Halfway to 2014

It's not even July yet, and already I'm the 200somethingth person to link up with Farley's Currently!  Teachers are on top of things!

Oh Mylanta....can you tell I'm in a super summer slump?  Is that an oxymoron?  I've had a tough six months- both professionally and personally.  Don't get me wrong, there's been a lot of good, too.  But,  I've finally had a few weeks off to become the real me again... and now I'm bored!  Eek!  Hopefully the second half of 2013 is kinder. 

So currently... 

Listening... to country music.  Music videos are a huge guilty pleasure of mine!  I love them!  

Loving... my new camera!  I decided I needed an actual camera- the iPhone just isn't cutting it.  I am the yearbook coordinator at school, so taking pictures is my life during the school year, and adding pictures to my blog is much more fun when the pictures aren't horrible!  I got the Panasonic GF5 and so far I love it.  It's mirrorless, so the body of the camera is so tiny- even with the lens.  I wasn't sure what kind of pictures I would get with a mirrorless camera (there's no viewfinder...) but the reviews were good and so far I'm in love.  I've just been playing with it...trying to remember everything I have learned about photography in the past. 

Thinking/Wanting...I need a serious project.  Something to focus this energy of mine.  I would go for a run or something, but my body hurts so bad from lifting/running/dancing all night in heels the past few days!  I'm half tempted to head over to school today and just start something.  Is that weird?

Needing...to get out of this slump.  Self explanatory.  Let the adventures begin!  In the next month I'm heading to Oklahoma (lake time!), Chicago (Guided Math train-the-trainer...anyone else??), Iowa (family & friends!) and Seattle (friends!!!), so I really should take advantage of these few more days I have all to myself.  The new school year will creep up FAST!

TipsTricksHints:  The extra mile is never crowded.  Seriously.  Go for it and don't even glance back. 

What's really happening on July 1st?

...does anyone know?  Google Reader is shutting down, in case you missed the hundreds of many blogposts regarding the upcoming event. 

However, according to my research (Dorothy Ann from the Magic School Bus, anyone?) I don't think this will affect the Blogger Reading List or GFC (Google Friend Connect), so you should be keeping your followers and follow..ings.  It shouldn't interrupt your blogger reading if you use the Blogger Reading List.  Don't take my word for it, unless it's true, in which case, do. 

The only thing it will affect would be if you follow a blog that isn't powered by Blogger so it's not on your reading list and you couldn't "follow" through GFC. 

I follow a few like that, so I went ahead and switched to Bloglovin and Feedly.  There are a few other options you can check out {here}, but Bloglovin seems to be the most popular with the teacher crowd so far.  It's pretty easy to figure out and choosing a site to use is really just a matter of personal preference. 

As for me, I am liking Bloglovin so far, but I haven't really checked out the others and I'm not too picky as long as I can still follow all of you!  I went ahead and added the Bloglovin button and Feedly button (I hope that one works- let me know if it doesn't!), but you can still G-F-C-me to add me to your Blogger Reading List.

Also, go ahead and link up with {Tori's Teacher Tricks} if you added your Bloglovin button so that we can all follow you (as well as a fabulous tutorial on how to get your Bloglovin account started if you haven't already)! 

Happy Blog Hopping!

Learning is Uncomfortable

As far as I'm concerned, Greg Tang is a math genius.  I don't know that he actually qualifies for genius status, but if he doesn't, then he should.





A few years ago I went to a Greg Tang conference.  It was fabulous and I felt so dumb.  He was playing with numbers and doing all sorts of mental math.  It's not that I'm not a math person.  I can do it, I'm not bad at it, and I love teaching it; but it's not how my brain naturally thinks.  In fact, after going to his conference, I have worked hard to re-train my brain and how I understand numbers.

The conference taught me that most of us were taught to count by ones.  In fact, we still teach students to do that.  The way he presented it, grouping numbers makes more sense and makes numbers easier to understand.  I have to consciously make myself do it.  It's hard work for me...but not for everyone.  Some people do it naturally.  Lucky ducks.

His books are fabulous, but Kakooma is one of my favorite Greg Tang games to play.  I use it for students who know their multiplication facts, but I want them faster.  Even if they are fast, I want them faster.  I challenge them to beat me (I'm quick!). 

