Blind Faith

This evening I took Kevin Honeycutt up on a wonderful offer of watching a play being put on in Grand Rapids, MI.  Union High School had not had a play for 3 years due to budget.  Now, I didn't travel to Michigan (although.. I have done a ton of traveling this year!) I turned on my computer and joined in on the live stream that he offered through iHigh

I grew up in a small town in Texas and during my high school years I was in the all of the musicals. I was never a lead, I was never great, but I always had fun!  The memories that I had working late night, making new friends, being someone other than myself, and most importantly gaining more confidence.  During school I was often shy and only hung out with certain people (now, if you know me now.. I am completely opposite!)  I credit being more outgoing and presenting in front of people to being in our local high school plays.

As teachers we are always talking about authentic audiences and having our kiddos reaching out to people outside of their community.  There are SO many online opportunities that offer this availability.  I logged on tonight to the http://www.ihigh.com/blindfaith/ link and watched the viewers steadily increase.  Kevin's goal was for 1000 views for these AMAZING kiddos, and here it is just 15 minutes into the second act and there are over 1015 views.  We teach students to blog to have different readers in the audience.  How far technology has come that we can now watch students act out a play and reach an even broader audience.

I feel SO privileged to be a member of the audience.  To help these kiddos see that there is SO much more out there.  My Favorite line was "Life is to short to go to far down the wrong road."

Thank you Kevin for connecting me!  Please tell those kids that they did amazing!

CARE Day and BrainPOP!

This year has been one crazy year!  Changing schools was tough, but I have loved making new traditions at a new school!  Each school is a little different in what they do, and my new school has CARE day.  CARE day you ask? Celebrating Authors and Readers at Elliott.  How cool is that!  So this Friday is my first CARE day! Things that are happening on CARE day?
-2 AMAZING Authors are speaking to us! Kevin Honeycutt and Natalie Bright
-A Character parade! This is where students and staff are encouraged to dress up as their favorite book character.  So, I had to of course choose MOBY!  Now, I know.. Moby is not an actual book character, but there is a ton of writing that goes into making one of those awesome BrainPOP videos! (keep reading for info on my costume and and awesome BrainPOP contest)
-decorating hallways and doors to represent different genres or authors.  Our class has been doing an Eric Carle study (will post pictures this weekend)
-and sharing books that each student has authored.  We did our books in an Eric Carle style, and I have admit they are turning out pretty cute!

So, CARE day is looking like it is going to be AWESOME (and that I am going to sleep well that night!)

Since I am on the topic of BrainPOP I had to share about this great competition that they are having:
BrainPOP & Intel: How Do YOU Bring Learning to Your Student's Fingertips?  It is super easy to enter.  All you have to do is submit a lesson plan by May 22nd that showcases how you are using BrainPOP interactive resources on mobile devices.  Click on the link to find out more information and details!

So, now for the BrainPOP costume (which is almost done.. will have final pictures posted this weekend!)  As soon as I decided I wanted to be Moby I emailed my friend Kari to see if she had some suggestions (well, the actual question was... can I borrow the Moby costume.. never hurts to ask.. right :))  She recommended me to connect with Robert Miller (find him on twitter) Robert made me a Fantastic How to Video!  You can see some of his students in action in their Moby costume here.  With some rainboots, yellow duct tape, orange duct tape, dishwashing gloves, orange shirt, gray tube socks, and an orange shirt.. my costume is coming together!

Just a sneak preview!
Next blog- pictures from CARE day (in full costume!) and how I close down and organize my classroom at the end of the year.  Had a good question about how I store old Unique curriculum files.  How do you store them?   11 more days of school and 63 more until Podstock!

Where The Wild Things Are- Sort of a Love Story?

