Monday Made It!

Monday Made It

Hi all!  It is still Monday for a few more minutes here so I am going to take part in Monday Made It!!!  This is a first for me.  Every week I carefully read all the amazing posts about what you all have made.  Now, FINALLY, I get to add one.  Don't get too excited ... but here are my Monday Made Its ...

Exhibit #1: Cute decorations for the classroom
My last name starts with a J and I just moved to room 8 so these two items will hang somewhere in my new classroom.  I especially love the 8 because I used a paint pen (FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER) to make those dots.  I may make them on the J also, but I don't want to go overboard.

Exhibit #2: Birthday Bags

Actually a former class mom and dear friend decorated these for me. (Thank you Melynda!!!!)  I set out lots of stickers and she got to be creative.  Then I stuffed them with goodies that will be loved by five and six year olds.  Usually I put their names on the bags but this year I am doing it differently.  (Do you notice the beautiful blue bulletin board in the background?  Read more about it in Exhibit #3!!!)

Exhibit #3:  My BEAUTIFUL Bulletin Boards

This may not technically be a "Made It", but I am going to count it.  Since I moved to a new classroom, I decided to paint my bulletin boards.  This is the third time I have painted bulletin boards and the other two times it was super easy; NO problems.  This time was a nightmare.  The paint started running, it was all streaky.  I ended up putting on three coats of paint and used up two gallons of paint.  YIKES!!!  That is a lot of paint!!! (...and remember, I only painted my bulletin boards, not my walls).  All I can think of was that I started on a hot day and that caused all of the initial problems.  BUT now (three coats later), I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how my boards look.  I have had many compliments already (and I don't even have a single thing on my boards yet ... except one birthday bag).  Now I can smile and say it was worth it ... but if you had talked to me last week, there were moments when I thought I would have to cover the paint with butcher paper.  BUT now I am happy and it is so, so, so lovely!

Exhibit #4:  My New Curtains

I saved my favorite for last.  I made a curtain for the window in my back door.  (My new classroom has TWO doors.)  The sun was shining in so this is not a great photo.  But I am in love with this curtain.  (Oh, have you figured out that I am having a blue and green classroom? Blue and green are my favorite colors.  I love nature and love the blue sky and all the green found in plants.  So having lots of blue and green in my classroom makes me feel like I have brought nature inside.)

So ... I got the idea for this curtain from Mrs. Anderson at Welcome to First Grade.  Here is the link.  That brilliant teacher found two plastic tablecloths at Target and cut them in half to make a valance for her blinds.  I loved the idea, but couldn't find any plastic tablecloths that I loved.  I found this one at Party City, but it was paper.  I knew it wouldn't last long.  But I really, really loved it.  So I laminated it.  Perfect!!!  It is being held in place by magnets right now because this is a metal door.  I will probably end up using velcro dots to hold it in place.  I am also going to laminate more of the tablecloth to create a valance for my blinds, just like Mrs. Anderson.

Now, be sure to go on over to see all the other Monday Made It projects at 4th Grade Frolics.  Thanks Tara for creating this great linky party!

Love to all,
Camille

iTalk iPads - Guide

This post is dedicated to my new bloggy friend Erica from Minnesota.  Erica sent me the following email:

Hi Camille,

I came across your blog and am in LOVE. I am feeling your adrenaline as I recently found out my teaching partner and I were awarded a class set of iPads for our kindergarten class.  AHHHHH!!!  I am sooo not ready and we start in 3 weeks! Exciting and scary.  Do you have any other advice for newbies just getting started- organization wise/setup etc?  I am all ears in case you do.   Erica

Well, my life has been crazy and my head has been spinning so fast that there was no way I could think of one single thing to post about.  Erica to the rescue!  Seriously, how could I not respond to this sweet email?  So here goes ....

Camille's Quick Guide to Getting Your iPad On  :)

Disclaimer:  I first touched an iPad on March 26, 2012.  A class set of iPads arrived in my K/1 class on April 16, 2012.  GULP!  My kiddos used iPads for 7 weeks.  So repeat after me:  Camille is NOT an expert!!  Camille is NOT an expert!! Camille is NOT an expert!! 

Okay, onward we go:

1)  Smile!  Smile and enjoy the moment.  Magic happened and you, yes you, are getting a class set of iPads!!

