Five for Something–What I’ve Learned

I intended to blog last night, but it was quite a day. My two-year-old was sent home sick 20 minutes after he got to day care. The Irishman picked him up and they had a great day napping at home together.

We’d planned a trip to the pumpkin patch and to the library this afternoon, but we decided to keep the little guy home for a good nap. He still isn’t quite 100%. My almost-four-year old headed off dressed up in her Ariel outfit for an afternoon of fun with her Daddy. My husband is a fantastic father!

During this nap time I was trying to decide the best way to update the blog. I’ve decided to share five things I’ve learned since moving from third grade to the STEAM lab.

1

When ordering giant computer tables, 2 bases and 2 sides means you ordered one table. I got the e-mail saying that the table we ordered August 5th would be delivered Tuesday. The singular “table” concerned me. Our purchasing director looked at the quote and tried to reassure me that it was two tables. Then she called to check.



My ONE table was delivered on Thursday. In the middle of class. I had to make of last minute plan changes. Twice. It took longer than they thought to put it together. (The picture was taken after school on Friday, so the stools were already on the old tables so that they can clean the floors.)

The table is lovely. It should have 12 iMacs on it in the next week or so. My only complaint is that there is only one table. They are ordering a second one. I’m hoping it gets here before Christmas!

2

When ordering a SMART board, I’ve learned to pay attention to the size of the wall.
I’d barely recovered from the table-installation while trying to paint in the room episode when they told me the SMART board would be installed Friday.

They wheeled in the giant board and all the equipment at 9am during my planning period on Friday. They took a look at the wall and said it wouldn’t work.I watched as the equipment I’ve waited months for was wheeled back out of my classroom.



Two hours later, in the middle of my first grade painting project the electrician showed up and removed a light bulb. He is going to come back next week to remove the light fixture so that the SMART board will fit. They will try again to install the SMART board a week from Monday.

Fingers crossed!

3

On the plus side, I’m learning how to organize things. I have six classes a day (one each for grades K-5) for 50 minutes each. There are two minutes between classes. My days fly!

I got this “Tasty Toppers” set from Really Good Stuff years ago. (I think it has been discontinued – I bought it on clearance) I used it when I taught third grade, but it has been a life saver in the lab!



Now that I’ve explained the “May Do” options, they know exactly what they can do without me having to give instructions again.

4

LEGOs have saved me. In my third grade class, my students had a book in their desk. I had other activities for early finishers, but there was always that one to fall back on. After about a week I knew I needed to figure something out.



All my classes, kindergarten through fifth grade, beg to play with the LEGOs. These three tubs belong to one of the middle school teachers. Her son is now in college, but his collection is still getting much love!

I’ve gotten wooden blocks and LEGOs from teachers with college age kids who have long outgrown them. My next project for tonight is to create a poster to ask for donations of old building toys.  We are a K-12 school. Our high school is a dual enrollment program with some amazing students. I suspect that there are more than a few of those kids with old collections of K’NEX or LEGOs or gears that my students would be thrilled to use. If that doesn’t work, I’ve started researching ideas for a Donor’s Choose project.

5

I’m spending hours researching art projects. Until my computers are set up, I’ve been a little more art heavy on the STEAM than I’d expected to be. I’ve learned to use Pinterest in ways I never expected. I’ve even surprised myself and created several of my own projects.

For example, I looked at looked for something to do with cutting practice with kindergarten. We spent time practicing with lines. The final activity was to cut on the lines and to turn the finished product into a rug.




Right now I’m working on a collaborative project with all 18 classes using old book pages. After 10 years of teaching I have a box of books with pages falling out. I couldn’t part with them, but now I’ve found a use for them.

Each grade level is working on a different part. K and 1 painted blue sheets for the background. Second grade painted colorful half sheets for the board border. My third, fourth, and fifth grade classes have all painted fall leaves.



