Persistence and Determination

What if I fall?  Why am I posting this?  I know some people are popping onto my blog to see what a 21st Century Classroom looks like, and what a teacher needs to do to become a teacher of one.  You must try!  You cannot succeed at something unless you try!  If you don't put yourself at a bit of risk, you will never know.  Success comes from being brave enough to try new things.  I am not a 20 year old teacher.  My own children (ages 22 and 18) laugh when they think of me being in a 21st Century Classroom.  You see, I'm 51 (or 49 plus tax).   I have always been persistent.  I want to learn new things, try new things, and figure out better ways of doing what I love - teach children.  Children love technology, and they love to move.  I needed to figure out how I could combine what they need with what I could do - LEARN!  :) I spent the summer on the computer - Twitter was, and IS my best friend for learning.  Facebook chat groups for first grade teachers has been wonderful, as well as Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers.  But Twitter has taught me the most.  Find people to follow, ask questions, and learn from them.  Invite yourself to EdCamps, and learn, learn, learn.  Most of all, do not be afraid of the technology.  It's pretty hard to break most of it, and if you don't play around with it, you won't learn what it has to offer.  Another piece of advice is to take on only a few new technologies at a time.  It's overwhelming if you try to do too much, especially while you are setting routines with your students. Lastly, have fun with it!  I'm not sure who is having more fun with some of the new discoveries we're making - me, the students, or the parents!  We've created open communication with our families in almost all of our ventures, and yes, it's a risk!  But, oh, the rewards are sweet!!!!

Interrupting Issues

Oh, boy! Do your firsties have interrupt-itus? Do you have a favorite go-to book for dealing with this issue? I have one, and our school counselor has another, so we tag team and try to get these little kiddos to understand the importance of waiting for a turn to talk.  My fav is Interrupting Chicken, by David Stein. The book our counselor uses is, My Mouth is a Volcano, by Julia Cook.  Both are excellent books, and are referenced by both me and my students through the rest of the school year any time someone interrupts the speaker. =D

Which ever story you choose, you won't be disappointed!  Your students will be engaged, and you have an excellent mentor text for this important social skill in your hands!
Have a great week!!

Old School in a 21st Century Classroom?

What do you think?  Is this overhead out of place?  Many would laugh and say, "Duh, yes!!!"  I say, "No!"  Use a good mix of high tech and low tech media to enthrall your students in word work.  Give your firsties a list of words to build and let them go!






Here's another example of my low tech media. :) I have a few cassettes from years of collecting points and a slight obsession of books (shhhh, my family doesn't really know how many books I own).  I have cassette players in the yellow "cupcake" bags  and a CD player in the blue "star" bag (aren't they cute!! - they're from Target One Spot).  The maroon dish tub holds my book choices in book bags, labeled with matching pictures of either the cupcake bag or the star bag, so my firsties know if they ar to use the cassette player or the cd player (in the fall many of the kiddos look at the cassette players and cassettes like they're from Mars). In the white tub I have Dr. Seuss totes (also from Target One Spot).  In these, I have mp3 players.  Our district has Literacy by Design for our literacy curriculum.  We have read along stories for each theme which the students have available after we use them whole group.  I took the picture before we started the year, so the totes are empty.  Each of my totes are labeled with a number, as are my mp3s and the books.  If a book or an mp3 is misplaced, we know which to look for. :)  You can see the edge of little green basket next to the maroon tub - I have several headphone splitters and adapters in there, so kids can listen together, and most of the cassette players need the larger adapter to work.  It takes a bit of teaching to get everyone on board for these, but you can usually get a few "experts" in the classroom to help.

This year, we are adding 5 iPads and 5 Chromebooks, so I am uber excited to get started on my new favorite app and site, Seesaw!!!!  If you haven't checked it out yet, please do!  There is so much you can do beyond just having the kids photo journal with them!     www.seesaw.me

