Author Archives: dachee

Organizing my Room

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Without knowing my classroom layout (or grade for that matter), I’ve been spending a couple of hours each morning while my children are asleep organizing for a classroom, creating Power Point Procedure Slides and binders such as Parent Communication Logs (or just browsing ideas on Pinterest with coffee). While working in the second and third grade rooms this year, I wanted an all-in-one system where I can account for all students in one glance. While in Hobby Lobby one day for a daughter’s school project, I saw a dry erase calendar for sale and envisioned it by my door – a student tracker. Few revisions were made though I did scrap the words on the buttons – they couldn’t be read from across the room and weren’t necessary. At the top are a row of green and red magnetic push pins to show attendance on the roster number each morning. Additionally, there are dry erase tabs to write student names in sharpie for substitutes and for the beginning of the year while matching names to numbers. Plus, kids love to see their names – it’s more personal. When students leave the room, they simply put the appropriate button in their square. I downloaded an Avery Template into Microsoft Word, then found clipart images that represented various school locations.  I bought the wooden circles from an online craftstore, along with epoxy bottlecap dots to cover the labels with a finished polish.  Each color/symbol represents a specific location except for yellow = resource/extension. I don’t feel these need to be distinguished; I know whether a student is receiving TAG support or intervention. I prefer the positive symbolism of the light bulb. Each student is leaving to receive support to reach a personal best. Blue = water fountain and Black = restroom. Only 1 boy and girl may leave at a time. Silver = nurse. I have two buttons in case a buddy needs to walk with a student to the nurse for any reason. Green = library and Purple = Office/Other. Because the board is dry erase, I can also write or have a student write short notes within the squares if necessary.  Student being picked up at 1:15?  Write the time in his/her square.  Also, in a fire drill, I can grab the board for quick reference.  I can’t wait to try this out!

Classroom Management Calendar

Beyond the Content

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Content is important.  Everyone should have access to a broad range of understanding our world in order to interact successfully, make intelligent decisions, and enjoy life more fully.  When I look at content I try to keep this in mind.  Consider persuasive writing – vital to understand for any child who wants to swindle, I mean receive as an investment into personal education, the need for the new Lego Movie lego set.  Fast forward several years, when the same child now needs to buy life insurance for his/her family.  On the receiving end of persuasion, this same person needs to be able to evaluate which persuasive strategies the agent is employing, then sort through the extra information, to determine what best meets the needs of the family.  Watching commercials or listening to a politician requires the same skill.  When I taught persuasive writing in a third grade classroom, first we looked at the character in the mentor text, I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff, to decide which techniques he was using to persuade Mom to let him has his friend’s iguana.  Then the students discussed favorite commercials, talked about the purpose of the commercial and what tools were used to get the buyer to purchase the product.  Of course, all of this was written on a handy dandy anchor chart, some by me and some by the students – shared writing!  Finally we looked at an OREO graphic organizer to begin our prewrite to persuade people to protect the earth.  The next day we viewed “The Great Kapok Tree” on youtube (the book is by Lynn Cherry).  The students compared persuasive techniques from the day before, went through their organizer to see if they wanted to make changes/additions, then began their first draft.  By the way, when discussing persuasive techniques, the students were highly engaged, taking turns respectfully at a higher level than usual which earned a gumball for positive communication skills towards a class reward.  It was a great feeling!!

Why Bring this up now?  Beyond the Math Classroom

One, summer is a great time for reflection.  I hate sitting idle, but also because I’m reviewing math concepts which may be used towards multiple grades.  Today, I looked at a couple of math books on fractions wanting to create relevance for the students in future years.  Math is so much more than computation.  It’s considering patterns, relationships, and promoting problem solving which is needed daily.  As far as relevance, I think for younger students, I will lean towards cooking and sharing food which is something all kids can understand.  With older students, I can really delve into shopping with real ads so the relations between fractions, decimals, and percents can be explored.  Recently, I purchased hamburger patty squares for concrete investigations into equivalent fractions, fractions to decimals, fractions to percents.  At a math conference last year, I saw this used with colored pencils – fascinating.  I plan to use a strip model more than circles because it is much easier to draw on paper without error for assessment purposes.

