School Burns to the Ground

    

 

School Burns to the Ground

 

As I work in my classroom getting organized for my new third grade friends arriving next week, my heart continues to go to a neighboring community.  A few weeks ago on a weekend afternoon we had a typical summer thunderstorm.  It turns out lightening struck a little school and in a matter of hours it was destroyed.  I was hoping that all my Pintrest friends would be willing to help out.

 

I contacted the principal Bill Knittle and asked if I could call on all my Blogging followers and Pintrest friends to help out.  He thought it was a great idea since all of his teachers will be beginning the year with practically nothing, and being housed in another school indefinitely.  I thought if the many of you creative teacher friends who had Teachers Pay Teachers accounts, and have created so many beautiful materials, perhaps you could take their email addresses and email them some of your products.  Any of your units, anchor posters, common core ideas, calendars etc.  could be so helpful when beginning again. Please share this post with many of your friends, and pin and repin it so that we can get the word out and we can all help some fellow teachers. 

 

Teachers of Rowe Elementary School

86 Pond Rd

Rowe, MA

01367

Roberta Baker-preschool: rbaker@mohawkschools.org
Janice Lapointe-K-2 jlapointe@mohawklschools.org
Patricia Tierney-K-2 ptierney@mohawkschools.org
Claudine Poplawski-3/4 cpoplawski@mohawkschools.org
Laurie Pike-4 lpike@mohawkschools.org
Sue Kranz-Spanish, 5 skranz@mohawkschools.org
Dwight Beebe-5/6 dbeebe@mohawkschools.org
Kerri McLatchy-SPED kmclatchy@mohawkschools.org

 







Technology like they breath

As I shared in my first blog, I have been taking a class this semester on integrating technology into my classroom.  Because of this, I am sure it is why I am so hypersensitive to hearing so many interesting technology examples of every day use from students.

Example 1:  While discussing nonfiction in class last week, we were listing examples of where our families read nonfiction every day.  The first shared answer was a biography book, and some kids shared that they had never seen their parents read a biography.  When I called on the next student I was expecting the answer newspapers or magazines, but the answer was "on the Internet for news, my dad checks the weather and reads about sports on his phone every morning".  Here was a perfect example of why teachers have to be aware of new literacies all the time.  We need to teach our students how to navigate and gain the information they need to use daily.

Example 2:  I was wearing my other district hat as a Responsive Classroom teaching coach and was working with a first year teacher.  While I was in her class observing her social studies lesson she asked her students, "what do we need to do if we do not know how to spell a word?"  The first child she called on said, "we can type it into the computer and if we spell it wrong it will have a red line under it, then we can click on it and it will help us spell it."  I just about fell off my chair, (which let me tell you is easy to do on one of those little first grade chairs, I just don't know how you PreK-1 teachers do it!). This from a 7 year old.  Will they even use dictionaries any more?

As I bring more technology into my classroom, I really do notice that children are extremely comfortable with it and it easily integrates the good teaching strategies I strive for, and allows children to show their learning at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy. 

I have been digital storytelling with my class for many years, before I even knew what "digital storytelling" was.  I love the program Smilebox.com .  Teachers can have a free annual membership.  It is a wonderful and quick way to drop your photos or videos into and share with parents.  I was using it before Facebook to share family pictures with relatives, and then thought about how I could use it in my classroom.  I get lots of positive feedback from parents when I share with them.  Check it out!

A new program we have been having loads of fun with in my class is called Xtranormal.  Recently we have been using it to do digital book reports and book reviews.  Check out a few of movies. The kids worked with their pair reading buddies to produce these short movies.  While we were sharing them with another classroom yesterday, I thought how great they will be for me to use next fall when I have a new class and I am introducing books for my fluency program.

Abby and Emily

Wyatt and Ryan

Finally, I would love to share with you the free program called Storybird. It is a site where the art inspires the stories.  Your students will have so much fun with this program. 

The Girl and the Magic Pencil 

Morning Meeting Review Game

We will be ending our 3rd term on Friday.  Today in Morning Meeting I was able to tie in three academics in one activity.  I took out our class IPod where we have a coin flip ap.  I wrote on our message board "Heads/ Something interesting I have learned in science this term is......", and "Tails/Something interesting I have learned in social studies this term is......".  Then I passed around the IPod.  Each time a student flipped the coin s/he shared something different.  It was a great way to review our learning.  The other academic I pulled in was math, because one student kept the data on the heads and tails, using tally marks to record. Then we shared math statements about the data we collected. This 10 minute activity was loaded with learning!!!!!!! And who says they have "no time" for morning meeting in their day?

