Trust

Trust is a critical component of life.  We need to be able to trust our family, our friends, and our co-workers.  And we also need to have a certain amount of trust in humanity and of our surroundings.  After reading the chapter on trust from Houston and Sokolow, I came away with many valuable ideas. 

One of the ideas that I found to be important was when the author wrote that when you give trust, you receive it.  I think this is a critical piece of understanding trust.  Unless you are willing to open yourself up to trusting others, you will never receive trust yourself.  I also liked when the author stated that bad things happen but do the good thing anyway.  This can be a hard concept as when bad things happen to you, it’s hard to trust enough to continue doing good things.  This has sometimes been a struggle for me personally.  When bad things happen, I find it hard to trust enough to continue doing good things. 

A key statement in the chapter is that you can’t do anything for someone else that you can’t do for yourself first.  I found this statement to be so true.  If you are unable to trust in yourself and do things for yourself, then you are unable to trust and do those things for anyone else.  My favorite statement from the author was that the world is made up of a lot of imperfect people trying to move forward.  I really liked this idea.  We all make mistakes but we are all just trying to survive, keep moving on with our lives and trust that everything will be alright.

The Future of Technology

Technology is an important factor in the future of education.  While it will never take the place of a teacher, technology can assist in bringing learning to a higher level.  Technology is something I will continue to integrate into my classroom as my district is extremely committed to using the SAMR model to integrate technology into all classrooms.  I am looking to further the integration of iPads in my classroom and will continue to investigate new apps to help kids grow.  I plan to continue to focus on the SAMR model to bring my lessons to a higher level.  I will also continue collaborating with my grade level to share ideas and best practices in this continuance of technology integration.  Technology is not going anywhere so we need to jump on board in order to move our schools into the 21^st century.

February New Strategy

This month I am beginning a new pilot reading program in my classroom.  Our district is looking at purchasing a new LA curriculum and they have asked some of us from each grade level to pilot the programs.  Having never had an actual reading program in our grade level, this has been very interesting.  I have enjoyed having a program with student books, technology pieces, and more teacher resources.  I am excited to continue the pilot program and see where it leads!

February New Tech Tool

This month I have implemented the tech tool Flash to Pass.  This app allows kids to practice their math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication or division) on the iPad.  It gives them 20 problems to complete in 2 minutes.  The app then moves them up to the next level.  I only have 4 iPads in my room so I use it during centers and I have them take turns.  What I have not figured out is if there is a way to keep track of progress for each child.  Stay tuned . . .

Persistence

Persistence is a key ingredient to surviving life.  We all have struggles and we have to choose to either give up or to endure.  These last few weeks I have given a lot of though to this idea of persistence.  There has been a lot going on in both my personal and professional life.  There have been challenges and struggles and hardships.  The more time I spent reflecting upon what has been happening, the more down I became.  On one particularly hard day, I found myself crying and upset.  It was at that point that I decided I could either give up and run away to the beach (tempting, yes!) or I could persist and baton down the hatches and ride out the storm.  Using the prompts on the poster above, I decided I needed a new mindset.  

I took to heart some of the suggestions and put them to use.  I first refocussed my goal - I broke down the big picture into little ones to make things more manageable.  I reset my mind - I was going to get through this and would come out the other side a better and stronger person.  I checked in with some experts, i.e. friends.  Who better than to help you get your mind right and make you laugh - a few drinks don't hurt either!!  

I feel now that I am in a much better place.  I have never been (nor will I ever be!) a quitter - my husband calls me the most stubborn person he knows!  But by really thinking about what it truly means to be persistent, I have gained a new perspective.  Stay positive and keep getting up.  Every. Single. Time.  

As the poster says:

Persistence is tenacity wrapped in courage with just a sprinkling of stubborness on top.

Haiku Deck

This week, I tried a new app in my classroom.  My 1st graders have been learning all about the solar system.  They created a planet journal where they wrote facts about each planet and drew a picture of each planet.  So I put them into table groups and assigned them a planet.  They then created a slide for their planet by choosing their facts and a picture for that planet.  Overall, it went pretty well.  There was a child in charge at each table so that helped minimize troubles.  I also have 2 paras in the room so that helped as well.  A word to the wise . . . some of the pics that show up are not appropriate!  Overall, this is a really neat app and the kids enjoyed the presentation and working together to create a class project.

February Strategy

This month I decided to focus on writing in my classroom.  I used the Five Star Writing that was shared with us at the Fall Conference.  I used our journal writing time once a week to teach 1 star at a time. That star was the only one we focussed on.  Then I used our writing center that week to have them practice their journal writing on their own focusing on that star from earlier in the week.  Their writing and understanding of writing has improved so much!  I am really pleased with this intervention and we continue to refer back to it on a daily basis.  Here is a shot of the overview of 5 star writing.  You can find more printables for it on Teachers Pay Teachers:)

January New Strategy

This last week I started doing SuperSpeed 100 with my first graders.  I paired them up so that the stronger readers were paired those who struggle a little more.  We try to practice twice a week and the kids really enjoy trying to beat their own scores.  It's nice to see them working together and cooperating on a task that they enjoy.  I am curious to see if and how this will affect their reading abilities and their fluency.

January Tech Implementation

I have been trying some new technology in my classroom now that we have more technology access in our building.  The first new tech tool I have been utilizing is Brain Pop Jr.  This is a site (and app) that shows videos to explain various topics and concepts in kid-friendly terms.  I have been using it for math, LA, science and social studies.  Each video is short so they are easy to show as a part of a lesson yet they give a lot of information to the kids.  My students really enjoy watching them!

The other tool I have started using is Spelling City.  This is a site (and app) that allows teachers to input spelling words and then the kids can go on and practice their list.  There are games they can play with the words as well as practice spelling them.  It is nice for parents because it's another way kids can practice their spelling words and the kids love it because they are playing games with the words.  So far, it has been going really well and I am excited to learn more about it so I can better utilize it in my classroom!

January New Strategy

The new technology that I used this month was with the 3rd and 4th graders who attend Adventure Reading, our new after school targeted services program.  The lead teachers and I had the students read a book and then use the app, Animoto, to share the elements of the story.  The students would take a picture of the cover of the book for the title page.  From there they would move to the setting, characters, problem, and solution.  Then the students would add a text frame telling about each of these pieces of the story.  Once finished, they would put the slides in order and add a sound track and video design.  It was such a fun activity!  The kids loved it and wanted to make more than the one that was planned for the day.  They were so engaged in their creation of their story and were excited to share it!