Room Reveal

I FINALLY have my pictures of my room taken, and have a few minutes to sit down and write about my classroom.  This year, my room got a makeover!  It was boring "contractor's cream".  As part of our 21st Century Classroom proposal, my partner and I asked to have our classrooms painted.  She chose yellow, I chose blue.  I wanted a blue-green, but it painted on a lighter shade of blue.  I wasn't sure after one wall, but when it was done, I fell in love!  The staff in the building have been stopping in oo-ing and ah-ing over it.  I'll sneak in and get a picture of my partner's room.  I like her yellow, too, but for me, the blue is more calming.
I'll walk you through some of my changes.  First of all, I got rid of all of my desks and chairs!!  These pictures were taken before our new Noodle chairs came in, early last week.  I used to have 3 small tables in addition to student desks in my classroom.  They are all gone, except for one new table, which is a technology table with 4 plug-ins for computers/tablets.  It will also have a monitor attached to the back so I can project what I want my kiddos to do, step by step.  I have 5 Chrome books available to use in my classroom unless someone in the school needs to check one out for assessments or some other reason.  I also have 5 iPads dedicated to my room.  We are also on the first grade iPad schedule for the cart.  It has 28 iPads on the cart, and comes to our classroom twice a week.  I am in the process of making flip books for each of my students so they'll have their passwords saved in one place, as well as QR codes for access to sites.

This view is taken from my classroom door.  You can see how much light comes in from my new window!  It's great!  I have very little ceiling light needed.  I had that changed, too.  My husband and I own a furniture store, and we contacted our lighting experts.  They recommended 2500-3000K light bulbs.  My district wanted to put in 5000K bulbs.  The district put in their 5000K bulbs, and after I re-routed several jets to the local airport (YES, THE BULBS WERE THAT BRIGHT), I had the bulbs changed to the ones I requested.  As a migraine sufferer, it was something I really needed to have.  The yellow-orange spectrum color bulbs are softer and less harsh for my kiddos, and much better on my headaches (I still get them, but with less severity).

Do you LOVE the little mushroom chair??!!  It's the Runtz Ball chair.  We purchased ours through Smith Systems , which is where all of our desks and chairs came from.  We also have some Hokki stools, some rockers and Flavor Noodle Chairs (not shown, as they came after I took pictures).  My desks are the Mini Diamond Desks https://smithsystem.com/furniture-types/desks/with locking casters.  I'm not sure if my kiddos are accidentally locking them, or if I have someone who is going around locking them all for me.  The purpose of the casters is to be able to move the desks quickly to have large groups work in the room.  I plan to host all Skyping sessions in my classroom, so we will need a bit more room for my room and my teaching partner's room to join us.

Pretty much the only drawback of the diamond desks (which I anticipated) was the width at the top of the desks.  The area for a name plate is only about 11 1/2".  I needed to find something from the internet vs. purchasing something pre-made, which is what has been done for me for the past 10 years.  Luckily, I found a really nice set at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Back-to-School-Desk-Nameplates-145986.  Teachers are the BEST!!!

I posted a question on a Facebook chat group, and within 3 minutes, I had 15 suggestions from friends around the country!
The little scoop rockers were THE RAGE this summer!!!  It took me forEVER to find them, and then in the right color? PaLEEEZE!  My husband asked, "How many of them are you going to buy?" Lol - two, once I have the right colors. :)
The blue comfy chairs are from a DonorsChoose project I did several years ago - one of my class's favorite reading hangout places!
Do you love how the new windows flip in?!  Good thing my students aren't too tall!  Ugh!  I'm not sure who made the decision on those windows, but we're lucky they'll work.  Window treatments are supposed to be coming in soon.  With a Safe and Secure  building, I hope so!  It's a big window to try to cover!



The last pic for tonight's post...my desk.  It, too, is on casters! My Smurf checks names on papers - first: to make sure they're on them, and second: that they're all turned the same direction, lol.  It saves me a little bit of time, so it's worth it.

As far as technology, I have an iPad, a laptop and a desktop computer for my teacher use.  The laptop is a bit of a beast, but it'll work for now.  I will be piloting Splashtop, which will make my iPad work as my desktop computer - hoping it'll work, as it's hard to run from my Smart Board back to the desktop every.stinkin,time.it.doesn't.work.  I have renamed my Smart Board, "Ornery Board".  :)
Anyway, this is my home away from home.

Have a GREAT week!!

Work in Progress

Well, I don't have a clue how many hours I've been at school trying to put my new classroom together. My son, Kyle stopped by to visit one day, and his friend texted and asked him where he

was.  Here's how it went:
Dan: Where are You?
Kyle: West

Dan:West where

Kyle: West Elementary

Dan: But there's no school

Kyle: I know, but my mom's working 

Dan: But there's no kids

Kyle: I know, but she works a lot.  That's what teachers do

Thank you, son, for trying to educate the general population.  We are not OFF in the summer, sitting in the sun, sipping iced tea.  I took 12 semester credits, moved a classroom, created a 21st Century Classroom, and broke a sweat.  I'm a teacher.  What's your superpower?!

