Project: Classroom

I have been dreaming about my future classroom for 3+ years. I've collected from garage sales, teacher friends, Good Will, the Dollar Tree, and Target's dollar section. On July 13th, I was finally able to move all the things I have accumulated over the years into my room (let me tell you my mom was happy to see it all leave her house).

Here is the before picture! My classroom is awesome. High ceilings, built-in storage, and TONS of wall space.

And then the working began! Unpacking, sorting, cutting, taping, organizing. One thing they didn't tell us in college, how long it takes to set up a classroom. I mean seriously!! Project after project. It was so much fun though. I enjoyed every second I spent there this summer. Seeing as I spent so much of my summer there, I'd though I'd share all my hard work. Enjoy the tour!

The hallway - bright and inviting! Next week I will add my students' names to each balloon.

Butler is a PBIS school and uses positive rules to teach correct behavior school-wide. Our room will be buzzing with good behavior all year long!!

My friend Emily's legacy, JOY, will be spread with my 1st graders by filling buckets! Students can fill each other's buckets (located in their lockers) with nice notes, and we will also work to have good behavior as a class to fill our class bucket. If it gets filled, we will have a bucket party!

Each of my students will have a tablet - can't wait to incorporate them into our learning.

The library - the most time consuming project, but it's perfect and ready for my students to browse!

My mantras for the year!

I tried to have everything picked up, but let's be honest, my desk will never be cleared off.

Students can put their own facts on the "Did you know?" board - motivation to read nonfiction!

Our writing center!

And there it is! I can't wait for my 1st grade kiddos to fill it up on the 31st. Lots of planning and organizing left to do, but at least the room is finished!

I haven't been blogging much, but I am going to try as much as I can this year to document the good times and the not so good times!

Book Talks + QR Codes

I am finished full time teaching in 2nd grade - time has FLOWN. I have this week left at Roland Story Elementary School, but the majority of it will be spent observing the 1st grade teachers, soaking up all the information I can to bring with me next year.

On Friday, we officially finished our book review project. I am giddy with excitement about it and can't wait to share!! This unit has been strung out over the last 8 weeks and the book review was the final hoorah. It may seem like a lot of steps, but it is actually a very simple process. I highly recommend you try it in your classroom, especially since it hits so many Common Core standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.1
Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5
Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g.,because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.

With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.6
With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.4
Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.1
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.2
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.3
Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.

They began by brainstorming to help them come up with ideas and reasons why they liked their books. Next, they transformed their brainstorming into their 1st draft. I stressed that I needed their best 2nd grade writing: capital letters, complete sentences, and periods. After completing that, they exchanged with a peer. We discussed the difference between editing and revising. Check out this anchor chart I created for the students to reference. They edited by making notes on their peer's paper and wrote revising notes on a separate sheet. At first, many of the students said, "There's nothing wrong with their writing!" This opened up a great discussion about revising. We talked about how adult authors even revise their writing over and over again, our writing can always improve!

Using the feedback from their peers, they worked on their 2nd draft. Once the 2nd draft was completed, I took them home and gave teacher feedback - mainly fixing spelling and giving them a few things they needed to work on.

After getting their drafts back, they looked over my notes and posted their final draft on the blog. The blog has turned into an instant writing portfolio. Even with the few writing assignments they've had, I can already see the progress they've made. I have been using a rubric to evaluate their writing and I've seen huge improvements from the first time I assessed to this project. I give 0 points for "not yet", 1 point for "starting to", and 2 points for "yes". This also reinforces the fact that even if their writing is "acceptable", they can always improve.

 


The next step: recording the students reading their book reviews. This took the longest, but if this would've been my own classroom, I could've stretched this out over weeks, it would become a year long project. However, since I am only here for 8 weeks, I had to squeeze everything in a few days. My teacher and I tag teamed this effort - I pulled kids into the computer lab to record while she supervised work time in the classroom. In my own classroom next year, I plan to record a few students during recess each day to make it work.

One by one, the students came into the computer lab with their books and read their blog post - which I had pulled up on the computer lab computers. I recorded them with my teacher's iPad. My original plan was to use You Tube to publish the videos - setting the privacy settings to let only those who have the link able to view. However, it was not allowed. I tried Google Drive - same issue. The QR codes seem to not work as a valid way to access the link. Finally, I tried Drop Box and was successful. With technology comes patience and willingness to try a million different things :)

From the iPad, I uploaded the videos to Drop Box. Check out this helpful article about how to manually select what to upload. It was very useful during this process so it wouldn't sync the entire camera roll. After the videos were successfully uploaded to Drop Box, I logged into Drop Box on my computer to rename the videos to each student's name - this made it easier as I was creating the QR codes (right click or 2 finger click to rename).

