New School Year in the STEAM Lab

At the end of this week I sat down and realized that I had enough missed "tweets" to warrant a blog post. There were so many wonderful things happening in the STEAM Lab this week!

Full disclosure, I also saw this week that my blog bio said I had two children. My youngest will be two in the next couple of week, so I decided it was time to pay the neglected blog some attention! Either way, this week was blog-worthy!

Monday started with the eclipse. The school purchased glasses for all our students. The STEM coordinator also made these signs.

Once school was out for the day I was able to take my kindergartener and my second grader out to view the eclipse with me. It was pretty special!

I decided to bring back this project again this year. Instead of just self portraits like the onse in the picture below, I asked students to draw themselves as scientists. I started by asking what a scientist looks like. I typically got the answer I expected - a man in a white coat and googles. From there I showed the search results on PBS LeanringMedia for "Scientist Profile" and picked  few students to select a scientist to learn more about. Interestingly enough, very few of their drawing ended up wearing white lab coats! I have parent volunteers putting the project together next week. I'm excited to see how it comes out!

I always try to start the year with digital citizenship. A could of years ago I purchased the Nearpod version of the Common Sense Media curriculum. I love that I don't have to copy any pages before class starts. It is the perfect way to start the year in the STEAM Lab.

This year the elementary specialists got together and decided to try something new. I still see all elementary classes on a rotating basis, but we added a fourth day to the rotation. Instead of traveling to specials with the whole class, on the fourth day students go to Special Project Enrichment Classes (SPEC). Each quarter students have a different SPEC Class. We even had a team of teachers that have given up their planning once every four days in exchange for a stipend.

This quarter my SPEC class is all about LEGOs. My fourth and fifth graders get to travel into the high school STEM Lab. It has been a lot of work (and will be another post), but it has been worth it so far.

It was a full week, but it was the kind of week you look back at and feel good about. I've spent the weekend trying to distract myself from watching storm coverage and worrying about my mom and sister. I grew up in the Houston area and am praying for all those that are trying to deal with the effects of Harvey. Hang in there my Texas friends!

Have a great week!

Index Card Self Portrait Collaborative Art Project

I went on Pinterest right before school started to look for some inspiration. I wanted a project for the first day of school. Actually, because I see students on a three day rotating schedule, I needed a good project for the first DAYS of school. I fell in love with this post I found through this pin.

The end result, was this collaborative project.

To start, we practiced drawing faces using white boards and markers. From there I handed students an index card with a colored dot on the back. They went to a bin full of crayons, markers, and colored pencils in the assigned color. Like the original project, my fourth and fifth grade students were assigned two colors to help the colors blend in the finished project.

I placed the cards on a long sheet of black paper. I spent almost two hours using rubber cement to attach the index cards.

 Here are a few up close pictures.

I am in love with this project. It was the perfect way to start the year!

Unfortunately it is still looking for a home! The clothesline was not strong enough to hold it up in hallway traffic. It is HUGE. Right now the plan is to hang it was up high in the school entryway. We'll see how it goes!

In other news, be sure to check back next week. I have a birthday giveaway planned that you will not want to miss!

Back to School

I submitted my last assignment tonight! It took all summer, but I finished all 80 assignments.  I am so happy not to have that hanging over my head.

Last week I attended the Drive-in Conference at P.K. Yonge Developmental Lab School in Gainesville.  I presented on Technology for Classroom Management and Using Technology in the Elementary Math Classroom. The presentations and links are available on my Portaportal Page.

Teachers reported back on Monday. Yesterday my son got sent home from day care for tummy issues. Due to the 24 hour rule, he joined me at school today.  I was worried about how he would do, but the little guy quietly watched videos on my iPad through the bloodborne pathogens training and a review of the crisis response plan.

He "helped" me print a big poster for my bulletin board. It has a weather theme. We had WeatherSTEM installed yesterday. Our school site is here. I am looking forward to watching the sky video tomorrow.

My teacher's helper took a nap mid afternoon. I was able to get a few things done while he slept. I *might* have put a sign on my classroom door announcing "Napping 3-year-old."

Tomorrow is our "Meet the Teacher" day. I can't believe it is already time!

Five for Friday…Late again

**I actually wrote this on Friday night and it has taken me all weekend to find time to post it. Such is life!**

The first week of school. There is nothing quite like it! My husband had to work late tonight. I sat down with the kids after work watching Curious George. I woke when my husband called at 7 to say he was on his way home. Thank goodness the kids had snacked and dinner was only leftovers!

I hope to get into a more regular blogging routine again, but right now I’m just trying to figure out life as a specialist.

1

I had fun teaching this week. I’m exhausted, but I enjoyed teaching. Teaching in the lab is completely different from third grade. I have 6 preps on a three day rotation. 

It was half way through the first day that it dawned on me that I have to learn names for 18 classes. On the plus side, I feel like a movie star walking down the halls. I teach every kid in K-5, so everyone wants to say hi or give me a hug.

2

Kindergarten kicked my rear. Our school does a staggered start for K, so there were only six kids for each of the first three days. 

“I’m hungry. When’s lunch? I like art. You’re pretty. Where’s my teacher? Is it lunch time yet? I have to go potty. When do we eat lunch? I have a cat. I’m hungry. Can I go potty now? I have a lunch box. Is it time for lunch yet? I have a sister. When do we go to lunch?”

It was a full 50 minutes of talk. Seriously. Can you tell that I have them right before lunch? 

I had a Kindergarten rotation during my student teaching, but it was November. August is a completely different ball game. They were nonstop. 

