4.20.2011
Publication
24 excited, bubbly students walked through our classroom door this morning. Why the excitement? Our igloo was published on the front page of the Education section of the local newspaper! Way to make a mark first graders!
4.06.2011
Homework excuses
Sometimes we need a moment of laughter to lighten the stress of daily life. I had to use a common homework excuse to get out of returning my students homework today. My dog ate my students homework! I had a stack of papers that I was getting ready to give feedback on while relaxing at home. I went to get a snack. When I came back moments later there was a corner missing out of the stack and hanging out of Lucy's mouth. What a pup! Happy Wednesday :)
4.03.2011
37 days
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to countdown. Starting about mid-March, I keep a days left 'til summer break count and let everyone know where we stand. It is NOT that I am necessarily looking forward to the end or wish to be there now. I like to know how much time I have for different events. Knowing that there are 8 weeks of school left or 37 days (minus holidays and in-services) helps me stay on track so that I am not in panic-mode the last week of school trying to cram in last minute lessons. Knowing that there are only 7 Monday's left helps me persevere through my longest day of the week and make the most of every moment left with my students.
Today, my colleague and I spent a good chunk of time working on our combined class/project web-sites. As I stopped and scrolled through all of the pictures from this year on our sites I have to admit, a tear came to my eye. All the memories. All the fun. All the ah-ha's. All the projects. As teachers, we will start again next year with a fresh group of students and recreate these memories once more. As students, I hope they will always remember the awesome year we shared together in first grade. I hope my students remember how much I care for them, how excited I would get when they had success, how I made them feel. I hope they will always look back and have fond memories of the first grade year!
It is hard for me to accept that I only have 37 days left with this class of heroes!
Today, my colleague and I spent a good chunk of time working on our combined class/project web-sites. As I stopped and scrolled through all of the pictures from this year on our sites I have to admit, a tear came to my eye. All the memories. All the fun. All the ah-ha's. All the projects. As teachers, we will start again next year with a fresh group of students and recreate these memories once more. As students, I hope they will always remember the awesome year we shared together in first grade. I hope my students remember how much I care for them, how excited I would get when they had success, how I made them feel. I hope they will always look back and have fond memories of the first grade year!
It is hard for me to accept that I only have 37 days left with this class of heroes!
3.29.2011
Turning the Page
I love my job. Even on the hard days, I love my job. Today was one of those days. It had it's highs. It had it's lows. It even through a curve ball or two.
The students have left for the day. As I melt into my chair and peer over the mound of papers and piles teetering on my desk (which must be under it all somewhere - I saw it this morning), I pick up my lesson plans and quickly turn the page. Today is over. For all the good and all the bad of the day, it is over. We will never repeat this day. My lesson plan for tomorrow is crisp and clean. There are no pen marks notating changes to the day. No ranch dip smudges from afternoon snack. There are no sticky notes full of additional reminders.
This is how it is with our kiddos. Today is done. Tomorrow is a new day. Help your kiddos to turn the page and see the "clean slate." Whatever happened on Tuesday stays on Tuesday. Wednesday is a fresh start. Wednesday can be whatever we make of it. Make good choices, try your best, and succeed once again!
The students have left for the day. As I melt into my chair and peer over the mound of papers and piles teetering on my desk (which must be under it all somewhere - I saw it this morning), I pick up my lesson plans and quickly turn the page. Today is over. For all the good and all the bad of the day, it is over. We will never repeat this day. My lesson plan for tomorrow is crisp and clean. There are no pen marks notating changes to the day. No ranch dip smudges from afternoon snack. There are no sticky notes full of additional reminders.
This is how it is with our kiddos. Today is done. Tomorrow is a new day. Help your kiddos to turn the page and see the "clean slate." Whatever happened on Tuesday stays on Tuesday. Wednesday is a fresh start. Wednesday can be whatever we make of it. Make good choices, try your best, and succeed once again!
1.26.2011
Igloo (924 milk jugs!)
924 milk jugs
3 1/2 months
25 students
countless helpers
+ $30 worth of hot glue
-------------------------
1 Awesome Igloo
My first grade class has built an igloo out of recycled milk jugs. To our complete surprise, we collected nearly 1,000 milk jugs! At the end of September we learned about the harm of too much waste. Plastic takes 100's of years to break down. We decided to do something to make a change.
Over the past 3 1/2 months we have practiced our counting skills, recording how many milk jugs we've collected on a given day. We refined our sorting skills, organizing and counting milk jugs by color of lid, type of milk and so on. We learned how to read "short-hand" dates. We experienced what expired milk looks like. We used our reasoning skills to decide how and where to bulid the igloo. We expanded our estimating skills, making educated guesses about how many milk jugs were in a set group.
Thanks to all who helped us collect milk jugs and glue. Huge "THANKS" goes out to Carol Brennan for spending countless hours each weekend gluing milk jugs (So sorry about the loss of your fingerprint to the glue gun.)!
Next step: Students are working on a presentation about recycling and our igloo. Check out http://www.gogreenfirstgrade.weebly.com/ for updates in February.