Many try, few succeed.

Kakooma makes them faster and has levels for those students who need a real challenge.  Plus they can compete against themselves on the computer or app.  I also really like Expresso, which is similar to the Crypo Challenge game I have made {here}, except his numbers are already in order and you just add operations. 

I'm linking up with Tales from Outside the Classroom {Wednesday Website} to share his website {here} and something that totally made my day.

I finally broke down and was going to go ahead and pay for the subscription so that I could get all the printables (and Scholastic points) and sign my kids up to play during our small group time.  I went to the website with my credit card in hand and couldn't find it at all!  Panic!  The whole webpage was different...blog format, not as colorful...I wasn't sure what was going on.  Maybe this happened awhile ago, but I just discovered it.  After I snooped around, I found all the printables I was hoping to pay for are now on the website {FOR FREE}.  Score! 

Check it out if you haven't already.  And if you have, go get some free stuff before they realize it's available for free to everyone (It's on purpose, but hurry anyway!). 

I was uncomfortable for most of the conference just because I felt like I couldn't work fast enough.  However, I learned more about my teaching and my learning in that one day and I still keep it in mind a few years later.  It was a success!  If you get a chance, go see him!

It reminds me of something that one of my professors told me when I was working on my masters:

"Learning is uncomfortable.  If you aren't uncomfortable, you aren't learning."

So true.



Also, don't forget to hop over to Bloglovin' and add my blog so that you can get all of my exciting updates! 
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Follow my blog with Bloglovin

 

I made the switch over to Bloglovin'! 

I'm sad that Google Reader is heading out and I hope that I can keep up with reading blogs with that extra click it's going to take.  I can probably handle it.  It's good finger exercise.  If you follow me through Google, please switch over to Bloglovin' to get my updates!

Lovely Monday...and a quick freebie

It's weird how busy you can be when you aren't working.  Not stress-busy, just fun-busy.  Maybe "active" is a better word than "busy".  I love summer break.  It is so refreshing. 

I spent the day helping my cousin with her golf event benefiting the {American Diabetes Association}.  When I say "help", I mean that I spent the day riding around on the beverage cart handing out free adult beverages to people golfing.  It was really hard work, but I stepped up.  

Then I thought I'd stop by school and print off a few things so that I wouldn't have to do it at home.  I gathered all my things up, grabbed my laptop and headed over.  You know how it is...with your arms full (because the abundance of teacher bags you have been gifted are in a closet somewhere, or folded up in the back of the car) and you're struggling to hold it all while fumbling for your keys and then try to catch the door and get through it before it locks you out again.  I made it all the way up the stairs and went to unlock the teachers lounge door....and it wouldn't unlock.  They changed our locks this past year and apparently our key doesn't work on that door.  Or I can't work the door (it's a strong possibility).  I've never actually had to unlock it before.  So I struggled for a bit and then left with all the unfinished work I showed up with.  Boo.

Even though I didn't get all that stuff finished, I actually have made and completed a lot of things lately.  I've made wedding invitations for my sister's wedding...pillow slipcovers for my guest bedroom...dinner.  I'm especially proud of that last one. 

For a few years now, I have been missing the "ten thousands" card for my place value bulletin board.  Instead of hand making one or typing one up, I just didn't put it up.  Don't worry, we found other ways to teach and learn our place value without my trusty bulletin board display, but I did find it rather annoying not to have it up.  I've searched high and low and that piece is officially lost.  I really didn't want to fork over another 12.99 or whatever it is just because I lost one piece.  So I figured that I'd just make my own so that in the future when I lose them (you know I will) I can just print off another one and be good to go.  That's why I put this bulletin board set together.  

It's in the laminator right now and getting ready to slice and dice.  It's up at my TpT store for {FREE} until midnight on Friday, so go grab it and leave me some feedback.

Link up with {4th Grade Frolics "Monday Made It"} and let's see what you've been busy working on! 

Tricks of the Trade Linky- Classroom Library Organization

I love books.  Love, love.  I love old books....and brand new books.... mostly hardcover books...but I won't pass up a paperback either... I adore books with dust jackets.  I love old Nancy Drew books.  I like mysteries... historical fiction... biographies... books that are mindless stories- I call them "fluff".  I can't get enough.  I even made my blog background...books.  My classroom library is something I try hard to keep updated and motivating for student reading.

