Advice for the Teacher

At the end of the year I always ask my students to evaluate me.  I like to do this to both help my students feel empowered AND to improve my teaching.  Since I am teaching children in kinder and first grade, I make the evaluations simple.  This year there were five questions:

1.            What was one thing you liked about kindergarten / first grade?

2.           What is one thing you would change about kindergarten / first grade?

3.           What was one thing you liked about being in a combination class?

4.           What is one thing you did not like about being in a combination 

5.           What advice do you have for Mrs. Johnson for next year?  You should _________________________________.

So when I asked for advice in question #5, I really meant advice about my teaching.  But this year's kiddos decided to give me quite interesting advice.   In fact, most of the students wrote almost exactly the same answer for number five.  How could that be?  Well, one student thought of an idea, whispered it to another and that answer spread all around the room.  That piece of advice?  Give your students ice cream on the last day.  Alas, my students filled out the evaluations on the last day of school so I had no time to fulfill their wish, even if I wanted to.

There were a few rebels who chose to think of their own advice for me.

One boy decided that ice cream on the last day was not enough.  His advice:

You should give us food!  (Hmmm ... I guess the goldfish at recess was not enough.)  

Then there was the girl who must have seen me driving to school.  Her advice:  

You should get a new car.  (So much easier said than done!).  

Actually, I did get a few words of wisdom for next year:

No promises, but I will try!

And just in case that was too general, one boy gave me very specific advice:

Yes, in case you are wondering, we did sing "Four Hugs a Day" at our graduation.

And then there was the advice that made me cry.  One sweetie wrote:
You should remember me.  (This came from a dear, sweet girl that spent the last month of school leaving me love notes in unusual places and then watched for my smile when I found them.  Forget her?  Not likely!)

Actually, this year, like every year, I will remember them all.  Sigh.  I do believe teaching is one of the toughest jobs in the world.  BUT it is also the job where you get to shower others with love and receive even more back.  We are so very, very lucky, aren't we?

Love to all,

Camille

P.S.  I am not sure why Blogger is making these crazy indents, but as we know, Blogger has a mind of its own at times!

iTalk iPads Organization

This is the continuing saga of my joyful journey into 1:1 iPad land with my kinder/first grade class.

So now I had 25 iPads for my 25 students and a charging/syncing cart to keep them in.  BUT there needed to be a bit of organizing to make this all work.

Here are some of the organizing ideas I used:

1) Number Everything!  (Children, iPads, slots)
The children in my class all have a special number.  (I have the amazing Rick Morris to thank for sharing this great idea!)  So it made sense to number the iPads with my student's numbers.  This was done with a silver marker on the apple on back of the iPad.  (Since the apple is an advertising symbol it shows through the cover.  Works for me!)  The cart arrived with each slot for an iPad already numbered.  So student #1 used iPad #1 which was placed in slot #1 at the end of each day.  I do love having things organized!  (But read idea #4 as to how I further organized the cart.)

2)  iPad Test and iPad License
Since you can't drive without a license, it seemed to me that students shouldn't be able to use an iPad without a license.  And nobody gets a license without taking a test, right?  So I created an iPad license that could only be earned by passing the iPad test. Luckily for me, my students totally bought into it!  To pass the iPad test they had to demonstrate a variety of skills such as turning their iPad on and off, getting it out of the cart and putting it back it, AND they had to explain WHY we were using iPads in our classroom.  (A little brainwashing occurred here ... if they used the word "play" they automatically failed the test.  If they used the word "learn", they passed that question.  In fact, if a student later asked me, "May I play on my iPad?"  I always said NO!  If they used the word learn, that was a different matter! :) When each child passed the test, they were given a very special iPad license that could be revoked at any time.  (Sadly, a few were revoked from time to time.)

3)  Daytime Home
I had to decide where my students would keep their iPads during the day.  Hmmm ... but first I needed to consider how I wanted the iPads used.  Just like everything in teaching, first you have to clarify what your philosophy is and then you do your planning.  I decided I wanted the iPads to be another tool in our classroom.  I also decided that like pencils and paper and other tools, I wanted my students to have easy access to the iPads.  So I purchased a dishtub from Target for each team.  (Cost: under $2 each.  But for that price, my only color choice was white.)  Each team received a tub to permanently place on their desks.  When we weren't using the iPads, the children placed them in their team's tubs.  This meant that if a child finished an assignment early, they could pull out their iPad.  It also meant that when my entire class was reading individually, some students chose to read on their iPads.  (Some children continued to choose traditional books, but the option was always there to do either.)

4)  Nighttime home
The charging/syncing cart is the nighttime home.  Each iPad has a numbered slot that it "lives" in at night.  BUT it was super hard for my kiddos to find the correct slot.  I decided it was time for ... COLOR CODING! So I bought four rolls of colored tape (blue, red, green, and orange).  I put a strip of tape on the front of each iPad and a small square of the same color next to the correct slot in the cart.  (Of course, I created an ABCD pattern: blue, red, green, orange, etc.)  Volia!  My students were easily able to find their iPads at the beginning of the day and then at the end of the day, find their iPad's correct slot.  Hurrah!  (The tape won't last forever on the iPads, but long enough for students to know which color slot to look for.)