Next, hover your mouse over a video, the "share" button should appear. Click on it and you can copy the shareable link for the video. Once you have the link copied, visit the QR code generator website to paste the link. Download the QR code, print, and label - labeling is key so you don't mix up the QR codes!!

Finally, I used clear packaging tape to attach the QR codes to the front of the books. We had a "viewing" day on Friday, so all the students could watch each other's book review videos. They are very excited to start using these to find out more about a book as they book shop in their classroom library. I wish I could share the videos because they all turned out wonderful, but to respect the privacy of my students, I cannot. Try it out in your classroom and you'll see how great it is!

These books will be added back to our library and the students will be able to use their QR Reader app to listen to their peer's book talk as they choose books to read. What a powerful way for the students to share their opinion with others!

Crazy Busy in the Best Way Possible

Happy Valentine's Day!!! It's been over a month since my last post and today is the first day I've had time to sit down and blog. *Sigh* I have been very busy with student teaching, life, and landing my FIRST JOB!

I've known for awhile that I had a job, but last week found out what grade level and building. Beginning in August, I will be teaching 1st grade at Butler Elementary in Fort Dodge, IA, my hometown. I have heard wonderful things about the Butler staff and I cannot wait to become a part of it. I will be meeting my team over spring break and pick out my classroom for next year. It is all very surreal. I can't wait for next year, but right now, my focus needs to be student teaching.

The 2nd graders keep me busy and on my toes - I love seeing them every day. I am finally full time teaching and it is fabulous. It makes me so excited for my own classroom next year. I've been able to get to know each of them, which has been very rewarding. They make my heart happy. Only 3 weeks left with them; I don't like thinking about having to leave.

We have doing a lot of things, but my favorite project we've been working on in 2nd grade is our blog. We have been using KidBlog to publish our writing to express our opinion. This writing unit began by introducing opinion writing and what that should include. We used an OREO to help us remember.

O - state your Opinion
R - back it up with Reasons
E - provide Examples
O - and restate your Opinion

Next, I introduced the blog. This lesson was a bit of a nightmare, yet a success all at once. I went home that day mentally exhausted. Of course, with technology, you have to be patient and know that something will always go wrong. It was a process to familiarize the kids with it - they had lots of questions, but their engagement and excitement level was through the roof.

The next lesson, however, was a breeze compared to the first! They had a better understanding and the initial craziness of a new app had subsided. They still had questions, but they didn't bombard my brain like last time. They published their first post - an about me post - including 3 facts about themselves. 22 second graders sat quietly at their desks without a single reminder, while writing. SUCCESS!!!!!!

I learned an important lesson during these first lessons; trying new things requires you to take a leap of faith, but the jump is SO worth it. We have had great discussions about digital citizenship, proper use, and purpose of our blog. We are all learning as we go; learning new things each day.

The students have been able to publish a few opinion writing pieces, comment on peer's posts with editing advice or their thoughts, and write to an audience which provides great purpose to their writing. It makes writing much more appealing to them.

Our next project is a book review. It has many components, but I am very excited to try it out. Here's a breakdown of the plan:

• Students pick a book
• Students brainstorm on paper 
• Students write a draft on paper
• Students revise and edit
• Students get their final draft approved by the teacher
• Students post their book review on the blog
• Students read their book review and are recorded
• Videos are posted to YouTube 
• QR codes are created for each YouTube video
• QR codes are placed on the books in the library
• Students can scan the QR codes to listen to their peer's opinion and recommendations about books in their classroom library

This will be my first time doing anything like this, but as my cooperating teacher says, "This is your time to try new things!" Very true. I'll never know unless I try.

Realistically, it will probably be awhile again until I am able to blog due to the craziness of life, but hopefully next time I'll have a successful book review project to discuss!!

Second Grade = Second Home

Where do I even begin? It's been a whirlwind in my first week of student teaching in a 2nd grade classroom.

No school Monday, first day back from break Tuesday, snow day Wednesday, two hour delay Thursday, and two hour delay Friday. CRAZY! 

