Balance and a Time Saving Tip

As many of you know this year has been a HUGE adjustment for me! I absolutely love being a mom to Aubree but it has kind of thrown my world into chaos. I am trying to figure out how to balance being her mom, a wife, friend, daughter/daughter-in-law, sister/sister-in-law, and a teacher ALL at the same time! I know that I am not the only one who goes through this or has gone through this, but let me just says it is SO MUCH HARDER than I ever thought! I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to balance all of these things, I have come to the realization that all I can do is the best I can each day at each thing and I have to be okay with that. That is very hard for me because I have very high expectations for myself and when I don't meet them, I kind of, for the lack of a better term, have a meltdown. While I was thinking about what to write I realized I am probably not the only one who feels very overwhelmed and on the verge of a meltdown. So I am here to say you are not alone!

Through this though I have learned some things that have really helped that I thought I would share my favorite, Dropbox! Let me just tell you I LOVE Dropbox! For several years I have carried around a flashdrive or external hard drive (and I still do because I haven't switched everything over), but so often I would forget it at home or at school and not have what I needed to finish some of the things. Now I have all of my files literally at my fingertips all the time no matter where I am! I have an app on my iphone, ipad, my laptop, my NUC computer in my room, and any computer that has a connection. I can use it on windows, android, or MAC! All I have to do is login and access my files! This has been a huge help especially now that I have 2 computers in my room I'm not having to flip my flash drive back and forth between computers to open files! If you want to know more let me know! This is a great tutorial on how to use Dropbox!

I hope everyone takes time in the next few weeks to enjoy your family and friends! Have a very Merry Christmas!

Jacque

COOKIES IN MY JAR!

Hello and Happy December!! I hope all of you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday but it's time to move into the next one - CHRISTMAS. There are so many things that I enjoy about this time of the year. Decorating the tree, shopping for gifts, spending time with family and baking Christmas cookies. I started baking Christmas cookies on Sunday afternoon and as I started looking at my cookie cutters there were several of them that reminded me of the students in my classroom. The angel reminds me of the children that are so sweet by giving me hugs and working at the top of their game everyday. The gingerbread boy reminds me of the students that work very quickly and then want to keep moving at full speed to learn even more. The little drummer boy are my ones that like to whistle while they work it's such a sweet sound to my ears. The stars remind me of those that are happy, cheerful and have a shining little face each morning when they walk into the door and want to go above and beyond with everything that they do. And my favorite are the Christmas trees they are so wonderful and different in every other way and that's what makes my job the most rewarding. I love and appreciate all of them just like Christmas cookies, all so different but sweet as can be. It wouldn't be Christmas without them in my life. Take a little time in the next couple of weeks to find the sprinkles in your classroom and fill your cookie jar.

I want to say Thank-You to all of the Kindergarten teachers for sending us an assortment of cookies that are wonderful and well prepared for First Grade. A job well done. I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Enjoy all the blessings that come your way.




Sherry

Touchscreens and Babies

For my 8 month old granddaughter Sophia, tapping and swiping a touchscreen has become second nature.  She went to Olive Garden with her Papa and Mommy.  Olive Garden had a ziosk on the table with games to play while you wait for your food.  Papa noticed that none of the games were free but the screen was colorful and bright and Sophia liked touching it.  Seeing no harm in letting her play with it, Mom and Papa talked and Sophia played with the ziosk.  Papa soon realized she was very focused on the screen.  Papa looked and our little Sophia had passed the menu, passed the “ok to add $1.99 to your bill”, chose a game, and started playing the game.  She was drawing a picture in an art app that was available.  The waitress offered to take the charge off the bill but Sophia was enjoying drawing so she got to keep playing.  This is a brave new world for babies, parents, and especially grandparents!

New apps I have been trying lately are Story Kit, Placing Numbers on the Numberline,  Popplet, Number Pieces Basic, by the Math Learning Center. and Doceri.  As I learn to use them, I show my kids how the app works.  They always pick it up faster than I do and think of more ways to use the them.  The more I use technology the more I love it but it is also humbling because the more you learn the more you realize how little you know. It’s a journey.

pinilla_thinks...

