Helping Your New Students Feel Welcome

This year I had a great idea about how to help my 2 new students feel more welcome in our class and a great way to connect them to the students who were at our school last year.  On the first day of school I brought all of my students to the carpet and we went to Google Earth (be sure to download it first).  We started by looking at the United States map and found California and Indiana.  I had students make observations about the states just from looking at their shape and placement on the map.  I had my new students, that had come from Indiana, describe their state.  Next I asked for volunteers to describe California, the state we live in, to our new students.  Then we visited our new students school in Indiana.  They were so excited to see it.  They gave us a virtual tour showing us where their classroom was last year and the direction they road the bus to and from school.  Finally we visited our school and we made more observations about the differences between the schools.  This was a great lesson to help connect our old and new students together and they ended up feeling like they were a part of the classroom and the learning process.

Career Readiness at Any Age

It's never too early to start thinking about a career!  In fact many children already have an idea of what they want to be when they grow up before they even start kindergarten.  I call it "trying on" a career.  It's important to encourage children to reach for the stars and a part of helping them attain their dreams starts with teaching children how to have conversations, be good listeners, and the ability to work together in a group.  Read a great article by Heather Wolpert-Gawron titled Career Readiness:Starting Early with Young Learners.

      

As summer is starting to wind down and the new school year is about to begin, I am always on the look out for the next best learning technique.  I consider myself a life long learner even in my professional life.  It’s such a great way to keep my job interesting and it’s what is best for the students who enter my classroom as well.  For me the greatest and newest technique out there is the book “Learn Like a Pirate” by Paul Solarz.  PIRATE is an acronym that describes behaviors and expectations for the students in your class that promotes independent behaviors and self lead learning.  So I ordered the book, put an email out to my staff to see who wants to join me (2 others so far) on my new journey, and I started following Paul solarz @paulsolarz and the #learnlap on Twitter.
Last spring I came across the book “Teach Like a Pirate” by Dave Burgess @daveburgess #tlap.  Like LLAP the word PIRATE is an acronym for words that are used to inspire teachers to remember or reconnect with their passion,enthusiasm and creativity for teaching.  I recommend that every teacher should read both books and follow both Dave and Paul.  Each book has its merits and it’s always so exciting to be learning something new or even to be reminded about why you started on this journey in the first place. Both of their books are trending and I have found a huge support group by the authors and their followers.  LLAP has a book study going on right now and they will even help you start your own with questions already in place. Here are some tweets that came across my twitter this week...Excited about the opportunity to freely express my pirate-ness. @jessicourtright.  Apparently I’m a pirate.  It’s nice to feel understood. @annieiniowa. You are going to love LearnLAP. @daveburgess. Thinking about creating a culture where failure is how we learn.@fitech.  Don’t be left out!  Follow these great educators and leaders for for a journey fit for a….well Pirate of course!

Connected Educator Chat with Holly Clark

Getting connected with other educators is an important part of growing your Professional Learning Network (PLN).  Here is an interview I did with with the connected educator Holly Clark!  She was gracious enough to allow me to interview her through Google Hangout; something I have never done before.  If you want to learn more about Holly Clark and why she is a connected educator, please visit her blog at Ed Tech Diva.

Digital Citizenship: Getting Ready to Go Back to School

With the starting of school, just a few short weeks away in my district, I am beginning to get excited about starting our second year of 1:1 tablets in our classrooms.  I have spent some time this summer working on unit mapping and incorporating more technology into the lessons that I am refining or creating.  It's all so exciting for me and I know my students are going to be excited as well! However, it is important to remember that even though digital citizenship was covered last year, that this type of information needs to be an ongoing conversation throughout the year in every grade level.  As our students become more and more independent on their tablets and are digging deeper into the digital world,  I feel we need to help them become more independent in their quest to keep them safe on line, to use digital etiquette, find reliable resources, and learn to be search ninjas.  Here is an article by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher about What Your Students Really Need to Know About Digital Citizenship that I found to be very valuable and a great review for myself and my students.

Along with this article watch this video as a reminder to why our students need digital citizenship.

Common Sense Media is a great site to go to that has a huge source of information for educators, parents, and students of all ages.

For those of you who would like to browse through age appropriate lessons, I found a great blog site that has some that will hopefully meet your needs.

Click here for lesson plans on digital citizenship!

To keep up to date with the latest news and posts on digital citizenship, I recommend following these twitter accounts...

Keep updated on Twitter!

@4safeinternet

@iKeepSafe

@SueScheff

@BeCyberwise

What is and How do I get a PLN?