I didn't see much "normal".. but I learned so much -- especially how important it is to be flexible as a teacher. 

The kids are wonderful - kind, thoughtful, and good listeners. I finally know all their names (although I just moved all the desks around for a new seating layout, so we'll see how I do on Tuesday).

I knew my teacher before this experience (I worked as an intern in the school) but I enjoyed getting to know her more.. and loved realizing we pretty much have the same brain (type-A, organized, and planners). I can already tell just from this first week that this is going to be an amazing experience. I have already learned so much (and taken notes frantically to remember it all).

This week was filled with many great things, but my favorite was a project the kids finished today. 

My teacher LOVES to quilt and she has the kids make a paper quilt each month. First they make a geometric pattern; challenging them with spacial relations using squares, triangles, etc. In addition to the geometric pattern, they also make a "concept" pattern (turkey in November, mitten in December, snowman in January). With the concept pattern, they are given the background (white square) and the pattern (this month, a snowman). They can decorate these with crayons however they choose. 

Once their snowman was glued to the white square and decorated as they wish, they moved onto the next part (which is my favorite). 

Each student is given 10 pennies to spend on decorations for their snowman. My teacher brings in supplies for the students to select to "purchase" (glitter, pom poms, carrot nose, eyes, broomstick, scarf, etc.) 

The students have a "shopping list" which has all the supplies listed. My teacher holds each supply up for them to see, explains how it could be used, and tells them what it costs. (They cannot buy all the supplies with their 10 pennies.) 

Then, the students must decide which supplies they wish to purchase and circle them on the shopping list. 

After they circle all the supplies, they create an equation at the bottom. For example:

2 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 10 

Next, they take their (real!) pennies and head over to the store. The supplies were laid out on the table with labels and a container for the pennies. 

Once they have all their supplies, which are kept in a plastic baggie, they wait for their turn to go decorate it.

There were two volunteers who pulled students into the hall during work time to help them hot glue all the decorations on. 

Each time a student came in with their finished quilt, everyone stopped what they were doing and said, "Ooh aah, that's snow-tastic!" 

They were so proud of their work.

The reason I love this idea is because it is so applicable to real life. Budgeting, dealing with money, and shopping for things on a list are all things they will do in the real world. I can truly say this is something I plan to take with me and use in the future!!

This week flew by and it is making me realize more and more how much I love what I do. I can't wait to do this for the rest of my working life!

I am hoping for a little more normal next week so I can see how the lesson plans look across a week (without a snow day to interrupt). I'll be taking over on a few small things as I am still familiarizing myself with the curriculum. I will begin teaching one of my own lessons, which I'm very excited about!! I'll definitely be blogging about it. 

Thanks for reading!

Jenn

It's been awhile

It has been over 6 months since my last post, but I promise it is for good reason! These past few months have been packed busy and unfortunately, blogging hasn't made it to my to do list.

This summer was crazy and flew by. I attended 3 bridal showers, 2 bachelorette parties, and 6 weddings. I think I may have broken a record! It was very fun, but incredibly busy. Not a free weekend all summer! During the week, I spent my time attending class and babysitting for two amazing families in Ames. I had a blast with those kids - spending days at the pool and nights at the park. Along with one of my classes, I had a practicum experience in 4th grade. I had the privilege of being there every day and seeing their growth throughout the summer program. It was awesome!

Now I am almost finished with my last semester of regular classes at Iowa State University. I have been enjoying my classes; learning a lot to prepare me for the future. It was an adjustment having 3 night classes, but I keep telling myself it'll be worth it to be done with the reading endorsement when I graduate :) In addition to school, I have managed to have a little fun too. I have enjoyed making some great college memories with my girlfriends, I will miss them so much next year when we all move away.

This week, I finally found out where my student placements are. I will spend the first 8 weeks at Roland Story Elementary School in 2nd grade and the second 8 weeks at Woodlawn Early Childhood Center in a preschool classroom. I am very excited to begin this last chapter of my college career. I have been doing what I can to prepare!

I bought a clipboard at my favorite place - the Dollar Tree - and spruced it up using a spray adhesive and scrapbook paper. Added a few stickers to personalize it and wa-la! A cute and cheap clipboard!

The binder is still a work in progress, but I have my supplies and I'm ready to tackle it. Dividers, paper, student teaching handbooks, and check out these cute binder tabs I found at Wal-Mart!