I’ve painted “Fall into Learning” letters and a tree trunk. I hope to have it all put together this week. Expect pictures!

~~~~~~~~~~~

So there you have it. Five things I’ve learned so far this year. I’m enjoying the change, but I will be thrilled when all my technology is in place.

Enjoy your weekend!

International Dot Day 2013

This post is about a week past due. Last weekend was my birthday. This weekend was just family time. It’s all good!

While my room is in the process of being transformed to the STEAM Lab, it is the old art room. About half of the kids call me the art teacher. I was discouraged by the number of students who declared to me (the ‘art teacher’) that they can not draw. There were kindergarteners who refused to try to draw because they are not good at it.

I consider myself to be more creative than artistic. I have always worked to integrate the arts into my teaching. Teaching an actual art lesson is a little outside of my comfort zone, but I’m working on it.

I decided to start with The Dot because of the message behind the story. We started with individual dot galleries (see here for more about that) made up of four to six little frames.

For our International Dot Day display, each student made one additional frame. With just over 400 students, it took me about two hours to hang these all in the hall.



I sorted the dots by grade level. I’m loving The Happy Caterpillar paper set by My Clip Art Store. (Not MY clip art store by the way – that is the name of the store!)

 

 

The teachers and staff got into the fun as well. I gave all interested adults a full sheet of paper from the teacher’s guide.



Next year I should be able to add a digital component to the day. I’m still waiting for the computers and SMART board to arrive, but they should be set up in the next couple of weeks. By next year’s International Dot Day, we should be in business! There are lots of possibilities with Skype and such. I can’t wait!

Using Evernote Web Clipper to Save, Organize, and E-mail Posts

I am a huge fan of Evernote. After years of taking notes on random sheets of paper at every meeting, I made the switch to Evernote last year. I love that I can organize my notes in notebooks and search for key words to find notes.

I was a huge fan of Google Reader. I like some of the features in Bloglovin’, but I was miss being able to e-mail a blog post. I would often e-mail a post to myself for later.

I often find posts like this one or this one that I want to share with my coworkers. Pinterest is great for keeping things for yourself, but some posts are worth sharing via e-mailing to others. Some people have a button to allow you to e-mail a post, but that usually just sends a link. The Bloglovin' mobile app sends just a link. I discovered last week that I can use Evernote to e-mail full blog posts from Bloglovin’. It made my week!

The first thing you need to do is download the Evernote Webclipper for your browser. It will add a little button with an elephant on it. This picture shows Firefox. The button went to the other side on my Mac, but it still served the same purpose.



If you are signed into your Evernote account, you will see this box. You can chose to clip the whole page, part of a page, or just the address. You will also be able to choose the notebook and add any tags to the post.



That’s it! It is saved as a file in your Evernote account.



The note looks just like the website.



From here you can share it via e-mail or other social media.



I have found some fantastic resources through blogs. E-mailing the webclip this way makes it easy to save, organize, and share posts.

How do you save your favorite posts?

(Button credits: Computer: Ashley Hughes , Background: MyClipartStore.com)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m so excited about this that I’m linking up for my first Tried it Tuesday.



Be sure to stop by and read some posts worth e-mailing to your friends!

Five for Friday

We had a three day week. It feels more like a Monday than a Friday, but I’ll take it!

1

 My classroom is under construction. Literally.



They are adding electric outlets and data ports for the new computers and SMART board. There was no school on Thursday, but today my classes were relocated to the Media Center. By this time next week I should have enough outlets for a lab.

2

 There was no school Thursday, but I spent the day cleaning my house. Sad, but true.

3

I’ve used Evernote for note taking for the last year or so. Last week I discovered the Evernote Web Clipper. I’m going to go a blog post on the topic, but it is awesome. For now you can just take my word for it!

4

My other new (old) love is Dropbox. I’d used it in the past, but I’d exceeded my free space. I broke down and upgraded my account a couple of weeks ago. I’d been using a combination of flash drives and server space. I’m so much more relaxed now that all my files are safe in one place.

5

I’m so ready for my room to be finished. By October, I *should* have the tables, computers, and SMART board in place. I can’t wait! I’m trying to be patient, but it is wearing thin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enjoy your weekend!

Five for Friday

Today chewed me up and spit me back out.  I won’t go into it, but I’ve decided to take the afternoon for myself. I’m looking at Pinterest and reading blogs. I haven’t done either of those things in a while. I miss it!

So, I am determined to post my Five for Friday ON Friday this time. Here goes nothing…

1

Today was my first day teaching art. While the rest of my day was rough, I enjoyed my classes. (For those who may be new to my blog, I am in a STEAM lab this year. I teach 6 classes a day K-5 on a three day rotating schedule.) I was a little nervous about it. My first two classes were a little crazy, but by the end of the day I managed to finish projects AND clean up before they left me. With only two minutes between classes it is a bit hectic!

2

Speaking of Art, my first project was based on The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. I started with the story:

I’ve already had several students complain that they are not good at art, so I thought it would be a good starting ground.

I gave each student frames to fill with their dot creation. They got 4-8 frames depending on the grade level. I had stations set up around the room for them to create using crayons, markers, paper/glue, and watercolor.



After they completed their dot art, they put it together into their own dot gallery. They look fantastic!



It wasn’t the most technical of lessons, but they were really creative and even the fifth grade boys who rolled their eyes when I started the lesson got into it in the end.

My next step is to sign up for International Dot Day. It just so happens to be on my birthday.

I want to get each student to design one more dot that we will hang up on the GIANT bulletin boards outside my room. With 18 classes K-5, it will be a lot of dots. 

3

Earlier this week I did some more with the Common Core Digital Citizenship Curriculum. I printed these in poster size.

image source

image source

I found with the number of our students on Instagram, I was using the middle school poster starting in third grade. Crazy! It is a great resource though!

4

My own two little ones have requested a picnic in the living room the last two nights. No picnic is complete without popcorn and a movie.

After a long day at work, I can’t complain!

5

I knew Monday was Labor Day, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized we are off on Thursday as well. Many of the schools in South Florida don’t have school on the major Jewish holidays. I am not Jewish myself, so I didn’t realize it was next week. Talk about a welcome surprise! I won’t turn down a three day week!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enjoy your long weekend!

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!