Bye Bye Boo Boos

When you are teaching little learners small things can become big things quickly.  A little bump to them can seem like a "must see the nurse" trip and can distract their learning if gone "untreated".  My solution to keeping students in the classroom and learning, is to validate their "pain", by offering icepacks.  I buy a half dozen from the dollar store every year.  I put them in the freezer of the mini fridge in our classroom. I put each one in a new ziplock bag.  I teach the students how to get out a bag, and then when they are done they know just how to put it back with a clean ziplock bag all ready for the next "patient".  It's true at the beginning of the year there are frequent users, but it is so much better than long trips to the nurse for "growing pains". The novelty wears off, and then they are used much less. 

Another cheap and great trick is to simply use frozen wet sponges in a ziplock bag.  We use these at our camp all summer because somehow the real icepacks seem to get left around camp. The sponges are cheaper and you can make a big deal out of letting them pick the color of the sponge.  Bye bye boo boos!

Reader's Notebooks

My learners keep a Reader's Notebook where they write to me about their reading.  I integrate the Common Core ELA standards in by writing back to them and asking them a question relating to our objectives of the week.  I also have a very specific rubric for that letter.  For years I printed them on paper, trimmed them and glued them in the notebooks.  I also used to hand write all the letters.  The hard part was how much time it took, and I was rewriting the same question to every child, and the books were so heavy to bring back and forth from school.  Last year I had the great idea of creating the rubric on an Avery shipping labels.  I have the basic rubric all set up, and then I can change the "focus areas" to match the objective or standard we are working on for that week or story.  If the book they are reading does not fit the standard, then I ask a question about our class Read-a-Loud, because I always choose books which focus on our theme.  Students must answer my question in the first paragraph of their letter.  The second paragraph must be an original thought or idea about what they read.  I give them a list of topics they can write about to keep in their writing folder. 

The other great thing I discovered is I can respond using the shipping labels too.  I choose a very nice font that looks like hand writing and then this quickens the process too.  My first paragraph is always personal and a response to what they wrote to me.  Then in the second paragraph I can ask the same question or type of question to each child quickly and easy by pasting it in or having it saved in the template beside the rubric.  What used to take me about 3 hours, now takes me about 45 minutes!

My kids just finished the state's exam (MCAS) and one of my kids shared that she felt the best part was the open response questions, because they were just like our Reader's Notebooks.

Our Book Boxes

Book Box in my class

Every day in our class we have K-BAR time, Kick Back And Read.  Students know this is a very serious reading time, and that good readers always have a book going.  Really good readers are so interested in their book choices, that they bring them back and forth to school.  That being said, students are required at all times to have 3 books in their book box. 


The first book is the chapter book they are reading right now.  This is the book that should be going back and forth to school.  They know to put it in the backpack each afternoon and put it back in their book box each morning. 


The second book is their "next" book.  This is a book they have chosen to read after they finish the novel they are working on.  This book should be chosen during a non K-BAR time, as no one is ever out of their seat for any reason during K-BAR time.  They can choose this book  from our classroom library before morning meeting, after their work is done, wiggle jiggle breaks, afternoon job time, or right before lunch. 


Their final book is a "quick read".  This could be a periodical like Scholastic News ora Zoo book, a joke book, or an I Spy type of book, anything that they can pick up for 2-5 minutes.  The purpose of the quick read is for times when they may have just a few minutes to read, like the end of K-bar and they do not want to begin a new chapter, or a new book, or maybe the end of a work period.

Diving In

For years I have thought about jumping into the blogging world but did not know really where to start.  Two things have come into my life recently and have made me take the plunge.  First I have been taking a wonderful class all about Technology in my classroom.  I have learned so many wonderful and interesting ideas in this class.  I can't wait to try everything, but I am taking it one step at a time.  My second reason I diving in is, I have become obsessed with Pintrest.  I have learned so many things, and I can't wait to share some of my own.

Let me share a little about me.  I am a third grade teacher in a wonderful little community in Western Massachusetts.  I have been teaching for 26 years.  I was the "Teacher of the Year" in 2007.  I am also a Responsive Classroom consulting teacher, (which changed my life)!!!!!

I have an amazing (teacher) husband, and two tweens. Together with my husband we run a very successful non profit summer daycamp for 6 weeks each summer called Camp Kee-wanee.  Our children have grown up there and it has become quite the family affair.

As I finish out this class, I was required to begin a blog.  So here I am.....let the adventure begin!