is before Christmas.
• It is on the 17th.
• One of our friends celebrates Hanukkah in our class. 
• The menorah has 9 candles.

These are our math strategies.

• It's helping us counting to 140.
• It helps us learn.
• It helps us count on.
• We love it.
• It helps us with math.
• We do them.
• Sometimes we flip over the cards when we learn a new strategy.
• One of them says "I can count on".

 We read Junie B. Jones.

• They are chapter books.
• It is a silly book.
• We like it so much.
• We read them at the end of the day.
• Miss Messick reads it.
• We are reading Junie B., First Grader: Toothless Wonder.
• We read a lot of the Junie B. Jones books.

This is our Problem Solving Wall.

• It helps us solve problems.
• If you get to 5 you have to get a mat.
• There are cards on it.
• We want to be at a 1 or a 2.
• There is a number thing about happiness and madness.

This is our chart center.

• We fix the words.
• We fix the sentences that Miss Messick writes.
• After Miss Messick checks our papers we get to do an extra center.
• Sometimes Miss Messick puts wrong sentences but we have to fix them.
• 
  

Kid Bloggin' Thursday

Koo Koo Kanga Roo from GoNoodle

This is our brain break.

• We dance with the people on the screen.
• We dance with them.
• It has backgrounds.
• After we are done we check how much points we have.
• After we fill up all of the points we get to pick a new person.
• We dance!
• It is super awesome!
• After we fill up to 10 we get to see how big he gets.
• We like the brain breaks.
• We do them.
• We love having brain breaks.

 These are our letters.

• They are special.
• We fill them up.
• One is lunch bunch.
• One is iPads.
• We like getting them so much.
• If the whole class is good the teacher picks one person to fill in one letter.
• One is extra recess.
• When we fill up the whole letters we get a class party.
• The one where we only have 2 filled in is the iPads.
• One is sock party.
• We earn them from being good.
• We earn them from being quiet.

Good Behaviors

This is our good behavior wall.

• It shows us good behaviors.
• It has all of the good behaviors on it. 
• We are so proud of the people that are good.
• Be respectful.
• Some people help other people.
• We hope that people do the stuff on the good behavior wall.
• We hope that other people treat other people how they want to be treated.
• When they are good we like them because they are good to us and we be good to them.
• They have responsible.
• We be nice to our friends.
• We be good to our family and school.

This is our reading table.

• We go to it every school day and we read special books.
• We read Beth's Job.
• It is grey.
• Around the grey there is red.
• We really like the table because it is pretty.
• We like to work on it.
• We can write with a marker on it.
• We sit on the blue cubes.
• We sit on the boxes and inside of them there is books.
• The teacher works with us and we work with her.
• We blend sounds at the table with our teacher.
• We work with Miss Messick at the table.
• Miss Messick calls our names back and we come.

This is our Jan Brett book.

• There is a moose in it.
• We read them.
• There is a stray bob cat in it.
• A lots of animals eat the corn bread in this book.
• Jan Brett is a author.
• She puts pictures on the sides to show us what comes next.
• Miss Messick is in it reading the book.
• Jan Brett wrote this book.
• We like it because it has pictures on the bottom.
• This is a video of one of Jan Brett's books.
• There are pictures on the top and the bottom.

It's a Party!

Well, it was a party.

Let me back up. <insert cool rewind sound effects> This past summer as I was working the awesome Northview Summer Camp I began thinking about what changes I wanted to implement for the coming year. Let's be honest: Our brain never really leaves the "teacher" mode, even during the summer. The big idea I kept coming back to was parent involvement. I wanted to get parents more involved with our class.

In the past I had tried different things. One year we used a flip camera. Students got to take it home. They recorded their parent reading a book and then brought it back to school. We then played the video for the entire class and it was as though the parent was reading the story to us. The kids loved that!

While I thought about trying that again for 2014-2015 I wanted to go bigger. Go big or go home, right?  So I thought, "Why not have a parent night?" That then quickly got bigger. "Why not have a parent night each term?" Which then got even bigger. "Why not have food at the parent nights AND do parent volunteer months during the fall and spring?"

So that's what I decided. I would have a parent night each term as well as host parent volunteers at two different times during the year. That brings us to this past Wednesday......

I hosted our Parent Poetry Night. It was completely centered around my kids and poetry. The students had selected a poem from amongst their poetry that they do daily. We then practiced reading in front of an audience and while wearing a microphone. It was a good chance to practice introductions and speaking so others can understand.

The night of the event students had different centers they could choose from. We had poetry books from the library as well as their poetry binders from class. (We've blogged about them before. You can check out that post here.) I also made copies of different word family poems they could choose from. To finish it off I bought a ton of pizza! Let me tell you, it was all eaten!

Thanks Little Caesars ®

I gave families time to mingle and watch their students work. Families were free to jump from activity to activity. About every 10 minutes I called small groups of students up. Everyone watched and listened as they read their poem. Each student was met with a round of applause when they finished.

This was such a fun event.  I can't believe I haven't done this sooner. Now we are preparing for our Parent Volunteer Month. I can't wait for our parents to see what a typical day is like in our room.

Here's to connections, fun, and parent involvement!

P.S.
Parents: How do you get involved with your student's class?
Teachers: How are you getting parents in your room?