For those of you who might not know, a PLN is a Professional Learning Plan.  It's a plan to help get teachers and educators around the world connected in a BIG way!  Once you get connected you can glean many different types of resources, support, and promote good pedagogy to the many people around the globe that you are connected to.  It's a whole new look at the meaning of "your circle of friends."

Until recently my PLN consisted of me on the internet google searching lessons and articles for whatever my purpose might be.  Also included in this plan was a small network of friends and peers from my school and district.  At the time I thought I was doing just fine, but honestly what I've learned through the experience of growing a PLN is that what you don't know can hurt you.  Not physically...just professionally, and it can hold you back from growing as an educator. Now I am connected on so many levels with Twitter, Google+, a new blog and Google Site for my parents.  My head is spinning from all of the amazing teachers I have come into contact with lately and as I grow my community network I am also now growing a new appreciation for my profession.  At first it was hard to think that I have anything worth while to share with such an amazing community, but what I have learned over the last month or so is that everybody can't know everything and it's important for everyone to give a little so that they can get a little which then grows into a lot.

Anyone can have a PLN, it doesn't matter who you are or what your title is.  What's most important is that you have one!  Tom Whitby does a great job outlining the mass barriers to those people who are just starting out, how to build one, and what they can do for you.  Here is a link to his article "How Do I Get a Plan" in Edutopia that is a real help when trying to understand and go about beginning a PLN.  I have also included a video for those of you who like the visual learning process as well.

Characteristics of an Effective School Team

I've been on many teams/committees over the last 20 plus years and I can say that most of the teams I have worked on were connected in a way that we were able to step away from the table with an accomplished goal and a deep respect for the other team members.  However, there have been times when the group or committee I was on couldn't find our common ground and our goal became unclear and muddied in the process of trying to connect ourselves as a team. Our valuable time felt wasted and we did not come away from the experience with exhilaration, but with feelings of frustration. Elena Aguilar does a great job detailing the complications of working in a team setting and how these 5 characteristics can make a difference in the success of your team.
5 Characteristics of an Effective School Team

How does failure rate in our success? 

Famous Failures 

Lately, it seems like the new buzz word is...failure. However, it's not used in the negative since of the word, but actually in a way that you can be built up from the experience of having done so.  With many years of teaching under my belt, I can readily admit that there have been times when I have felt that I have failed to give my students what they want or what they need. What I didn't originally realize until lately is that these failures gave me the motivation to do better for my students the next time.   Check out the link below to learn about others who have gone on to succeed through their failures.

Adding Tech to Daily 5

Adding Tech to Daily 5

As a primary teacher for 23 years, I felt like I discovered a gold mine two years ago when I found Daily 5 and began to implement The Sisters strategies in my classroom.  Motivation to read exploded in my 1-2 combo class and I was finally able to meet with those guided reading groups in a way that allowed me to get home in time to still see my family before they closed their eyes at night.  If you don’t know about Daily 5, PLEASE put it #1 on your To Do list.  Just go to amazon right now and order the book!  The best opportunity is to then attend one of their conferences which was the best PD of my life...but sign up now, they fill up fast.

Integrating technology into our students learning is high on everyone’s priority list.  In my kindergarten classroom last year I was able to use technology to help my Daily 5 routine become more fluid and effective.  Here are some ideas:

1. Use Movenote to create Wordwork practice. Students can easily access this using a QR code.
2. Listen to Reading using Storyline Online, then reflect on that reading using Google Docs.
3. If students don’t have a partner for Read to Someone, they can read to the video camera then watch themselves to improve their fluency and accuracy.
4. Use an art app like Asus Artist to rainbow write words.

You can check out my classroom blog Roosevelt SuperKinders to see examples of it in action.

Professional Learner or Leaner

     As I surf the web looking for project based learning, STEM projects or technology rich lessons that are happening in classrooms around the country, I find that I am so excited about what is going on in classrooms from coast to coast!  It makes me proud to be a teacher and motivates me to want to do more for my students, my school and more importantly my professional self.  One article I came across highlights the difference between Professional Learners not Leaners.  This article is great at defining the difference between a learner and a leaner.  What I hope others will glean from this article would be the difference between the two.  Check out the full article and infographic to see where you fall on the Learner or Leaner scale.

Teacherpreneurs

Here is a great article about how already great teachers can expand their expertise so more students can benefit!! The teachers featured are leading the way from their classroom.  They don't profess to know it all, and work alongside their peers and students to find out answers. These teachers focus on creating projects that are meaningful to students lives. Click on the link to see if you are already a teaceherpreneur or to go about seeing how to become one!


Teacherpreneurs on Edutopia