The classroom library is always a work in progress.  Books get torn, old, yellow.... and need to be replaced with the (same) story that is new, with an updated cover, and not falling apart.  It just means the stories are well loved.

I'm linking up with ~Joy in the Journey~ to share how my classroom library is organized.  I have three main parts:  The Physical Space, The Book Cycle, and The Check Out System.

...The Physical Space...

Ok so this isn't actually what my classroom library looks like right this second.  It is currently covered up and ready for summer cleaning.  Next year I'm moving these red bookshelves to the front of the room, but you get the idea.  The books are on bookshelves.  

I keep them organized by genre.  When a new book comes in, we classify it and put a dot sticker on it- I put the correct colored dot on and then reinforce it with packaging tape along the entire spine just to help it last a tad bit longer.  I'm not sure if it actually helps, but I keep doing it anyway.  

If you look carefully, you can see books with pink stickers (fantasy), blue (mystery), yellow (biography), and green (those are actually science chapter books).  There is a poster hidden on the side wall explaining this, but you can't see it.  I label all books- chapter and picture books, but the bookshelves here are only for chapter books.

This picture is actually horrible for explaining this, but it's the only one I have since it's summer!  Basically, the kids put the books back according to genre and it really helps us put books back correctly.  On top of the bookshelves I have science magazines organized by title, and the black crate has science books (this is from when I was the science teacher!).  

This system is super simple to keep up with, and not too specific for organizational purposes- match by color/genre and we're good.  

This summer I'm working on labels for the back of each book with the Lexile and GR level for my own information as well as to guide student choice.  It's a work in progress right now. 

...The Book Cycle...

I add books all year long, but I only clean out books once at the end of each school year.  If a book is damaged during the year, I fix it and put it back (unless it's destroyed beyond repair).  At the end of the year I'll go through all the books *quickly* and discard anything that is not fixable or just really old (Space Jam?  These kids are like..."what is this?").  

Every time we place a book order with Scholastic, I have the kids help me "shop" for new books they want to read.  This way, a student who didn't order could still potentially order the book they wanted for the class.  I only spend points on these, and sometimes we spend more points and sometimes we spend fewer.  I sometimes pick out a few I think they would like as well.  When the books come in, I do a book "show and tell" and if I know a certain student is looking for a book, I'll be sure to get it and let them have it first.  Then we start "book lists" for students who are waiting to check out each book.  It's always an exciting day, and we keep high interest books in circulation all year long.  

I try to hit up the Scholastic Book Fair sale at least once a year.  This year I left with these:

Around May/June, our local libraries have a gigantic book sale for books they don't need anymore.  Usually, hardcover children's books are $1 and paperbacks are $.50, so I always stop by to check that out as well.  This year I found these treasures:

...The Check Out System...

I use the {Booksource Classroom Organizer} website and app.  I also make sure to read their emails because they tend to have some pretty decent recommendations.  I scan in each book when I label it and then it goes to the bookshelf (or directly in the hands of an eager reader!).  

Then students can check out the book- they can check it out on the back student computers or bring it to me and I'll scan it.  In the future, I'm hoping we have classroom iPads for them to use, but right now we use my iPhone or my Android Tablet.  The app works great on both and syncs immediately- we've never had a problem.

When they are done, they bring it back and check it back in the same way and put it back on the shelf.  It's that easy.  

{Link up} and share your ideas!

TED Talks Education

You know the saying "Great minds discuss ideas.  Average minds discuss events.  Small minds discuss people. {Eleanor Roosevelt}"?  TED Talks falls into the "great minds" category. 

TED Talks is one of the coolest things that has happened [somewhat] recently as far as a platform for sharing and spreading ideas and thoughts.  Unlike other social media type websites, TED offers "Ideas worth spreading" in what they boast as "riveting talks by remarkable people".  It is seriously addicting, and unlike some other video based websites, I feel smarter after I'm done watching.  Smarter in an I-have-more-questions-than-when-this-began kind of way.  So now my "great mind" can go discuss these ideas with people and have meaningful conversations. 

The TED Talks Education PBS special in May (2013) was seriously fantastic.  I got accidently sucked in and missed the shows I had actually planned on watching.  Luckily,  I found a few other people who had done the same and we were able to talk it out the next day.