Today as I caught up with all of my social media... I was saddened to hear that Maurice Sendak had passed away.  Being a teacher I LOVE children's books, but Where the Wild Things Are holds a Very special place in my heart.  Read on if you would like a sappy story :)

Here's the story (I know you are all holding your breath.. many of you I am sure have already this)
8 years ago, I met my husband.  Now, at the time I lived in Amarillo, Texas.  I had traveled to El Paso, Texas for a Teacher of the Young Child Convention with a group of other teachers from Amarillo.  During this trip I was able to room with my awesome friend Jill at the Camino Real.  Now, this was not just any hotel.  This was the Camino Real.  A Beautiful hotel with a very rich history.  One of the first nights we were there I was sitting at the Dome Bar under the Tiffany Glass dome ceiling. That evening I had put on one of my favorite shirts.... a green Where the Wild Things Are shirt.  As I am sitting there a handsome chef keeps looking at us.  Eventually he waves and comes over and introduces himself as Chef William Keller  a few minutes later the waitress delivered the most decedent chocolate dessert with his business card and number on the back.  The next night we visited his restaurant, and the rest of the evening I spent it with the Chef.  That evening he gave me a stuffed animal Max sprayed in his Hugo cologne.  I learned that evening that Where the Wild Things Are was his favorite book growing up (I know why this was his favorite book and I love that he shared why with me).  The next day I got on a bus to travel back to Amarillo, Texas heading away from the love of my life.  2 weeks later he moved to Amarillo, Texas.  2 months after he moved to Amarillo he proposed to me.  Less than a year later we were married.  For the past 8 years I have had Max by my side when I travel (I used to travel with Polar Bear... but he has retired to sit beside my bed).  It is our ritual that he is sprayed with Hugo cologne before I travel so he smells like my wonderful husband.  2 years ago my husband gave me a small Max that travels in my purse.  I know, I know.. I am silly that I carry around these stuffed animals but they are such a great reminder of why I love my husband.  He is my Max :)  NPR did some amazing stories on him, and today I had MANY driveway moments.

Do you have special connections to a book?  I know that I have a ton of special books, but Where the Wild Things Are definitely holds a very special place in my heart.

I know this blog is not very well written, but there are just so many emotions and thoughts running through my head.  Change might be in the air, and being reminded how I met my husband reminded me of how much I love him.  Our paths crossed for a reason, and we are always on an adventure to our own islands.  Who knows where our next adventure will lead.

ETA Cuisenaire Color Tiles

Okay, okay.. I know I haven't blogged in a while.  I am sure that you have missed me tons!  Or, at least I hope you have.  March and April were SUCH busy months!  Between traveling to Washington D.C., Chicago, STAAR-alt testing and STAAR testing it has been non-stop (and secretary's day was in there too.. will share what our kiddos did in this blog!)

Recently I was shipped some AWESOMELY cool and fun manipulatives from ETA Cuisenaire.  With all of the traveling and other craziness I am just now breaking into the kit!  So, I wanted to share the super fun things I have done just with the color tiles alone (more blogs to come soon!)  In my classroom I am always looking for items that are hands on, but more importantly serve many different purposes.  These little tiles are Fantastic, and my students have loved using them already!

Pulled out color buckets and have students sort the colors tiles into the correct color container

Sorting is important, but so is matching.  This activity I started with one color and they had to match a color to it.  As we have progressed I now lay out all 4 colors and give the student one color to match. 

Great for patterning! Have students continue on a pattern or create their own.

The tiles can be used as counters to complete addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division problems.

These are only a few things I have done so far! 

Some more ideas:

-use the color tiles to fill in graphs and have students answer questions

-write words on the different tiles and have students create sentences (have yellow ones be verbs, blue be nouns, green be adjectives and so on)

-bury tiles in a sensory bucket and have students find them and sort/graph/chart answer questions about what they found

-use them to create fractions

The ideas are ENDLESS!  What are your ideas to use color tiles for?

So, I want to end on Secretary's Day.  I get some of the BEST ideas from Pinterest!

Check out these cute bouquets!  Each one has 10 pencils stuck into a flower pot.  Each pencil has a foam flower on top.  Great way for hands to help making the flowers by punching holes in the middle and putting on a pencil.

Next up is Nurses Day, what do you do to show your appreciation?

How Powerful is a PLN?