I have been wanting to blog for a long time, but I have been afraid. Technology and I are not very good friends, so I don't use it as much as I know I should. Having people around me that feel the same way I do has helped me understand that I am not alone. My family LOVES technology and EVERYTHING it stands for! They are not afraid of the unknown like I am... I decided to observe the students I see on a daily basis in how they use technology in their classrooms:

• They really like going to the computer during their station time to check out "Wonderopolis" because it's cool! We all have those students that are always wondering about everything, and this is the place for them! You can read a non-fiction text and then use this site as an extension to the lesson! Check it out: http://wonderopolis.org

• Needing a different way for students to practice math facts? Check this out: xtramath.org is a simple, easy place for your students to work on mastering  basic math facts! It only takes about  10 minutes, the kids can rotate through it throughout the week during their math station time. The first time they visit the site, the students need to take the quiz in order to place them at their level. This may take a little more than 10 minutes so plan accordingly so they have time to finish their quiz. 

• QR CODES, tablets, e-readers, and so much more!!! Some students have their favorite books stored in their tablet or e-reader and pull it out during independent reading time! Others have books in their tablets!

Technology! It's so much more than what I mentioned above and it's here to stay friends, so we might as well embrace it! I will end on a funny note- I got an early Christmas present and it caught a 4th grader's eye. He started talking letters and numbers to me, how it was the one he wanted, but he got the blah blah blah instead. He continued asking me all kinds of questions wanting to know if I use it for this, that, and the other. I didn't want to sound old fashioned, but I didn't want to say something that didn't make sense either (since I had no idea what half of what he said meant) so I played it cool and said, "Well, I like my big new cell phone because I can see my emails better, when I read the words are bigger, and when I check the weather the numbers are larger." He looked at me and smiled while tilting his head to the side with sad understanding in his eyes... 

Pinilla

A Bilingual Brain Is A Smarter Brain

I found this very interesting :)
A Bilingual Brain Is A Smarter Brain

Thoughts and Thanks...

I told myself, I would keep this simple, although if you know me well, I am really not simple, I was never wired to think that way.  I have to see how everything connects before it becomes clear to me.  But I am going to give simplicity a try… 

Just a few reflections… and questions?

Wow, this works at Watkins!!!

1.  A cheer with movements to teach expository writing … Go team Larsen!
2. Readers Theater to improve fluency!!!
3. Music to teach… (Have you heard Mrs. Schumaker’s class sing 50 Nifty United States?),   you can even use a youtube channel to organize playlists or just subscribe to a channel of another educator
4. Google Earth, use it to introduce where the article or story takes place, then pin the areas to make connections and reteach
5.  Author studies, the kids make connections, check out the books and it sticks!  
6.     A blank hundreds board or grid to build number concepts, multiplication, division, and decimals

Share your happy moments when the light bulb goes on, happiness is a choice…

What do you think? …  Please comment with ideas.

1.       Ideas to remember capitalizing proper nouns?

2.       Any testing strategy that you would like to share?

3.       What are someways to that help students understand that ten hundreds equal a   thousand?

4.       The best way to organize homework?

5.       An engaging chapter book for January?

It is the season of thanks…

I have learned so much as a special education teacher; especially how important it is to take care of the whole child, intellectually, emotionally, and physically.  But I have so much more to learn and am blessed with the opportunity to work with supportive teachers that welcome me into their classrooms and help all of our students feel a part of our Watkins Family! 

Teacher in crisis!!!

Teacher in crisis!!!

When I said teacher, I meant me J I went through a crisis last week after seeing the other first graders’ writing samples. My students are not at that level yet!! And it drove me crazy, because… It’s almost Christmas time!!! My crisis was so bad that I even thought about changing careers!

So, today, after the storm, the frustration, and the chaos, I took a moment to remember the true reason why I became a teacher, and it is not for the praise or the satisfaction. I do it for the kids!! And they are very happy with their own progress!!

Sometimes we forget that they are just kids!! In my case, 6 years old! They want to play games and have fun and be recognized for every little thing they do!! So, here I am trying to pick myself up… while finding a better way to recognize their effort J

After Christmas I will implement something that I read a long time ago:

“Happy Note” J

 Whenever I notice students demonstrating progress, I may quietly give the student a certificate —a piece of “happy note.” The students take their note home, where families can celebrate the accomplishment in any way they wish. At school, each week’s “Happy Note’s” recipients are going to be recognized and we will post their names on the wall!

Chuy J

Can't Be Everywhere At Once, No Problem!