Note to consider:  One review center I want to keep in mind when exploring fractions will be creating pictures out of pattern blocks, then creating fractions out of the different shapes (using correct terminology).  For older students, I can change this to individually created flags which we can express in fractions, decimals, and percents.   Also, I want to use a paper balance for students to investigate comparison of fractions.  Return to page 259 of Elementary and Middle School Mathematics.  This can be done with discretely colored unifix cubes first, then expressed in a math journal or on a math balance sheet I can create.

Interviewing and Waiting

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So what is an educator to do while waiting to land a dream job to share the joy of learning, while teaching life skills?  This eager beaver prepares for a future classroom in my spare time.  Sure, I give time to my family, but often my mind drifts to procedures, game extensions, formative assessment tools, or simply classroom decorating while an impatient family member prods,  “Earth to Mom again.”  Recently, we watched The Lego Movie.  I couldn’t help pulling out a pad to take notes about different scenes and characters.  Seriously, this move is awesome (if you’ve seen the movie, you know I had to use this adjective).  It will appeal to any elementary, plus older, age groups.  Later, I created a game board which now is in my “to be laminated” pile, then bought 10 Lego Movie mini-figures as game pieces.  They came in 3 different Lego sets which I’ll place in my Rainy Day Activity box.  If I use it for math, I can incorporate characters and scenarios into my word problems.  I can also use it as a general Reader Response board, Character Analysis, or Content review which will still be more engaging with Lego figures.  Depending on how long it takes to obtain a position, I might create a Positive Behavior management system using the Lego Board enlarged, similar to the Homework-opoly board that is floating around.  I’m also preparing an interactive bulletin board for formative assessment with posterboard T-charts/Venn Diagrams, etc.  I’m reading Science Formative Assessment by Page Keeley which I will adjust to serve all subjects.  However, if I know what grade I will have, then I will concentrate on content extension games to use during flex group periods.  As far as the interviews, is anyone a fan though I certainly understand and support the process of finding a mutual fit?  So I will smile, walk in, share my thoughts…and until then, prepare.  There’s always plenty to do so the time will pass quickly.  Oh, and with summer, I can enjoy more time for socializing also.  Here’s a picture of my board – the white squares will have questions, problems, or board action directives if I use pre-made problems.  The action figures (not pictured) will move along the spaces – I will probably alternate “move forward _ space(s)” and using die according to the games I make because I plan to use this board for multiple games/subjects.  Much to do and enjoy – cheers!

Lego game

Open House Trailer “Success in School”

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I wondered, “If trailers work for kids, why not for adults?”  Along these lines, I created an animoto trailer on how to help students succeed in school.  I’ll have handouts/PowerPoint as well.  I found a great reading data sheet on Makayla Schenkelberg’s blog, “Stuff Students Say and Other Classroom Treasures.”  I made it into a jpeg for the video after I downloaded her free pdf on TeachersNotebook.  Here’s my first parent video:

A River Ran Wild

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Currently I am serving as a long term substitute in a 3rd grade classroom at an International Baccalaureate school.  If you are not familiar with IB schools, it’s basically an integrated, inquiry approach to learning which looks at global/environmental relationships, changes, and interactive impact. Last week, we began a new unit “Sharing Our Planet” where the focus will rely on inquiry into changing adaptations of organisms to survive and thrive, how human processes impact nature and environment, and how the need for resources influences one’s actions.  The initial idea was to introduce the 3 lines of inquiry (previously mentioned) with pictures and allow for whole class discussion, followed with individual questions to begin the unit, but I thought of a book I used during student teaching and knew I had to use it again.