Needless to say, I love the TED talks, and the education "edition" on PBS was no exception.  The big name presenter was Bill Gates (I think, anyways), but my favorite presenter was Geoffrey Canada.  I loved the points he made about research and what/if we've done anything with results from studies to change the way our nation approaches education.  Of course, John Legend is never a let down either.  The entire TED special was just a "things that make you go hmm" kind of broadcast and I really enjoyed it!

If you missed it, check it out {here}. 

You can watch each clip individually in case you don't have an hour to sit down and watch them all... but it is certainly worth a peek! 

Curriculum Planning is so FUN ...?

Contain yourselves.  I know how much you love sitting in a staff meeting and knocking out a few curriculum maps with your grade level team.  This is why we became teachers.  ...right?

School's out, but the teachers were back last week to curriculum plan using the Common Core Standards.  We are switching to Math, ELA, and Social Studies in our school next year.  I feel like we're behind, but people keep trying to convince me otherwise.  Kansas just adopted Social Studies at the end of April, but they haven't adopted Science yet, so we won't be starting it until next year.

Do you do this?  I mean, I know we plan out our entire year to be sure that we hit everything.  If you have someone in your district that does this for you, please don't tell me about it.  It's a lot of work.

Luckily, I adore this kind of monotonous curriculum planning paperwork that most teachers hate.  I don't know why, but I'm well aware that I'm the odd duck in staff meetings.   If there were, in fact, a position available where I could go through and do this for each grade, I would definitely apply (ok, correction, DO tell me if someone in your district does this, and then tell me if there's an opening!).

Here's what we did (and I thought it was so cool!).  First, we picked which subject we wanted to plan- our fourth grade team chose Social Studies.  We thought it would be easier.  We were wrong.  Social Studies doesn't appear to have spelled out "standards" like Math and ELA, but rather "topics" with suggested things to hit.  We will need to revisit it, but we got this beginning part done.

Using the Social Studies Common Core (Kansas edition), we highlighted and color coded parts of the standards.  We did verbs in yellow, nouns in orange, and details in pink.  {see below}

Now we can easily see what the kids are supposed to do with the material.  The first column of our curriculum map is supposed to list the actions the students should be able to "do"- analyze, recognize, evaluate, investigate, etc.  That way you know how to approach what you are teaching- if the kids need to know how to recognize something versus they need to draw a conclusion about it- but it also helps you figure out how to assess each standard.   

If we get this all written out in the near future, I'll try to post the final product since this is just in the beginning stages.  Maybe.  Unless it is finally finished the day before school and I'm super overwhelmed with everything going on.

What part of Common Core are you tackling this year?  All of it?  None of it (I see you, Texas and Nebraska!)?  Part of it (Hi, Minnesota!)?  How are you keeping it all straight?

"Currently" and a Charming Gorilla

Happy June!  

My favorite part of Farley's monthly Currently link up is seeing how many teachers have blogs and are excited about sharing their craft!  It's so motivating!

Yesterday I had a friend in town from college to celebrate her 30th birthday.  I think the last time we celebrated a birthday together was when we turned 21, so it's been awhile since I've seen her and we've done so much in the past nine years- it's so fun to catch up!  She is also teaching 4th grade now so we had a lot to chat about.

I'm considering spending a large amount of time scanning in all of my paper files so that they are on the computer and then getting rid of all that dreaded paperwork.  I've been reading up on blogs and other threads about so many teachers scanning everything in, using apps, and all that jazz.  It totally sounds like something that I would already have done, but it's time consuming, and sometimes old habits die hard.  So the inner debate begins:  paper or digital?  What do you do?!?  I'll probably go digital because I'm horrible about just putting papers in piles everywhere and forgetting never looking at them again.

Enough about me.  I've been wanting to share about this book for awhile, and this week's ELA Mentor Text link up with the Collaboration Cuties is the perfect time.   

So I bring you:  The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.  

Have you read it?  It's lovely.  This book now rocks a Newberry award on the cover, but I bought it before all that excitement- for once I was ahead of the game.  