2)  Practice! Get your hands on one of the iPads as soon as possible.  Give yourself permission to play with it.  Get comfortable using an iPad.  If you already have one, great, but make sure it is the same (1, 2 or 3) as your students are receiving.  This was super important for me because I had never used an iPad before. Luckily, I have a MacBook and an iPod so had a beginning familiarity.  

3)  Be Aware That Your Students WILL Become Experts!  No matter how much time you have spent using an iPad, you WILL have students (yes, even kinders) that will know more than you.  Accept it, celebrate it, rejoice in it and learn to ask your kiddos for advice.  I learned the true meaning of "digital native" when I placed iPads in my students' hands.  Also, your kiddos will automatically became collaborative when using their iPads.  It is amazing to behold!  Have your camera ready at all times!!!

3)  Learn to Download Apps the District Way! Find out how you are going to download apps.  Talk to your IT people about that. You will need a special iTunes account.  Find out how this is going to be handled.  Our six teachers were each given our own account and password.  I am making this sound very simple, but it can become super complex.  In some districts teachers are not allowed to download apps, that is up to the IT people.  We were given free rein (lots of trust here and I LOVE that).  We were given a small budget to work with, but strongly encouraged to seek out free apps.  (More on that in #3.)

3)  Investigate Free Apps!  Know that apps can be very, very expensive.  Two dollars may not sound like much, but multiply that by 26 iPads and OUCH!!!  If you do find apps you want, look into the Apple school voucher program which gives you half off when you buy in quantity.  (Note: Not all apps qualify for this, but most do.) However, I would encourage you to look for free apps.  In the primary grades, we have thousands of free apps to choose from.  Some of them are fantastic!  Here is my post on my favorite free apps.  Get connected with a free app website or email list.  There are many out there and they work in different ways.  My favorite is Smart Apps for Kids. I have signed up for their daily email and each day receive a summary of their "Free App of the Day".  I like that there is not a long list, but just one app so I can make a quick decision as to whether this app would work for us or not.  They also send out emails if a great app suddenly becomes free for just a day.  (Companies like to do that to boost their numbers quickly.)  If I see a free app that might work for my class, I quickly download it because it may not be free tomorrow.  Then later, I try it out and may end up deleting it.

4) Plan!  There is not one right way to set up your iPads.  However, iPads are different than desktops or even laptops because they are personal devices.  You will want each child using the same iPad each time.  So we numbered ours and the students always knew which iPad was theirs.  Here is my post on how I organized my iPads.

5)  Questions to Ask!  Become good friends with your IT people.  Really, really good friends!   (The six teachers  involved with the iPad Academy in my district have nicknamed our IT guys "The Magic Men".)  Here are some questions to ask:

• What is the procedure for downloading apps?
• Is there a budget for downloading apps?
• What is the procedure for syncing iPads?  (Syncing allows you to add apps to ALL of your iPads at the same time, rather than individually adding them for each iPad.  See #7 for how I go about this.)
• Is there enough bandwidth in my room for all students to be on the internet at the same time?  If not, what is the limit?
• Are we allowed to use an app like Rover so that students can access sites that use Flash?  (Since Apple and Flash are mad at each other, you have to use a third party app like Rover to deal with this.  Rover basically streams the Flash sites onto the iPads.  My IT guys checked out Rover and approved it.  It was created for teachers and is free.  It does NOT keep information on students stored anywhere.)
• Where will the iPads be housed at night?  (I take them to the office at the end of each day because it is the only building on campus that is alarmed.  Oh, side note:  I am in California and out here, our schools are typically not all under one roof.)
• Will the iPads go home with the students?  (We do not send the iPads home ever.  But some districts do allow for that.)

6) Glitches Will Occur!  Not only are we dealing with technology, we are dealing with new technology.  Be prepared to be frustrated at times.  You cannot just go down the hall and ask a veteran teacher what to do.  Your questions may even stump your own "Magic Men/Women".  But together, you will prevail.  (How cool that there are two of you that are beginning your iPad journey together!!)