As I begin thinking about my first job, I want to do what I can now to organize the materials I have for my future classroom. Over Thanksgiving break, I finally completed a task I've been wanting to do for a long time - organize, level, and create a list of all the books in my library. It was a HUGE task, but with the help of my family's company, a fire burning in the fireplace, and some of my favorite movies on TV,  it was much more enjoyable!

I used Scholastic's Book Wizard to look up the book titles and determine what guiding reading level the book was. I sorted them into piles by the guided reading levels (A-Z). As I was leveling them, I also added them to my classroom library list using an app called Book Retriever. It is a wonderful app that is definitely worth purchasing! It allows you to scan the book's ISBN number and adds it to your library. It will notify you if they don't have the information in their system and you can add the information yourself. Now I can see all the books I have by title or author. It will be very useful as I am out shopping for more books so I don't end up with duplicates. 

Since I have purchased so many books on my own, I wanted to label them so they will not get confused with a school's books when I (hopefully!) get a job and classroom of my own. I personalized my own self-inking stamp from Vista Print and was able to stamp my name in the front of all my books.

I know these next few months are going to be very full, but I will try to blog as much as I can to document the experience. I am very excited to continue learning and grow as an educator!

Final thoughts

People have always told me that time flies as you get older, and man, they weren't kidding! I can't believe this semester is almost over. As I reflect back on this semester and the knowledge I've gained through my technology class, CI 302, I am happy with how far I've come. I have learned so many tools and ways to incorporate technology into my classroom someday. The biggest take away for me is pushing myself to redefine teaching and learning with technology, not just substitute old ways with new ways. That is something that had never been brought to my attention before this class and I think it's really important to consider.

The learning that has happened through this class matters because it pushed me beyond my limits. It challenged my thinking and opened my eyes to technology I wasn't familiar with. I learned from my peers and was also able to teach them what I knew. More than just learning about tools and gadgets, I learned how to be a better educator; connecting with others using technological tools to gain insight and ideas. This is only the beginning, and I look to grow more in the future.

As a future teacher, I think this class helped me realize that I will never be a master at technology. There is always someone else who knows more, and as a teacher, it is my job to find and connect with that person to share knowledge and grow. I also have so many more goals for myself now, not just my students. I want to participate in twitter chats, continue blogging to share ideas and reflect, and connect with educators across the world. These are things that weren't a priority of mine until this class.

To my teacher, Jamie Fath:
Thank you for a great semester. I truly learned a lot and appreciate you taking the time to teach us. To help you become a better educator, I will provide "one glow, one grow" as feedback (one thing that went well and one thing to work on). My glow would be how you let us teach each other. We were able to share the resources and tools that we know about and teach it to our peers. This is how the real world of teaching will be and it was really nice to see that in our class. My grow would be to enhance our blogging experience. It is hard to keep up with everyone's blogs because we had a large class. I think it would be beneficial to group students and then each group can follow, comment, and keep up with only their group's blogs. This would be less overwhelming than the entire class and allow us to practice interacting through blogs.

In conclusion, I am sad to see this class end, but I am excited to continue moving closer to student teaching and my future classroom. I look forward to growing and learning more about being an educator in the future.

Writing a Grant

In my technology class, we had to apply to a fake grant as a group. I worked with two of my peers as a '3rd grade team' at a K-5 building. We applied for 60 iPads to be used in the 3rd grade as a trial for eventual full implementation of iPads in K-5.

I learned a lot through this process. I had never even considered applying for grants, and didn't know that it was something teachers did. It was empowering to know that we have the ability to make a change in our school environment. I think it is a great way for teachers to get what they want and make something happen. This assignment also showed me how easy grant writing can be. I am by no means an expert, yet I successfully wrote and submitted a grant!

During the grant writing process, the biggest struggle my group encountered was getting everything we needed to say into 5 pages. The grant proposal called for no more than that. We wanted to sell our case and show that we deserved these iPads, while being concise and getting our point across efficiently. It was a challenge because we had to decide what was a priority to write about and what could be left out.

As I begin to think about the future and myself as a teacher, I think grant writing is something I will try to do. During my first few years of teaching, it will not be my main concern. However, once I have a secure job and see myself at that school for a long period of time, I think it would be great to take a look at the school and its needs and make it happen. I look forward to seeing what my future brings!