iPad, Reading Horrors, Word Work, Out of the Minds of Babes

Let's start with the iPad. Do you have any idea how cool it is to snap photos of your students learning and then send those photos to parents via Edmodo? (if you do not know Edmodo, google it and check it out!) It's a thing of beauty. And blogging? I'm trying it out for the first time via the iPad. I can snap photos, grab links, add video....all with one piece of technology. beeeeeeYYOOooooUtiful! Find a way to get one. All teachers should have one.

 One of my firsties comes wailing to me across the room like a hysterical siren. All I could get out of him were the words "dead" "animals" and...well, I guess I really couldn't make out the rest. After a few minutes of hugs and dectective work, I discovered that the little guy had made a discovery of his own, and it is called Natures Monsters - Endangered Reptiles. The is what had him going:

 
And then there was this





 Yes, it is the rock star teacher that looks through her books for appropriateness before launching them into her class library. For the record, this was a book I got from Scholastic.

 I needed an activity for spelling that really got my kids engaged. All it took was some sharpies and blank cheap puzzles from oriental trading. The word that the puzzle focuses on is written onthe puzzle pieces, one letter per piece. It is written multiple times, each in a diffent color ink. Each color is sorted and the word put together before assembling the entire thing. Each time a word is put together the student has to write it in their Working with Word notebook. I put each puzzle in its own ziploc and numbered it, and wrote the word on the bag. Some puzzles had many different words on it.

 

And lastly, check out what one of my firsties brought for share. I do a big chicken egg unit, which i would have blogged about had I not been so tired. We incubate eggs, and the kids are put of all the processes. I taught them how to candle eggs, and the learned what to look for. This child made his len egg at home to show how candling works; he filled a plastic easter egg with stickers, and then used a flash light to candle it. Can you imagine the possibilities? This could make an amazing word work activity but putting words/segments/sounds in the eggs with wikkies or sharpie.




 I am feeling refreshed knowing that we have only this week left of school, and that there is a big shining light at the end of tunnel (and it isn't going to be a train).

Word sorts, iPads, and Wonderings

Not necessarily in that order.

My wondering is first.
We watched a very cool Ted Talks (do you know Ted Talks? Seriously cool stuff here, bloggy-friends). It is  given by play researcher Stuart Brown, and stresses the importance of play. This is importance stuff. Humor me and watch it. You will learn something, I promise.


Who knew that play was really as critical as all that? I tell you what: it seriously made me consider my teaching strategies with my firsties and rethink some of the things that I do. The biggest problem we all face is time, right? There is simply just not enough time in the day to do everything we need to do, let alone throw a whole lotta play in the mix. But here's the thing - we know that this is really critical stuff for the brain, right? So let's make a pact to be smarter than the system. Between all the rock star edu-brains we have collectively, we should be able to come up with some kick-ass ideas to bring play back into our learning. Here's my wondering:
I wonder how you can bring play back into your day. Share one small idea that you will try in the next week or two.

That brings me to my next subject, which really has a lot to do with the first. I was just talking with a K teacher on Friday about how little time there is in K for role playing or play-based centers. I realized that we absolutely can utilize play-based centers during readers and writers workshop, not to mention how easy it is to do for math, health, science and social studies. I saw this great idea on Pinterest where kids sort "french fries" into McMdonald's fry boxes. Wouldn't a food-themed set of sorts and writing be SO COOL? So I whipped up three activities that I am going to use when we return from spring break. Check them out!


These are just the instructional posters that go along with them. The whole kit includes all the materials for all three activities, including prep directions, the instructional posters, common core state standards for each, and all the printable material you need. I can't wait to introduce the kids to them!

This week is spring break, as I already mentioned. Yesterday was grad school all day, and then I didn't want to start my real break with a horrible, no good, very bad classroom so I spent the majority of my day there today. I am setting up my Writer's Eye bboard, a new writing center, and new area of working with words. I had to clean up the bunnies and send them packing for the week with one of my students.