7)  Accessories!  Yes, even iPads need accessories.  What you get will depend on your budget.  But here are some ideas:

• Cases - Ahead of time a friend told me I had to get "grippy" cases.  I didn't know what she meant, but now I do.  You need cases for the iPads that are not slick, but instead are "grippy" so that the students can hold onto the iPads.  If given a choice, get them in different colors to make the cases easier to differentiate.  Mine are all black, so I used four different colors of tape and ran a strand along the front of each case.  The tape won't hold up forever, but it will help in the beginning.
• Stylus- Since my kiddos are just learning to write, I use several handwriting apps and want them to practice the correct grip.  Using your finger to practice making letters just doesn't cut it for me.  I looked around and picked the AppCrayon from Dano.  These are pricey, but Dano gives a 50% discount to schools.  There are much less expensive ones, but I liked Dano because it was fatter and triangular in shape so it helps primary students grip correctly.   Dano also has a free app called AppCrayon that is good.
• Charging / Syncing Cart - My district provided a cart that allows us to both charge and sync.  I LOVE IT!  Syncing is a pain, but this cart makes it manageable.  There are some glitches with this cart, but still it makes it possible to sync all my iPads at once.  (Glitch: Sometimes the cables don't connect correctly and a few iPads don't sync so you have to go back and manually sync those.  The first time this happened it caused tears in my class because one sad girl didn't get the new apps that everyone else did.  After that, I knew to check.)

7) Think about your philosophy!  There is no right answer here.  My decision was to view the iPads as tools.  Just like my kiddos use pencils, paper, etc. so they use iPads to aide their learning.  They got their iPads out of the cart first thing in the morning and had them available in a team tub on their desks all day.  I feel like I only scratched the surface in terms of using the iPads as tools.  This year, I plan to integrate them far more.  Not sure what that will look like, but I will keep you posted.

8) Prepare for Negativity!  I hate to bring this up, but want to forewarn you.  Please realize that there may be jealousy and misunderstanding from other teachers.  It has nothing to do with you, so just let it go.  The teachers at my school were supportive, but not so at some of the other schools.  Comments were made about our students not using pencils, paper and paintbrushes, but instead sitting and playing Angry Birds all day.  I typically stayed very quiet at district meetings, but looking back I wish I had shared what it actually looks like in my classroom.  The fact that my students do use pencils and paper and paintbrushes.  They also use clay and crayons and construction paper.  They build with blocks and legos and Lincoln logs.  You get the idea.  We found humor in the anonymous quote "You can always tell who the pioneers are because they have arrows in their backs and are floating down the river."    

9) You ARE a Pioneer!  You are taking part in something that is so new and different that there are no manuals to help you on your way.  I told my students that it was our job to do research for the district.  The question we were supposed to answer was, "Do iPads help students learn?  Of course my kiddos all knew the answer before I did.  (A resounding YES!!!)  

Here is a quote to leave you with:   “A pioneer is not someone who makes her own soap. She is one who takes up her burdens and walks toward the future.”  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich 

So there will be glitches, there will be issues, but your iPad journey will be amazing!  So just start walking!

Whew!  Longest post ever!  Hope this helps!

Love to all,

Camille

Links to learn more:

I Teach With iPads - Katie has been using a class set of iPads for a few years and I feel like she is my mentor!!!  (I have only met her in Bloggyland, but I think she is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.)

Digital Kindergarten

Four on the Fourth

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

After a great BBQ and spending a fun afternoon with my dad and sister, I am ready to continue the celebration by taking part in Four on the Fourth.  Thank you to the divine Ms. M for hosting a linky party in which we share four things we are going to try during the next school year.  Click here to see all of the responses.

My four ideas for next year:

1)  I am moving to a new classroom.  I LOVE my current classroom, but the new room is even better!! But moving is a difficult task!!  I am in the process of sorting and packing and moving boxes and then unpacking right now.  I am very proud of myself for throwing, recycling, and donating so many items.  I am also embarrassed by the abundance of items I have found.  I mean really, how many ________ does a girl need?  (Fill in the blank with just about any item, and chances are, it is something that I have found way too many of as I am packing up.  Oh, except money.  Except for a penny here or there, I do NOT have an abundance of money.)

2)  I will be creating a completely new floor plan for my new classroom.  Not only is this classroom bigger, but the cabinet arrangement is different so I am forced to rethink my whole setup.  This thrills me because I am really thinking about what is best for my students in terms of furniture arrangement.

3) One goal that I have is to keep my teacher supplies more organized.  (This goes along with number one and my current mess!)  I don't have a teacher desk, but instead pile things around the room ... in many places ... some of which I can't find later.  So to help myself, I made a Pinterest inspired teacher organizer.  So cute!  My plan is to keep all of my teacher supplies in ONE location.  Wish me luck!