3 1/2 months
25 students
countless helpers
+ $30 worth of hot glue
-------------------------
1 Awesome Igloo
My first grade class has built an igloo out of recycled milk jugs. To our complete surprise, we collected nearly 1,000 milk jugs! At the end of September we learned about the harm of too much waste. Plastic takes 100's of years to break down. We decided to do something to make a change.
Over the past 3 1/2 months we have practiced our counting skills, recording how many milk jugs we've collected on a given day. We refined our sorting skills, organizing and counting milk jugs by color of lid, type of milk and so on. We learned how to read "short-hand" dates. We experienced what expired milk looks like. We used our reasoning skills to decide how and where to bulid the igloo. We expanded our estimating skills, making educated guesses about how many milk jugs were in a set group.
Thanks to all who helped us collect milk jugs and glue. Huge "THANKS" goes out to Carol Brennan for spending countless hours each weekend gluing milk jugs (So sorry about the loss of your fingerprint to the glue gun.)!
Next step: Students are working on a presentation about recycling and our igloo. Check out http://www.gogreenfirstgrade.weebly.com/ for updates in February.
1.13.2011
New goal!
I have finished my Masters. Now I need a new professional goal to work on. Many ideas are floating around: second Masters in Leadership (not my cup of tea), National Board Certification (sounds like more schooling and I'm burned out), or... wait for it... yes, I am this nuts... might need to take an extended leave to start think straight... write a book.
Now don't get me all wrong here. I don't think I have any great wisdom to pass along to others as I know I have so much to learn yet and soak up all I can. I don't think I am an amazing writer as I am surrounded by so many talented authors that just amaze me. I simply want to write.
So now I must find something to write about that others would actually want to read. My amazing colleague, Cary Roller, and I have been working on a year-long, project-based, community-in-action project (for a lack of a better word): IT ONLY TAKES ONE. We have started bouncing around the idea of writing about our experiences together with this project...something that would be both informative and reflective:
Any thoughts (Other than, "The title is no good.")????
Now don't get me all wrong here. I don't think I have any great wisdom to pass along to others as I know I have so much to learn yet and soak up all I can. I don't think I am an amazing writer as I am surrounded by so many talented authors that just amaze me. I simply want to write.
So now I must find something to write about that others would actually want to read. My amazing colleague, Cary Roller, and I have been working on a year-long, project-based, community-in-action project (for a lack of a better word): IT ONLY TAKES ONE. We have started bouncing around the idea of writing about our experiences together with this project...something that would be both informative and reflective:
A Year of Project Based Learning in 1st Grade
(Let’s roll some snowballs)
1.09.2011
ActivExpression
When I was in first grade, I was awe-struck by the overhead projector. What a machine! It could display words typed on a clear page and you could use special colored markers to write on the screen and it would show up in black on the screen.
As I look around my room I see no overhead projector. In its place, sits an Elmo and on the wall, a Promethean board. To usher students from one lesson to the next I open my desk drawer and pull out an iPod. When students want to read along to stories on CD they turn on one of the netbooks. To blog with other students across the school, my students scoot up to my desk computer and log on-line.
What amazing advancements in technology in such a short span of time! I never would have imagined the possibilities when I was 6, sitting in first grade, in awe of the overhead projector.
In December our school received 2 sets of ActivExpressions. These hand-held voting devices work with the ActivInspire software and the Promethean board to allow students another method to communicate with the teacher and with each other. I can formatively and summatively assess students knowledge and understandings of concepts with a few quick key strokes on the computer. Results are visible to the teacher (in several graphs and charts) while students have anonymity amongst their peers.
This coming week we plan to use our ActivExpressions to record data for a class survey and graph as well as check students understanding of nouns and to solve math problems with anonymity. As the teacher, I will be able to see who answered each problem correctly and who may need more work with each concept. Students will have the comfort of answering questions without fear of other students judgement.
As I look around my room I see no overhead projector. In its place, sits an Elmo and on the wall, a Promethean board. To usher students from one lesson to the next I open my desk drawer and pull out an iPod. When students want to read along to stories on CD they turn on one of the netbooks. To blog with other students across the school, my students scoot up to my desk computer and log on-line.
What amazing advancements in technology in such a short span of time! I never would have imagined the possibilities when I was 6, sitting in first grade, in awe of the overhead projector.
In December our school received 2 sets of ActivExpressions. These hand-held voting devices work with the ActivInspire software and the Promethean board to allow students another method to communicate with the teacher and with each other. I can formatively and summatively assess students knowledge and understandings of concepts with a few quick key strokes on the computer. Results are visible to the teacher (in several graphs and charts) while students have anonymity amongst their peers.
This coming week we plan to use our ActivExpressions to record data for a class survey and graph as well as check students understanding of nouns and to solve math problems with anonymity. As the teacher, I will be able to see who answered each problem correctly and who may need more work with each concept. Students will have the comfort of answering questions without fear of other students judgement.
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