A River Ran Wild:An Environmental History is a beautiful story with complex, rich illustrations which tie into how a river in the northeast changed over time as humans thirst for greater industry grew without thought to the impact they were making.  It’s told in a beautiful narrative format, sharing the true story of the Nashua River.  The reader can listen/read the story of the words, yet also see the story unfold with the pictures, specifically the framework of pictures surrounding the text, similar to Jan Brett.  When I saw the opening lesson planned during a team meeting, I immediately envisioned the environmental focus of this book – a perfect avenue to provide a concrete frame of reference for a diverse group of children.  I made foldables with 3 tabs, each a separate line of inquiry.  Every once in awhile, I stopped reading the book to let the students interact with the story and each other, then journal in their foldable.  To discuss adaptations, I printed color copies of two of the animals mentioned in the story for one of the lines of inquiry.  The activity was a success with the students which means real connections were made.  I had shared my idea with my colleagues via email.  It was exciting when 2 teachers used the book.  I love the thrill of collaboration.  (I have one classmate from Texas State where we would just volley – going back and forth with ideas.  Love it.)

As a bonus, we will read The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest later in the unit.  Same author!  Isn’t that fantastic?!  I’d love to tie this into an author study, but my assignment ends this coming week and the students are currently researching to publish an animal expository book – hands down, their favorite activity of the past 3 months.  We should have time for discussion to compare the styles and format of both books.  It’s my hope one of my students will discover the coincidence rather than I provide the information so a student can have a moment to shine and an “impromptu discussion”  begins which will miraculously occur when there’s a window of time for the discussion.

I love when an idea works in the classroom – the satisfaction when students experience the joy of learning.

First Time Presenter

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Yesterday evening, I presented “Technology Tools for the New Teacher” at Texas State University.  I was so nervous that I lost several nights of sleep.  Present were a mix of undergraduate and graduate pre-service teachers.  One professor brought her class.  I spoke from the premise of not being an expert, but rather an active learner similar to the way children learn – find something of interest and interact with the material.  It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone, yet I jumped at the opportunity for the experience.  Within the presentation, I tried to incorporate sites for professional development, organization, collaboration, web tools, classroom management, teacher lesson resources, classroom resources, and games.  I hate to go to a conference, then hear, “If you learn one thing from each presentation, then it is worth it.”  I believe time in life is more valuable than that so I inundated my presentation with sources though I was a little concerned it would water the information down.  Everyone comes to technology with different strengths so my objective was to share multiple areas of interest for engagement.  It seemed to go well; the professor, a principal in another district, asked me to present to her staff.  However, I goofed with some of the links and I’m not sure how.  I logged into all sites which required a password, which should have allowed for the links to work, but they didn’t.  At these points, I continued speaking as I manually pulled up the web page.  It was clunky; I’m not going to lie.  Lesson learned (well, as soon as I realize how to solve the issue).  I learned about new tools in the process of building my Power Point.  One I particularly like is thinglink.com.  You upload an image, then add text, media, and/or images.  Imagine using this for a writing assignment!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Siberian_Husky_pho_.jpg

The PowerPoint (Join SlideShare, Upload, then Share via SlideShare)

And lastly, my handouts via SlideShare

 

Classroom Furniture Project

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I have a very firm vision of how I’d like to arrange my room for student activities throughout the day and personal organization. A rocking chair was a part of my original plan because it calls to mind a cozy environment for sharing the love of a good read. However, working in the classrooms, it feels that it takes up space that could be used for the children. Because of this, I’ve decided to use a few stools at various heights. It’s an experiment – I understand much of what I think now will change with experience; that’s part of the excitement. Because it is so hard to wait for August to arrive with a classroom of students, then I spend some of my free time creating items for the future. This is said somewhat tongue in cheek. I bought 6 chairs on Craigslist almost a year ago and I finally painted my first classroom stool. My favorite colors are black and red. Red is a little strong to have much of it in the room so I’ll just have a few blips of it. Growing up in Louisiana inspired the fleur-de-lis. This represents my heritage. It’s a little funny because I dislike seeing stars all over homes in Texas or fleurs-de-lis in every decoration when visiting home – just a personal taste issue. However, it’s a beautiful symbol with interesting history behind it. It’s a fancy lily indicative of France. My hometown is Baton Rouge, but walking through New Orleans, the image of the fleurs-de-lis within the architecture is beautiful. Here is my first stool:

I learned something about painting furniture – there are a LOT of steps.  Sanding, priming, multiple paint coats, then multiple top coats.  Most importantly, beware, it’s contagious.  Two daughters are now about to begin similar adventures.