I have to admit, I am pretty lucky in the people that I know and have connected with over the last several years.  I am even luckier to have a huge PLN (professional learning network) to call on whenever I have a question or need something. For example, last week I plurked (plurk.com) that I was looking for an author to either skype in or come visit us for CARE Day at school (a day where we celebrate authors and readers)  With budget cuts in schools everyone is looking for different ways to bring in the same type of learning, but on a different budget.  I was SO excited to get several replies back in less than a few minutes.  I can't wait until May to see how the day plays out!

So, today I was SUPER excited to get an email from my friend Kevin on helping support a school's theater arts program.  Now, I am just a teacher.... and do not have any money contributions to make, but I am GOOD at getting the word out! 

Here is a little background (a follow up blog will be coming next weekend... when I actually get a chance to skype in and talk to him more.. who knows where this might lead for my class!)  David Dublis works in Union High School in Grand Rapids, MI.  Like many educators he has many hats he wears.  He is the Instructional Technology Specialist, Drama Director, and Basketball Announcer.  The coolest thing about David... is he is putting on a play!  I know, I know.. some schools do this every year... but for David's school this will be the first time in 3 years.  Read Kevin's Blog about it- The Play is the Thing

Many classrooms blog so they can have a wider audience.  Many classrooms take virtual field trips because it it might be the only chance for them to be transported from the classroom.  As teachers we do these different things to help promote learning, get to a wider audience, and most importantly for continued authentic learning.  I am always looking for other educators that are wanting to think outside the box and not only connect themselves through PLN's, but also connect their students to other learners.

So, here is my question for my PLN.  Do you have any connections when it comes to props, costumes, or lighting?  Can you friend David on Twitter?  What kind of connections do you use for your classroom to continue the learning?

Coach's Eye

This year I was super honored to have an iPad 2 donated to my classroom.  Now, I am super pleased with my iPad for myself.... it does all that I want it to do.  The iPad2, however, is FANTASTIC for my classroom!  With the camera built in there are a ton of fantastic apps I am able to use (I am thinking that I might need to start reviewing apps once a month... humm) My students love to Skype, with the built in camera we are able to do that.  I use the camera feature for taking quick pictures of what we are doing, students taking pictures for our twitter account, skype, classroom schedules, and so much more.

This past week I was able to download Coach's Eye by TechSmith  I won't lie... I LOVE TECHSMITH products!  When my classroom first started blogging 5 years ago loading our videos straight onto blogs was not an option.  I had to host my videos somewhere else and then use HTML code to import them in.  TechSmith to the rescue with screencast.com  Screencast offered me a perfect (and free) place to host my videos!  I started making tutorials and I went back to TechSmith to use Jing to make screen capture videos.  I have recently upgraded to Camtasia (but won't have a chance to play with it yet.. have to get through testing first!)  

But, this blog is not about all of the Awesome TechSmith products... it is about Coach's Eye.  

From the website:

"Sometimes all it takes is looking at a specific moment to drastically improve your performance.  Coach's Eye makes it extremely easy to review individual frames of the video to really see what is happening.  You have the power to create and share videos that people can understand immediately without ever leaving your phone."

Although this app is geared towards coach's... I jumped at the chance to modify it for my room.  Working in a classroom with lots of different behaviors we work on behaviors through social stories, pictures, schedules, modeling... and so much more.  What better way to model what my students are doing than to record behaviors!  Now.. before I get to far.  These videos are ONLY used in my classroom.  I also have permission from all of my parents to be able to record pictures and videos of my kiddos :)  With that being said, there will not be any screen shots in this post.  I just wanted to take a minute and talk about it.

So, Coach's Eye is not just a video app.  You can take video with the app, then review it.  During the reviewing process you can of course start and stop it.  What is even cooler is that you can slow it down and draw on it! I can see it being used by coaches to really look back and improve skills of their team... but just think how you could utilize it in a classroom.

Here are some ways that I plan to use this in my classroom

-Catching my students doing the correct thing ie-sitting in a chair, raising their hand, lining up.  Video them doing the appropriate behaviors, review it with them by drawing smiley faces, circling correct behaviors and of course positive praise.