4) The kindergarten teachers have been given the go ahead in my district to implement the Common Core Standards.  Hurrah!  Wait a minute, this means we will need to rethink a lot of things.  Yep.  Exciting, but lots of work!  (Oh, I will be once again teaching a kinder/first grade combination class so really I am supposed to be doing Common Core with kinder and the regular California standards with the firsties.  Hmmmm .... me thinks I will also switch my firsties to Common Core, also  ... at least in math.)

Okay, that is four.  I am done!  Good night to all!!  Tomorrow it is back to sorting and tossing and recycling and donating and packing for me.

Love to all,

Camille

Labeling My Library

This post is all about how I label my library.  If Blogger allowed for a subtitle it would be "How I Get My Students to Put Their Books Away in the Correct Bin".

Lately there have been a lot of posts about reorganizing classroom libraries.  Well, because I am moving to a new room, right now my library is a mess with books in two classes and tubs in no order.  Sigh.  It will get done!  It will get done!!

BUT ... I LOVE the way my books are organized and thought you might like to hear about a simple system that works.  This system is from The Sisters of Daily Five fame.  It took hours to set up, but that time was well worth it because now the effort to maintain my classroom library is minimal.

Here are my how to steps:

1)  Sort your books into like catergories.  You can sort by genres, topics, and/or authors.  You will probably end up with some of each.  Three of my book groups are:  Poetry, Reptiles, and Dr. Seuss.

2)  Put each group of books into a separate tub.  (Some groups may take two tubs.)

3)  Label each tub.  (Example:  Reptiles).  Make your labels as plain or as cute as you want.  Some bloggers have offered free labels.  (I used copyrighted images so I can't offer mine.)

4)  Place the tubs where you want them around the room.  Some teachers prefer all tubs are in the same area; others prefer the book tubs scattered through out the room; some teachers have enough storage that they are able to keep tubs put away and just bring out a few at a time.  The choice is yours.

5)  Number each tub.  Start with one and go as high as you need to.  I started in one corner of the room and worked my way around with numbers so the tubs would be in order, more or less.  (I have 48 tubs and some of my tubs are super crowded.  It is best to not overload each tub, but because I have so many books, my tubs are full so they take up less space.)

6)  Label each tub with its number.  I use round, white labels.  I write the tub number on the sticker and place the sticker on the front of the tub.

7)  Label each book in the tub with the same number.  (Once again, I use the round, white stickers.)  This takes FOREVER!!!!  You can get volunteers to help you with this - BUT make sure they will write the numbers neatly.  I had an older student help and I ended up redoing the numbers.  Not fun!

... and the end result is an organized classroom library!

I do NOT use any kind of checkout system with my students.  I want my students to be able to take books to their seats or anywhere in the room whenever they have time to read.  Then when they are done with the book, they look at the number on the front of the book and find that tub.  Simple!  Beautiful!  Really, it does work!  Sometimes my kinders do place books in the wrong tub, but that is rare.  (... and the most common mistake is placing a tub #12 book in the #21 tub or vice versa.  But that mistale always reminds me that we need to work on our numbers!!!)

Now it is back to moving classrooms for me!  I am so grateful that our days are a little cooler right now!

Love to all,
Camille

First Things First

When you move into a new classroom, what is the first thing you do?  Did I hear someone shout, "Paint the bulletin boards!"  Oh, whoops, that was me shouting, wasn't it?!?  Well, the truth is that I am very visual and am so much happier unpacking boxes when the walls look good.  So now that my new classroom is a clean slate ... 

...and before I start moving in boxes, I will tackle the bulletin boards.  Don't get me wrong.  I am not a crazy lady who completely finishes her bulletin boards before she unpacks.  I am just a crazy lady who gets the background color onto her bulletin boards before she even moves her boxes in.

My favorite way to get color onto bulletin boads?  Paint.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!  Now that I have experienced painted boards, I just can't go back to paper.  Think of all the beautiful colors that are available at paint stores - any of those colors could be on your bulletin board!  Yes, it takes time to paint the boards the first year, but unlike paper, paint doesn't fade and unlike fabric you don't have to wash it.  I use regular old latex paint - any type of finish will work, I used eggshell, but you can use flat paint or get a shinier finish if you want.  How shiny you go is a matter of taste.  My previous boards were all a beautiful shade of blue.  I loved the blue because it can be a backdrop for so many different things - a garden, a forest, an ocean, the list goes on and on.  Paint your boards once and you never have to paint them again (unless you move rooms!!!!!)  If you get bored with the color, you can always cover the paint with paper or repaint, I guess. (I have never been bored with the blue.) The amazing thing about the paint is that it lasts and lasts.  I have not had any chipping at all.  Lots of pinholes, but you have to get really close to notice those (and I am super picky and the pinholes have never bothered me). So ... guess where I am off to now?  Yep, the paint store. What color will I pick?  Blue, of course.  But deciding which shade of blue will keep me occupied for awhile.