Ok, lastly the iPad. Is it horrible that I feel a little lost with it? I'm no techie-idiot, but I really need to do some research on the best way to use it with in my teaching. I did get this pocket organizer app that has task lists and calendars and all kinds of shiny whistles and bells. I realized that I can do all of my lesson planning on it, have it sync to my google calender (and vice versa), and can use it instead of my written calendar which is always a bit of a mess. Plus, it gives me an excuse to carry iPad with my where ever I go.

Tomorrow we are off to the Wisconsin Dells for some serious play time. I'm even more ready to go after watching Stuart Brown! Have a Fab week!!

Leprechauns None, Tag Bootcamp, I Wonder and iPad

I hope everyone had a fun pre-St.Pat's day. For those of you on Spring Break, will you celebrate on Monday? Or just skip it? To my utter glee, there were no leprechauns that visited our room. My desk looks like they did, but it always looks like that.

We had a fun day, doing lots of little things like a counting coins activity (green gifts bags with random coins in it, 21 bags in all). We did some sequencing and reader's theatre with this story. I got the cutest, cutest gift from a student; it was a small bag of rainbow colored licorice, with gold foil wrapped Rolo's in the bottom. Why didn't I do something like that for the kiddos? Instead, I threw some dollar store pencils at them at the end of the day, and they were so cute but so cheap the erasers all fell off them. One kids complained because he didn't get the design he wanted, so I took his pencil away. Mean Old Mrs. Mathews.

We spent another recess at Tag Boot Camp. Today did not go as well as yesterday. I guess some of the shiny wore off as it wasn't brand new and exciting today. I had four kids that violated the "Good Sport Policy" by a) stamping their feet b) yelling "No Fair!" c) cheating d) arguing with me and e) general freaking out. They had to sit out and watch the rest of boot camp. Mean Old Mrs. Mathews.

So here is my big "I Wonder" of the day: what is it, really really, what is it that is making our babies the products that they are? Why am I having to take little gifts away and teach Tag Boot Camp. we can all sense it, all see the symptoms. There has been a gradual (but rapidly accelerating) shift is inabilities to play fairly, share, be still without some kind of stim, and general sense of self-entitlement. I know I sound like an old grandma, complaining about "kids these days", but I am really, really worried about it. I believe, very very firmly, that it is us - our society, that is doing it. We are building up our iSociety, founded on individual networking, instant gratification and constant incoming information. I know I'm part of the problem; my two daughters, 9 and 12, have their own laptops and Nanos. We have Dish, and NetFlix and a PS3. I crawl into bed at night and read, but I also blog and research and create on my own laptop. I read on a Kindle. It's true that I make the girls unplug often, and they have to read for at least 30 minutes before bed (which they adore). But as a whole, what am I supporting that is doing such damage to little bodies and young minds?  I am smart enough to know that I am a part of the problem. And I don't know how to fix it.

And what's the deal with not being able to play together on the playground? I read all around "blog land" about teachers that spend time every day sorting out recess problems, and a lot of talk about having to teach kids to share. They don't have to share at home? Maybe not.

Ok, off my soap box. I worry about it. I really, really do. I fear that it will build and build and then backlash. We are these amazing creatures capable of such beautiful things, we and need to be kind and loving to each other. We need to share and collaborate and problem solve together. What can we do as teachers to keep our students a cohesive and productive community? Did I say I was off my soap box? It's the flu; just when you think it's done, you crap your pants at Walmart. Sorry. Help me talk this out.

Two very exciting things. First I GOT AN iPAD!!!! Did you hear me scream that? I did, I did!!! But now what, I don't really know. I think I'll just lay it next to me in bed and stroke it while I sing it a lullaby. But then I'll have to get serious about what I can do with it for teaching. Apparently downloading free "Fart Sounds" is not a productive thing to do with it. Second, tomorrow is my last cohort Saturday for Grad class. Then in a month we present our research at a conference, and then we WALK GRADUATION!! Can I just wear my hood around town for awhile? And I never thought I'd ever even get my undergrad. When can I start on my double Masters?