-Using the catching the students doing correct behavior to remodel when an inappropriate behavior is happening

-Using it to record a "meltdown" so once the student is calm we can go back and reassess the steps that can be taken next time to possibly avoid this (ie. student using a cool down card, asking for help... but also staff seeing what the trigger might have been)

I look forward to testing this out even more!  You can follow them on twitter @CoachsEye

What is your favorite app for the classroom?  What is your favorite personal app (mine is Flipboard for all of those 100s of blogs and instagram!)

New Leaf in Learning Conference- Day 1

So, it is 12:30 in the evening.. well I guess technically in the morning. That means that 29 minutes ago Hunger Games opened (no.. I am not writing this from a movie theater) It also means that I am finally back in my hotel room forming my thoughts from today.

I am so thankful for all of the amazing opportunities that I have had this year. This conference is another AMAZING opportunity! I know that I say this often.. but if you know me I am completely sincere and mean it!

Because I am mobile, I will not be able to add in all of my links like I normally do (but then again.. I don't really know how many readers.. if I have any readers actually use my outside links :)

I flew into Chicago late Wednesday evening and was lucky to have Elaine chaperone me to the hotel. Elaine has done so much for me this year! Because of her my students have been able to skype via the iPad 2 that she donated our classroom rather than crowding around the camera set up to the projector. Then again, that is a whole other story! Anyway.. I digress.. Elaine picked me up at the airport and took me to the most lovely hotel in Schaumburg the venue for the Follett New Leaf in Learning Conference 2012. I was bummed that I missed Kevin Honeycutt as the keynote, but enjoyed his company along with Kay, Lori, and other new found friends at dinner Wednesday evening.

This morning (well.. technically yesterday morning) I was excited for a full day of sessions. When I say full day of sessions.. I mean it was JAM packed! It was nice to start off with a fabulous breakfast followed by a inspiring keynote. Ian Jukes was a great storyteller. He challenged us to figure out how we were going to be the change agent. It is important to go to professional development, but how are we going to inspire others, how are we going to be the change. I LOVED his TTWWADI (that's the way we have always done it) I spent the rest of the morning getting ideas about standards based learning and the flipped model classroom. Both of these sessions had great ideas, but I was hoping they would be a little more interactive. Then agin.. every audience is different with different expectations. Lori and I present tomorrow (well... okay today in about 8 hours)

We had a Fabulous lunch! Yes, I took picture of the food (my husband would be so proud) The afternoon sessions were fast and furious. Usually the session after lunch is tough. You eat, you start to digest.. you get tired. I had the chance to learn about Cranium CoRE. This is a website that is just budding. I was impressed with the presentation and look forward to looking more into this company. The next session that I sat in on was Training Teachers to Use New Technology. No, I am not a trainer of teachers in my district, but I do present. I tried to attend sessions and strands that would help me when I try to move up out of the classroom. What was cool about the presenter in this session was that he was a previous 20 educators to watch for the National School Board Association... how cool is that!

The last session of the day was my fellow friend and Sisterhood of the Traveling Mac- Kay Tibbs. I have known Kay for about 3 years (only met in person about 5 or 6 times.. thank goodness for the power of a PLN) but hadn't had a chance to see her present. What a fabulous session over QR codes. It was not a sit in get, but a get up and collaborate. I enjoyed watching participants communicating with others. It was great session. I loved how she talked about the importance of collaboration and that you have to ask 3 before me. By setting the standards of the students had to wok with 3 other individuals first they had more time to collaborate and work it out for themselves. You know those 4pm-5pm sessions are hard, but she did a great job of keeping us engaged.

So.. Lori, Kay and I unwound by spending time in the hot tub and then eating dinner with friends. The conversations were lively, comical, and at times intense. How great to be able to have tough conversations with greatly varying opinions in such a safe environment.

I learned so much today. I have been sharing a TON of pictures on twitter! Make sure to follow the hashtag #NLIL12. I must sign off. My eyes are very tired.. and I present in the morning! Excited about another full day, seeing some sights in Chicago, and flying home.. PadCampDallas is tomorrow!