Observation

I had my observation on a Monday morning. When I walked in this morning the principal kindly tells me I have to get this observation done soon. So she deiceds to complete it today. I just knew the students were going to loud and have to be scolded to get back into the routine. They were great. I completed a lesson on the NSU and ODU game. Many of my students were talking about it the week we got out so I thought about doing a sports week. We looked at pictures from the game on the Smart Board, and in their journals for each picture the students had to describe the pictures by using one word. The students enjoyed it. Then I brought in the Sunday paper and the students got into groups and we read paragraphs and looked for sight words we have been working on. We were highlighting and discussing important information. It was amazing. My principal told the staff in the meeting she had never seen such a group so engaged and were learning the whole time. We have our sit down meeting tomorrow evening and hopefully no complaints. She usually is very happy with the things I am doing in the EC classroom.

Holidays

My holidays with my husband and family was great. This was the first holiday we spent married and went to both sides for Thanksgiving. Also I went Black Friday shopping with my husband that was very interesting. He is the more serious one and likes to see money spent for good reasons only so trying to convince him that buying shoes was a necessity. It felt good just to relax and not have any worries about my students or class. Now this week I am back to work and school work with projects due. We are whining down with school and I couldn’t be more excited. The biggest challenge for me is to stay sane and not lose myself.

Parent Portal

We have a training tomorrow on grade book and creating a parent protal. The idea seems great on the parent level, but in the end it will just be more work on the teacher. The parent portal is for teachers to have all grades in by Friday for parents to be able to view over the weekend. Also it will be another way for parents to communicate with teachers, but my concern is for those parents who don’t have internet access. I use to take the time to keep my webpage up to date but when I tell parents at meetings and they tell me as long as their child is doing well and no ocmplaints they will not check. So I think the thinigs I do are a waste of time. I still try to send different ways of communicating with the parents as my way of doing my job so parents can never say I am not keeping in touch with them. Every day for my more severe students I do a communication folder that either my assistant or myself write in on a daily basis letting parents know about behavior or simply things within the classroom usually my parents interact through writing back or with a phone call.

Voice Thread

I was very skeptical at first using voice thread thinking this is something else new I have to experiment with, which takes up time. I actuallly enjoy working with voice thread and creating my project for the class. I don’t know if I am completing it correctly but I am having fun looking for pictures. I also found sone pictures from Monet that I used as a writing prompt for my students. They had to write five sentences or more telling what the picture was saying or the story behind the picture or simply what the autho was trying to portray by painting the portrait. Art is really starting to tell stories in my life. It was reallly a calming couple of hours  for me when I took the time to look for pictures. I enjoyed this part now I have to put the project together.

Benchmarks

This week our school is going through the new changes with Benchmarks using Class Scapes. Usually I am not one to complain but the program does not have any test for Extend 1 children so that left me spending my Sunday coming up with three different Extend 1 test 3-5 grade so my students would be given he opportunity to test. It was a very chaotic day yesterday with the different levels in my classroom the children were everywhere. One of my students told the proctor to leave them alone they were busy learning by listening. I love my job and the benefits but this week I am tired. My children usually do well on testing but the stress I gave off caused them to not be focused. So I went home early yesterday and got plenty of rest and feel rejuvenated and ready to go. Testing usually does not get the best of me but just getting back from a trip and not having my Sunday to relax I was wore out.

Honeymoon

My trip to the Bahamas was amazing. My husband and I had so much fun and it felt good to be alone.We spent four days on the ship. Everything was beautiful and the food was great. It felt good to have people cater to you twenty four seven. The adult drinks were the only thing we had to pay for out of pocket and souvenirs. It was our second honeymoon because the first one was short because I had to go back to work.We felt young again like we were teenagers in high school.

Digital Literacies

In reading the article I thought about with some of my higher functioning students to create a classroom blog for parents and children. Also I thought about using the Ipad more for my higher students instead of  as a reward for them. I spend more time finding things for my behavior and AU students to keep them engaged in learning. Technology is changing rapidly and as educators we have to keep up and grow with the changes. The only concern I will have when my students blog is spelling and grammar. My students are so excited they are writing they tend not to care about the errors in writing. From reading I thought the author stated that technology is opening the doors for communication and a way of maintaining more information.

 

Educator Blog

When I first heard the assignment I thought what a waste of time, but now I am actually enjoying myself reading the blog entries and seeing what Pernille Ripp’s class is doing. She has her class coming up with their own rules and expectations and sharing them through the use of technology using animoto. They are also communcating with other students in South Korea what a global way of doing things. She is a ffith grade teacher and others are learning from the things she is doing in her classroom to prepare her students for the 21st century.

She is also running with nine other innovative educators competing for $10,000 for her classroom. Her goal is to use the money for technology and things hse can’t afford for her children. Now that is a dedicated teacherworking to improve life within her environment which is her classroom.

Common Core

My EC director sent me to a Common Core training for two days and the information was overwhelming. In the sessin we learned about going back to self contained classroom, and holding eahc individual teacher accountable which is part of the new teacher evaluation. Also they talked about becoming more hands on within  the classroom, and throwing away the idea of clustering. Within the classroom you should have high, low and medium students mixed within the classroom and not using test scores to set up classes. Everything they were saying are things I preach to the choir about within my staff meetings, working with EC you have to expose them to the general educstion population in order to see them grow. Planning wears me out but when I look at the growth and the porficient scores within in my classroom I know I did a job well done. in my room I am using the Common Core and Essential Standards this year so when they come full effect I am ready mentally and physically. The most helpful piece of information is to use the crosswalks in planning activities. Also make sure your essential questions are using the information and fitting it into everyday learning experiences and to help students with lifeskills.

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Prensky

Todays children are tech savy and as teachers we need to keep up. I went to a workshop where children were texting in their answers, and blogging. Children ahve to be taught these things but once taught they can be used in so many different ways. What are some of the ways you are using technolgy within your classroom?

Some ways I am using it is classscape for testing with my students. Also I have used skype with another teacher. She read a story to my students through skype and I use my smart board on a daily basis for games and small interactive experience. I have also had where the students sit down for story time and listen to a book being read. I have access to eight ipads in my room one is used for a coominucation device for my nonverbal student. I also do paperless Friday where everything is technolgy from ipads, smart board, leapsters, Ds’, and mobile computer lab. Even with the nature of my students they are willing to learn, and love technology. I try to expose my children to real life experiences through technology. Through things I am learning I am tryingto make my students digitsl natives.