Here's a glimpse into my classroom. Notice anything missing????  Perhaps desks?  Yep.  We start September 7th.  They should (BETTER) arrive between the 28th of August and September 1st, then assembly can begin. :)  They threw my old desks out, so BETTER is the operable word.  I do have some awesome seating, though, don't I? Sorry about all the clutter - still trying to fit things from a bigger room into this room, and going from a giant desk to no desk for now, but a mobile work station is coming. I'm just not sure how much storage there will be in it, so I'm trying to plan on no storage.  So, throw, throw, throw.

IF you are able to donate to a project, or can forward the link to someone who loves to help teachers and classrooms out, I have a DonorsChoose project for my classroom which just went live a couple of days ago.  It's for a Apple Macbook Pro.  I want the kids to be able to work with me to blog on Kidblog, do some skyping and tweeting with other classrooms around the world.  I also want to be able to work wirelessly with a computer within the room, including without a battery needing to be plugged in within an hour or two.  I will have a green screen set up for my students to record stories after writing and editing using manipulatives (including Legos).  I plan to add a keyboard for students to utilize Garage band as well. Again, thanks for any help you can offer! 

 Here's the link to my project: ENTER THE CODE: JUMPSTART TO HAVE THE BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION MATCH YOUR DONATION!!! :)

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/21st-century-learners-ready-for-ilearnin/1614890/?rf=link-siteshare-2015-08-account_projects_teacher-teacher_1022936&challengeid=271257

Growing Pains

My, how time flies!  This little peanut is starting college in a week.

 Our baby.  We are now empty-nesters. Her brother graduated from college this spring. Luckily, she is only an hour away.  She is a strong, successful girl who will take care of herself and not let anyone stand in her way of success, yet kind-hearted enough to volunteer where needed.  I am proud of who she is already, and can't wait to see who this feisty red-head will become!  She has not followed in my footsteps.  She has seen how many hours I spend at school after hours, on the weekends, and in the summers.  She is on the business route.  She will volunteer in classrooms when she can, as she is very good with kids.

Growing pains for her dad and I as parents.  We have to stretch ourselves to let go a bit more than letting her keep the car out until midnight. I thought I'd be fine, until the song, "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Atkins came on the radio as I was following her up to her new apartment with her last load of clothes, shoes, and more shoes (we marked the box 'softlines' to try to hide the fact that she had so many shoes from her dad, ha-ha!).  If you haven't heard that song before, Google the words.  Heart-breaker!!!  I posted on Face Book, "That was You, God.  I got it!" Perfect message delivered.

My message to you? Make sure you take time with your kids.  No matter the age.  It doesn't matter if they are little and at home, or on their own, already married and with kids.  Take time, make time.  I lost a dear friend to cancer this summer, and looking at her calendars over the years, she always took the time to make it to as many things she could with her boys.  And then with her boys and stepdaughters.  It matters.  Always. :)

Creative Seating

Creative seating in a 21st Century Classroom is pretty fun to shop for! I had some cozy furniture already from a DonorsChoose project and some milk crate seating I made one summer. On Face Book, the Scoop Rockers were the most sought out item on one of the first grade chat groups. I know my students will love to sit in one of these cozy rockers for read-to-self! And when Target put the sand chairs on clearance, our group texts went crazy! My daughter thought we were hoarders, but we were just buying them for other teachers.  We're good like that, aren't we?  The "I've got your back" attitude in teaching is so important! I love my team!!
I just found out my desks will be in between August 28th and Sept.1st - just in time for school to start after Labor Day! Here are some of my new chairs.

You'll notice some stacked light bulbs in the background.  Part of our request was to change the lighting.  I wanted 2500K-2700K (Kalvin) lighting, but they put in 5000K lighting. The difference is I wanted yellow-orange spectrum and they put in blue spectrum.  I get migraines, and I cannot work with all the lights on.  When I have a migraine, the 5000K lights look like you could land a jet in my room when they are all on.
I'll post more pictures as I get my new room ready.  I've been moving my son into a new apartment post-graduation from college, and moving my daughter into an apartment tomorrow for college. Busy time of year! Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by! Please come back, as I'm getting better at this!