Have you ever been teaching a small group, looked at another group across the room and thought, "What in the world are they thinking?" Well worry no more! With simple apps like educreations and show me, your minds will be at rest. Unless the video they create puts your mind into overdrive, but that's another blog for another time. These apps make it easy for a child to record themselves talking out what they are thinking while doing the work.


I wanted to see if my students were understanding division or not, so I had them create an educreations of them completing a problem. There is never anytime to see all of my students at once, so this gave me the opportunity to watch them when I have the time. Be warned, you can easily forget about them because you never have free time.









I posted a video of a student who got the wrong answer. Had this been a normal pencil and paper problem, I probably would've overreacted, "Oh no, my students know nothing! I'm going to have to spend all my time on interventions. My administration is going to fire me, and send me back to Omaha. I'm not even from Omaha!" When I saw the video though, I realized that it was a simple mistake and I don't need to worry about that student. Keep in mind that these apps have limitless possibilities because it lets the students show what's in their limitless brains.

Things to Make Your {Classroom} Life Easier

Ok.

I need to start this by telling you that it is WAY out of my comfort zone to share things that I think work well, for fear of an eye roll coupled with "Duh, we have been doing that for years, Amy." 

Yikes.

But I will say that my classroom after 6 teaching years does run like a well-oiled machine come October. 

We have practiced. 

We know the expectations, 

We know the consequences. 

We want to learn.
{But keep out for the first 4 weeks. Basic training is in progress, and it a'int pretty.}

Kindergarten is a wonderful place to be! That being said, we are not there on day 1. It takes so much reinforcement, and modeling, and reinforcement, and practice, and reinforcement to get us to where we can function as a family. I set very clear expectations of what is and is not accepted. With these 5 and 6 year olds, if you are intentional with them, and spend the time in the beginning gaining their trust and building a relationship, then, literally, you are the potter and they are the clay! But WE are all great teachers, and know the importance of relationships...so I thought I would share a few things that I have implemented that I think make things run smoothly in Room K11.

1) "The Lamp"

Small group interrupters. We have all been there. Deep in a small group lesson, everyone engaged, everyone working, and then...a darling little comes over and says your name no less than 38 times. You try to ignore it, but after about 22 times, everyone is distracted and the engagement is gone. {Is it just me, or 99% of the time is it something that they can handle themselves!?!.} I now have a lamp on my teacher table. If "the lamp" is on, solve your problem. Simple as that. They know. I know. And if they forget, I subtly point at the lamp and they remember. Works like a charm.

2) Dessert

Those darn fast finishers. They need something to extend their learning when they complete their work. In our dessert tub, I have a variety of anchor activities that those speedies can do on their own. They are hands-on, differentiated and always something that I have gone over with that particular student. I have told them that if they don't know how to do it, it is not meant for them and they need to choose a dessert that they can do independently. And we never share our dessert! That way I don't have multiple children working on one activity and disrupting my other workers. We LOVE dessert in room K11. Here is the poster we use. I think you can right click and save it if you're interested in printing it! 

3) Anchor Auctions
We live our world in anchor charts in kindergarten. I happen to LOVE making them, and I like tweaking them from year to year, so I usually do not laminate them to use over and over. Plus, we record a lot of our thinking on them! After our unit is finished, I auction them off and send them home. No matter how big...the bigger the better! They LOVE this! I figure I might as well send them home with someone, where they might get a chance to teach someone in their home what we learned. Plus, I can't bear to throw them away!

4) Sparkle Tags
This is my classroom management strategy. Basically, it works like tickets. They are pieces of glitter scrapbook paper cut into small strips and I hand them out for being on task, turning in nice work, showing effort, being kind, etc...On Fridays, we all count them. I have a variety of PAT time centers set up for Friday afternoon. Whoever has the most gets to choose their center first. Then I go down the list. I like this because the children who have not earned as many a) still get a chance for PAT time, but not as long and not their first choice, and b) I get a chance to pull them aside and discuss how they can earn more next week. This is my first year using them and I really like it! You can read more about this here.

5) Show Your Work
During center time, we usually have some sort of hands-on activity in each tub. I am meeting with small groups during this time, so I do not always get a chance to check their work. We have an iPod and 2 iPod touches, so using the camera, I have them snap a picture of their work, along with their whiteboard with their name on it. This way, I can go back and check their work later, and also reinforce whatever skill needed. We have not implemented this quite yet, but I read about it on another teaching blog and couldn't wait to try!