Love to all,

Camille

P.S.  You can check out the beauty of my blue boards by looking at these photos.  All that pretty blue is painted on.  : )

(Okay, I am a little embarrassed about this board ... I wanted to leave the handprints up for a later project, but had nowhere else to post these leprechauns so I just stapled the leprechauns on top of the hands.  LAZY!!!!)

Before and After

There seems to be a huge divide among bloggers right now.  Some of you are busy working in your classrooms and they already look amazing.  Others haven't even stepped into your classrooms this summer (and then there are those of you that just now finished your school year).  So, for those of you who are stressing because you feel so far behind ... this post is for you.  Trust me ... you want to read this!!!

I am moving from one classroom to another.  Here is my AFTER picture of my new classroom:

So are you thinking that I have it all together and have moved everything and already put it away?  Wrong, wrong, wrong!  I have not moved a single item. Why then is this my AFTER picture?  Because this was the scene yesterday when I stepped into my new classroom for the first time:

None of this stuff is mine.  NONE of it. N.O.N.E.!!!!!! Another teacher had moved all the things she didn't want into this classroom the previous day.  Why?  Not sure.  Did I cry?  Nope!  Did I pout?  Nope!  Did I think lots of negative thoughts?  Oh, yeah ... lots and lots.  But luckily I have Pete the Cat for a role model ... so I just kept walking along and singing my song!  "I love my new room!  I love my new room!  I love my new room!"  (Well, at first my song wasn't so cheerful ... in fact, there was no cheer at all in the beginning.)

So my first task in my new room was to go through every box and bag.  (You can't tell from this photo, but there were lots of large garbage bags filled with items because she ran out of boxes.)  I sorted, I tossed, I recycled, I gave away.  I found some amazing items in the rubble which went to our new transitional kindergarten classes.  Two dear friends came to help.  (THANK YOU Kate and Kristi!!! I could not ask for better friends or coworkers!!!) 24 hours later, the room was barren.  (Yes, we all stopped at night and went home and went to bed.) Now our poor, dear custodian can come in and do the summer deep cleaning.  He was in panic mode yesterday when he saw the room in its BEFORE state.  This morning, I searched him out and brought him to see the room in its AFTER state and his sweet smile was HUGE!  You see, he was given the task of getting this room deep cleaned by Monday when the summer school students arrive in this room.  More good news:  My wonderful principal thanked me for being a great team player (she was one of the dear friends who helped me sort, etc.)

So ... now that my room is barren, I have a blank canvas and can start to dream and create.  It really is a great room.  Extra large; near the bathrooms; extra storage space.

Still feeling panicky?  Just look at my BEFORE picture again.  (...and know that I still have to pack up my old room.)

Love to all,
Camille

P.S.  I love my new room!  I love my new room!  I love my new room!

Kindergarten Kickoff

Kindergarten Kickoff is a fun name for an event, right?  The name was carefully picked.  We could have called it "Kindergarten Testing", but that sounds pretty scary!  So here is the scoop on our Kinder Kickoff:

Two years ago the kinder teachers at my school decided that we wanted more information on incoming kinders.  So we began to assess our kinders in June before they even become kindergartners.  We now schedule a 30 minute appointment with each soon-to-be kinder.

So this week I got to meet an amazing group of four and five year-olds who are VERY excited about starting kindergarten in August.  I think they might be the most adorable children in the world!

Anyway, this is the assessment we created to test our kinders on their beginning skills:
Kinder Assessment Form

We also ask our kinders to write their names and draw a picture of their family.  After they are finished with the picture, we have them talk about it so we can measure their oral language skills.  (When I copied this form to Goggle Docs, I lost the lines for the name.  Sorry!)
Kinder Name Page

Meanwhile, we ask the waiting parents to fill out this form:

Parent Survey

Hope this information is helpful!

Love to all,

Camille