 

Thoughts on Foldables

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I have to admit to not typically being a fan of foldables. However, I recently came across a blog through Pinterest titled Get into the Fold. This blog offered page after page of ideas, using thoughtful lessons including foldables as a means to implement the lesson. I wanted to save each idea onto my Evernote site, but I realized it would be too much. I chose to follow the blog.

What reeled me in? The first lesson was a Reader’s Response to character development using a template from Dinah Zilke’s Notebooking Central Literature Response book. To top it off, they were using one of my absolute favorite children’s books,

. The foldable led the student to understanding the character through explicit words in the text, words spoken by the character in question, words used by other characters, thoughts/feelings of the character, and actions of the character. It was a fantastic use of a foldable to inspire higher level thinking.

Of course, I have added two of Dinah Zilke’s Notebooking Central books to my wish list now. The one listed above and another one on literary elements.

I can’t wait to use them.

Student Teaching

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Teaching
As I enter into my final weeks, I think about what I’ve learned. There’s a balance between supporting those who need to revisit concepts, while moving forward for those who are ready. Daily 5 and math stations work well for this. These periods allow small group visits to enhance or reteach. I am in an inclusion class so differentiation often looks like open ended activity with heterogeneous grouping. Specific accommodations are used as well such as scaffolding with visuals. Pairs and groups continuously change, even with choice by the students. A challenge is moving into the next unit when I’d like to dig deeper so I add challenge through comparison/contrast, using deeper questions (how, why), and open assignments. In the next unit, the students will compare fables, then create a unique fable to share a valuable lesson with the first graders.

Kappa Delta Pi Convocation
Recently, I attended a Kappa Delta Pi Convocation. My greatest inspiration came from Dr. Jeff Goldstein, an astrophysicist.

He is passionate about self generated inquiry and education. We have similar values, yet he expresses his thoughts so beautifully. Some of my favorite quotes from him are:

“We are born curious and we are born universe based learners.”
“It is the students’ classroom and the teacher lights the way.”
“A core goal should be joyful learning which leads to joyful employment, but make data driven decisions.”
“A core goal should be critical thinking on demand.”

Incredible, right? A lot of it, I’ve mentioned in my philosophy, past reflections, and class papers. However, it’s always great to see our views validated, with a fresh outlook to reinvigorate our purpose.

Class Rules

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Golden Rules

A friend of mine just became a second grade teacher.  This is exciting for multiple reasons – one simply the fulfillment of a dream and two – I discovered I am student teaching in second grade.  We’re thrilled to have this common ground because it’s one way we can feel connected since she is no longer a classmate.  Anyway, this morning we discussed class rules briefly (through texting).  She’s required to have 4 for the classroom.  This is interesting because my supervisor just recommended this week that we keep rules short and somewhat broad.  This allows for teacher discretion to consider each behavior miscue in context.  Did Johnny’s parents just divorce?  We want to take this situation into account.  There’s still accountability, but fair does not always mean the exact same.  Different children have different needs.  Okay, so back to the rules.  Here are my thoughts:

  1. Be respectful and kind to yourself, others, and property.
  2. Follow directions.
  3. Try your best.
  4. Be positive.

It’s not anything new.  I plan to have students at the beginning of the year discuss what rules should be in the room, though students generally come up with rules that coordinate with what  I have written.   I will word the rules in accordance to our student led discussion perhaps with a little guidance.  Sound Sneaky? Not really – rules of fairness, respect, work ethic,  and a good attitude all cover the rules students will suggest because it’s what makes a community work well.  Expectations, how it looks, how it sounds, and why this is desirable will be discussed throughout the year.  In line with this, I just bought over 175 pages of a reward system that has fewer material rewards off of TeachersPayTeachers from a seller, Mel D.  It’s a dangerous, yet resourceful site – many items are free.