6) Mystery Trash - NOT my idea, but I use it literally every day (thank you Michele!)
When your room is a MESS, secretly choose one piece of trash. Tell students to hurry and clean up, and whoever picks up the ONE piece you chose will get a sticker/treasure box/candy...depending on how generous you are feeling. I love this so much! 

Well, I tried to make this a quick Top 5, but we all know I am a chatterbox, so I apologize for the longest post ever. If you read all the way down here, thank you! :) Now that you know mine, what are your go-to tips that help your room run smooth? I'd love to hear!

Amy

Teach Them How to Fly and They Will Soar

We've all been there at some point or another... miss a day of school and then come the sub plans. Ugh. If you think like me, you'd much rather suffer through a day of not feeling good than to take off work to avoid having to come up with something to leave for a substitute.

As many of you know, my family is going through a trying time right now. I missed three days of work in the past week, a Monday being one of those (worst day ever to miss). On top of worrying about what was going on in my life, the teacher in me can't possibly not worry about what is going on with my kids at school when I am not there. Are they learning anything without me there? How will I ever prepare them for the unit tests that are coming up? What if I didn't leave enough work? And then it dawned on me "my kids are the ones who are supposed to be in charge of their learning, so of course they are learning without me!" I felt silly for even questioning them! I have high expectations for my kids, as I know all teachers do, so why would I think something so negative?

I realized that I have done a good job this first nine weeks of school preparing my students and modeling for them how to be in charge of their own learning. Oh how they impress me! Every day when I walk into my room I wait for the next thing that one of my students will do or say to make me stop and think "Wow, they are really growing!" That's our job as teachers, to create students who are in charge of their learning and who crave knowledge and aren't afraid of hard work.

I know it is really easy to get bogged down this time of year and start to think negative thoughts. All teachers go through this at some point or another during the year. However, when I came back to work on Tuesday and heard my kids yelling "Mrs. Blann's back!" in their high pitched little second grade voices, I couldn't help but smile and be proud of the relationships that I have built this year. After all, we all know that a solid relationship is a foundation for knowledge!

So I guess my point in saying all of this is, there are good days and bad days in the life of a teacher. There are days you will miss. There are days you won't want to get out of bed. Relationships and learning trump all of those feelings. We are all in this job for the kids (hopefully). It's about them and their futures! So next time we feel bogged down, or stressed out, or dread having to make sub plans...let's stop, take a breath (as Mrs. Speicher would say) and think about why we are all here. Our kids are smart. We have already prepared them, and we are continuing to prepare them. They will make us proud if we trust in them and their abilities to learn!

Whitney

Beginning: Wrangler Reflections

There can no longer be an “opt out” clause when dealing with technology in our schools, especially from our administrators. We need to prepare our kids to live in this world now and in the future. Change may feel hard, but it is part of learning.  We expect it from our kids, we need to expect it from ourselves.

I’ve yet to hear anyone who has stuck with blogging suggest it’s been anything less than essential to their growth and improvement. I’ve no “data” to prove this but I’m willing to bet my football card collections that teachers who blog are our best teachers. If you look at the promise of Professional Learning Communities that our schools have invested thousands, more likely millions to achieve, blogs accomplish much of the same things. The basic idea of the PLC is to have teachers share practice/data and work in teams to make improvements. A good blog does this and more.

What does mean to us as a Wrangler? it means providing with our staff with opportunities to share from their experiences in the classroom. It means providing support as you take this chance to put yourself out there and are transparent. Your expertise, your missteps, your experiences ALL have value and we can ALL learn from you. 

How great would a school be if we dropped the notion of “you can’t be a prophet in your own land”?  Would we do more together if we looked at each other in our schools of having expertise?

Utilizing this blog, we are going to reflect in safe space together. Initially, (key word: initially!) this space is only going to be accessible to our staff. Each week a different staff member will be asked to reflect on something happening in their classroom. It can be geared towards the fundamental five, a new math strategy, or a lesson learned. It doesn't have to be long, or fancy. It just has to be written and heart felt.  

The schedule can be found here. Your "post" is to be shared at any point in your window, I'll be sharing posts each week in the Tidbits, and I encourage you to comment as you feel led too. (You'll feel the importance of comments on YOUR week!:))