Random Thoughts for a Wednesday

You may be wondering why there is a picture of this grasshopper on our blog.  I had a very profound moment last night as I was coming home from class.  You see this little guy was "hanging out" on my car window all the way from Maryville to Crestwood.  I kept thinking....surely he is going to fly off while I am driving down the road.  Nope.  Not even on the highway as I was driving 60 mph.  Just hung on the entire time.

And I, of course, thought of you all.  I thought about all the hard times we are faced with.  The difficult situations we face on a daily basis.  We take on just about every hat there is to wear....mother, teacher, nurse, counselor, and many more for our young students.  And we just keep on keeping on....just like that little cricket.  So, know when things get tough as they often do at this time of the year, you are appreciated and thought of often.  And hang in there!

Check Out These AWESOME Displays

Mrs. Clancy has some great displays in her room. Stop by to see her clearly learning objectives clearly posted in student friendly language.

She also has her classroom expectations clearly posted with lots of pictures of students showing these rules in action.

 

 

A Little Cheese for Your Thursday

Sappington Staff-
I want you to know what an honor it is to work among all of you.  In the past month as I have gotten to know many of you, I have been completely impressed with your dedication and willingness to embrace new ideas.

I believe that what we do makes a difference.  That someday a child somewhere will remember us and they are better human beings because of the impression we have made upon them.  I believe that what we do matters, that somehow our actions will help to make the world a better place.

Every day you come to this home away from home.... ready to give it your all no matter what it takes. Thank you for being the best of the best teachers, nurses, counselors, custodians, assistants, secretaries, and librarians. I feel so completely fortunate to have joined this academy of awesome!

Giving Digital Instructions-With Mrs. Folluo and Mr. Wolf

Do you find that you repeat instructions over and over for your students?  Check out how Mrs. Folluo and Mr. Wolf get students ready for Science investigations by making videos for them.  This series of videos guides them through the instructions for setting up the experiment and conducting it.  The students watched these videos for homework and then came to class ready to start working.

To create these tutorials, the 5th grade teachers recorded video to their iPad and then uploaded to YouTube.

Digital Communication-Facebook Fritz

Have you seen Tarren's facebook page?   Be sure to click here.  She shares tons of pictures, videos, and details with parents on a daily basis.  Here parents are absolutely informed about what is going on in her classroom.

I challenge you to be brave and post a comment here.  What do you think about Tarren's page?  If you were a parent in her classroom, what would you want her to know?

Did You Know?

I love learning new "stuff" every day!  I have this great app on my iPad called Zite.  You can enter the topics that you want to learn about and it creates a little flip magazine with topics curated about what you are interested in.

Yesterday, I read this blog post about 4 new ways to use Google Docs.  Did you know you can embed a YouTube video into a Google form?  I immediately thought of all you who have been flipping your classroom.  This would be an excellent way to share a video and then get some feedback to see if kids understood a particular concept or had difficulties understanding something.  All before they even get to class in the morning!  Let me know if you need any help getting this organized.

Using Penultimate for Reading and Writing Conferences

Who out there is up for a little challenge?  Here it is.  Dive in sometime this week and use either Penultimate or Evernote for your reading/writing conferences.   If you try something out, make a comment on this post telling us what you tried for a little "gift."

What is Penultimate you say?  It turns your iPad into a drawing board and allows you to "write" on pictures or text.  Check out this short video.

Ms. Handrahan Uses Screen-Cast-O-Matic

Have you ever wanted to share something with parents or students with many steps but didn't know how to convey the message?  Check out this video to see how Laura uses video to share an important lesson for parents.  She used a tool called Screencast-O-Matic to record her voice and then what she was talking about.

Fun Apps

Students in Ms. Whorton's class are collecting data and creating bar graphs.  I love how she shared this on her blog as one picture.  Really gets the ideas across on what students are working on.

She used the following apps to create this collage.  What would happen if you assigned a student to be your photographer today and then them "summarize" an activity with pictures?

Pic Collage-Download here.

Pic Stitch-Download here.

Reading Journals Go Digital!

From Mrs. Gardner's Blog:
Our class has been working hard in reading, and now it is time for them to begin sharing their thoughts with me through their reading response journals on Google Docs.

Students learned how to log in and get to their reading response journals, and were so excited to write a letter about what they were reading. 

Everyone was working hard! When one person struggled, friends immediately jumped up to help!

Every other week, students are asked to log on and write me a letter telling me about a book they just finished, or a book they are currently reading. I will then write a letter back to them about my personal thoughts, ask them questions, and possibly recommend another book for them to read! 

All of the kids thought it was so exciting, that I was able to write on the same document at the same time from my iPad! 

Here is a great direction sheet for your students if you would like to try this as well in your classroom.

G-mail, Google Drive, Reading Response Journal Direction Sheet

Blogger of the Week-Ms. Flinn

Be sure to check out Ms. Flinn's blog this week.  She utilizes pictures of her anchor charts from her mini-lessons to help parents support their readers and writers at home.

Literacy Centers in K-1

We are so impressed with the planning, organization, and structure that has been going into your center implementation. While it is so exciting to get to the heart of teaching reading, the work that you do in these beginning days to set the parameters for this time is essential.

Already our smallest members of Sappington are engaged in meaningful literacy activities during center time. What quiet workers!

Reading groups are already happening....in Kindergarten!

Students are using devices to read.

1st graders are listening to reading. I'm not sure what these devices are called. ;)

Students are reading to self.

Using Evernote for taking Digital Anecdotal Notes

When you are conferring with your young authors, many of you already have record systems in place to keep your notes.  But have you ever thought of how powerful it would be to be able to collect pictures of their writing or hear them reading their pieces aloud in your notes?

I came across this blog post today and wanted to share this amazing tool.  If you need any help getting a digital notebook started, feel free to let me know.  Evernote integrates nicely with the iPad as well!