Thankfully it is already improving. A little.

3

The computers they ordered for my room are here, but the electricity and data ports still have not been upgraded, so they cannot be used yet. There was a mistake in the work order or something like that. They *might* be in over the weekend to work on it. There is a pretty good chance I will have to teach in the media center all next week, but no one knows for sure yet. I’m all about being flexible this year!

The picture is the hallway outside my room. I made these posters spelling out The Science Technology Engineering Art Math Lab. I love the way my room has come together so far and cannot wait until all the updated furniture and technology is in place! 

4

I’ve started with the digital citizenship curriculum from Common Sense Media. It has been eye opening! I looked at the first lesson in the 3-5 curriculum and was worried that it was going to be boring. Not at all! The conversations it has led to with the fifth graders has been a bit scary. So many of these kids already have Instagram and Facebook accounts, but they had no idea of the potential dangers or potential repercussions from irresponsible actions online. They have been completely wide eyed as we talk. I felt strongly about starting with this unit. We’re only one lesson in I’m sold already.

5

I’ve made some awesome connections this week. Several years ago I worked on the South Florida Arts and Early Literacy Research Project with the Music in Education National Consortium through the New England Conservatory. I’ve contacted several of the university partners from that project this week and have promising leads for help integrating art into the STEAM lab. I also had a parent express an interest in partnering with engineering projects. I think it has lots of potential!

~~~~~

For now the kids are in bed and my husband just brought home some take out for a date night at home. 

Enjoy your weekend!

(Or what’s left of it! I wrote that on Friday when the weekend was still ahead of us. Now I have a serious case of the Sunday night blues and ironing to do instead of date night. Sigh.)

Before, After, and Pin-it-to-win-it

I’m exhausted. Seriously exhausted.

I haven’t read a single blog since Monday. I haven’t even looked at Bloglovin’ to see how many unread posts I have now.

Monday was a rough day back. I was overwhelmed by my classroom. The computers are here, but the tables I picked won’t come in until the end of September. The work order to update the electric sockets and data ports was put in back in June, but they haven’t done it yet. Without electricity, I have iMacs waiting in boxes. We were still sorting out the SMART board, so it obviously wasn’t ordered yet.

Monday night I baked cookies and decided that Tuesday was going to be a better day.

I couldn’t change furniture/technology that was not going to be there on time, so I decided to focus on what I could do. Up first was the purple cabinets. I could not live with the purple cabinets.



The picture does not tell the tale of just how bad they were before. The blue makes me happy. The polka dots help hide the imperfections in these very old doors.



On the other side of the room is the kiln in a metal cage. I won’t even tell you how many people asked which kids I’d planned to keep in there.



I used a bungee cord and curtains I already owned to take care of the cage-like doors. The cart holds crayons. I found it on clearance for $31 at Michaels. I used my color cards to label the drawers. I also have the world’s largest tub of old crayons in my room. I had some students help start to sort the crayons by color. It did not even start to make a dent in the world’s largest tub of old crayons.



I brought my kids with me two nights last week. The first night I was coating the cabinets in Mod Podge. I sent my pint-sized helpers outside to paint the stools with water. My oldest also helped sort crayons. The second night they made wood bead necklaces. I kept the wood beads around just for that purpose!

Here are a few more ‘Before and After’ shots.



On either side of the board will a big table with 12 iMacs each. You will have to use your imagination for now.



The GIANT blue cabinet was too big to fit out the door. It must have been assembled in the room. I SO was happy to see it go! I have my owl rug in place and am just waiting for the SMART board to arrive.

Looking back at all the “Before and After” pictures I can tell just why I am so exhausted!
I’d planned to take final pictures of my room on Friday when I left, but they’d just moved in a giant laser color printer. It is a monster, but a monster I’m thrilled to have in my room! It won’t be set up until Monday. For now, I have a giant box.

For now it is family fun for the weekend. Miraculously everyone is napping, so I have time to look at TpT and to plan for the big sale tomorrow. I’m giving feedback and looking back at my wish list.
I recently updated my “Who am I?” pack. I’m happy with how it turned out!



As a reward for making it through the longest post ever, let’s play pin-it-to-win-it. Here’s how we’ll play. Pin any of my products to Pinterest and leave the link to the pin below. Monday night after my kids go to bed I will use a random number generator to pick a number and that person will win the prize they pinned. You may pin as many as you want and each will count as a different entry.

Enjoy your weekend!

Frogs or Owls?

I finally got everything moved out of my old room and into the new. I even unpacked a couple of boxes!

This year my room theme was polka dots. I found my inspiration in some scrapbook paper. While that took place last summer, it took me until April to blog about it. (Click here to read)

I usually do a Flat Stanley-type project with my class. Finn and Fran are two inflatable frogs that have been all over the world. My first year teaching the local news station did a story about the frogs' travels. (I have a few ideas for how to take it online with help from my blog friends next year after I get my new room set up. More about that later!)

Over the years, students have given me lots of frog decorations. I don't mind frogs, but the collection just sort of happened.

Our school mascot just recently changed. After years of being the Hawks we are now the Owls. I've been looking for rugs for my new room.

These are my top two right now:

 I think the second one would be best for not showing stains/dirt, but I do like the owls as well. I'm going to keep my polka dots. I'm keeping my polka dot cabinet, so the color and the dots are coming to my new room. I can make either frogs or owls work.

So, now I am trying to decide if I want to stick with frogs or make the switch to the school mascot owls.

What do you think?