Ivan is a gorilla in an old mall/arcade that was turned into some kind of unfortunate zoo.  I completely fell in love with the story from page one.  Ivan speaks simply, but not all the sentences are "simple".  We did this as a read aloud this year- so many opportunities to stop to check student comprehension (lots of inferencing) and tons of similes and metaphors.  Here's a couple examples from the book:

"Her voice was like the throaty bark of a dog chained outside on a cold night."

"She makes a happy, lilting sound, an elephant laugh.  It's like the song of a bird I recall from long ago, a tiny yellow bird with a voice like dancing water."

It was a sweet story that both the girls AND boys enjoyed.  Sometimes I find that the girls love sweet animal stories, but the boys want more action.  This story isn't "action packed", but it wrapped the kids up in a fascinating tale.  Plus it's about a gorilla, so the boys loved it.  Even better, while we were reading, my Bing Dynamic background {which I blogged about here} switched to a baby elephant that all the students were convinced was Ruby.  

Next year I plan on doing more with it as far as figurative language goes.  This year was my chance to test student interest.  Success!  Some reviews have argued that the author "overuses" similes and metaphors, but from a teacher perspective, it's perfect for that exact reason.  

Link up!

Teacher of the Year... and Getting Organized

It is officially summer vacation!  We watched our class slideshow and I handed out DVDs last Thursday.  Then I won Teacher of the Year at our school!!  No joke.  My students were pretty proud of me.  It was such an honor, and a bit overwhelming. 

Then Friday I returned to clean up my classroom.  By 2:00 I had shoved everything I had left in a cabinet and skipped town.  Everyone does that, right?

I stopped by school earlier this week to drop off some things I've been hoarding: cardboard egg cartons and tissue paper.  We use egg cartons at Easter time so I save them all year, and my friend had a baby shower where I sat next to her shamelessly tucking away every last bit of tissue paper from her gifts, and then went home and folded it all while I watched reality tv.

It was a lot of tissue paper.  And it was free.  I couldn't help myself!

Now it's time to work through that summer school project list!  I didn't write it down because I figured I could remember everything.  Rookie mistake.  You think I'd learn.

I'm working on some content area vocabulary cards.  Our school has a subscription to Reading A-Z and I love their vocabulary cards.  They have them for basic vocabulary, content area (I like the science in particular) and then parts of speech.  It's great because you can go through and pick the words you want and then it creates cards with activities to go with them.  Last year I used it a little for parts of speech and Language Arts, but my favorite is the science vocabulary.

I went through each science unit we teach and created vocabulary cards with definition cards.  Science A-Z also offers cards with a picture to match to the word (we call them "Image Cards" in our class).  They are fantastic because sometimes students are great at memorizing a definition but still have no idea what it means.  This way they have to find the matching picture, or tell the different between two similar pictures.

 

  Here's how I keep all these cards organized.   {and here's where I link up!}

First, I run off each unit of vocabulary or image cards in a different color.  For instance, all of classification is on green cards, all of the human body is on yellow cards.  I usually make three sets of each unit vocabulary set.  Laminate them.  Slice and dice them.

Then, I laminate scrapbook paper.  I use this to make envelopes.  I put the laminated scrapbook paper on the Cricut and have it cut out the envelope shape.

Then I fold and tape them together for each set of cards I made, so they look like this:

So here's where I go a little organizationally crazy.  It drives me bonkers when the kids leave cards out and I don't know where they go.  If they leave one yellow card out, but I made six sets of yellow cards, I don't know which envelope it goes in.  So I take a little extra time on the front end to ensure that we know where these lost cards go.  

I run off sticker labels- one for EACH card + one for the envelope.  

{Avery 5160 labels- Office Max typically does a deal a couple times a year when if you buy one- I always buy two- for 26.99, they will put a $26.98 credit on your MaxPerks teacher rewards card, which is how I got the free printer that I printed these all off on!  Plus they have Box Tops so I feel like I'm giving back to our school- 20 cents is better than nothing, right?} 

I put one sticker on the outside of the envelope with a colored dot sticker (I should own stock in those things!!).  Then I put a label on the back of EACH card with the corresponding dot sticker.  Each set of yellow cards gets a different dot sticker.  That way when I find a yellow card with a green dot, I know EXACTLY which envelope it goes in! 

How do you keep your vocabulary cards, task cards, etc. organized?!? 

            

Happy Teaching!