Whew!  I love things to be organized!!  In fact, I just read a hilarious note on Facebook.  Here goes:  I am CDO.  CDO is like OCD, but the letters are in order, like they should be. Oh yeah, that is so me!  A place for everything and everything in its place!  Love it!  But if you could see my classroom right now - I am moving classrooms and it isn't pretty right now OR if you could see my living room - I am moving classrooms so decided to bring a few (cough, cough) boxes of things home to organize ... then you would revoke my CDO license.  So, it is off to organizing that I must go!

Love to all,
Camille

iTalk iPads

On April 16, 2012 twentyfive iPads arrived in my classroom and my teaching life changed completely.  Prior to that date I thought iPads might be helpful in education.  Now I KNOW they are.  I am stunned by what the term "digital native" really means.  My students have not only surpassed me in their understanding of iPads, they are also fearless in learning more.  There is no hope, not even itty bitty, that I can ever again be "the sage on the stage" when the iPads are being used.  For years I have expoused on wanting to be the "guide on the side, not the sage on the stage", but now I am living it.  (... and there are moments that I really would like to be the sage - just sayin'.)

I was challenged by my district to use free apps as much as possible.  (Just think about the math:  each app you buy you have to buy for 25 iPads, even with the 50% educational discount, this begins to add up).  Well, I am pleased to say that there are many, many, many WONDERFUL free apps out there.

Here are four favorites:

Sushi Monster - This is one crazy app and my students loved using it!  In this app students are challenged to add and multiply to feed the Sushi monster.  I love it because the children are given the sum and must find the two numbers to add together to get that sum.  Students may select their level and may also select multiplication (which was a wonderful challenge for my firsties who were ready for multiplication). This app was a little too hard for my kinders, but perfect for my firsties.
Sushi Monster


Sock Puppets - I discovered this app the last week of school, quickly introduced it and suddenly my students were making plays on their iPads.  My kiddos LOVED it!  I also loved it because it reinforced the ideas of character and setting.  First, students choose their characters (all sock puppets, of course).  Then they choose a setting.  They can also add details to the setting (microphones anyone?).  Finally, they get to record.  The mouth of each sock puppet moves as the children speak.  (Lip-syncing with sock puppets!!)  Even better, there is a way to change your voice by making it higher or lower.  I created a sock puppet play to introduce this app and my students had no idea that I had recorded my own voice.  Too funny!  The plays have to be one minute or less, but that worked for us.  (You can buy a VIP Content Pass to add more options, but I plan to stick to the free version.)
Sock Puppets


Monkey Drum - When we voted for our favorite app, Monkey Drum won by a landslide.  Why?  I am not sure.  This app is all about a monkey who plays a drum.  The children can mimic the sounds the monkey makes or create their own tunes.  The children loved to create songs and then have me listen.  This app was reserved for Free Choice Time in my class and it was selected during that time by most students.  During Free Choice Time, I let them unplug their headphones and the noise was (almost) deafening.  But they loved it.
Monkey Drum


Rover - If I got to vote for App of the Year, this app would get my vote.  It is a utility app that allows an iPad to use Flash content.  You see Apple (the maker of iPads) and Adobe (the maker of Flash) don't get along so anything with Flash content does not work on iPads.  This meant that my students couldn't use Raz-Kids or anything else with Flash.  Boo!  Hiss!  Enter Rover, my hero!  Rover allows items with Flash to be streamed onto your iPad (think about how NetFlix streams movies).  Amazing!  All year when my students finished work, I let them read.  Once Rover entered our lives, they could pull out their iPads and read books from Raz-Kids.  (Note:  Raz-Kids is NOT free.  I pay about $80 a year for a class subscription to it.)
Rover

Well, that's all for now.

Love to all,

Camille

Are You My Mother?

Every year I have my students write about their mothers.  Then we post all of the paragraphs and see if during Open House each mother can find the paragraph that describes her.  Some do.  Some don't.

Here are the steps I take for this lesson:
1)  Read the book Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman.  Discuss.  What made the bird's mother special?
2) Ask "What makes your mother special?"  Discuss what our mothers look like, like to do, are really good at, etc.  Sometimes students don't remember their mother's hair color or eye color or know their favorite color so I tell my students their homework is to find these things out.

The next day:
3) Students fill out a prewriting web for their mother.
4)  Students write a paragraph about their mother.  Their opening sentence can be "Are you my mother?"  I also have them use this for their final sentence.  I am sorry I don't have a closeup of the actual writing.  Here is a sample:  Are you my mother?  My mother has blonde hair and brown eyes.  She loves to wash dishes and does them every night.  My mother is a great reader.  I love it when she reads to me.  We go to the library once every week.  My mother is a wonderful cook. I love her spaghetti!  I love my mother and she loves me! Are you my mother?
5) Students write their names on a secret card that I staple in front of the writing.  Thsi way the moms can peek to see if they guessed correctly.

I post these paragraphs for Open House because all of our famiies come to that.  Moms are challendged to find the paragraph that describes them.  Pretty funny reading!

Love to all,
Camille

Walk Around My School

Lots of you are starting to talk about Open House so i thought I would share one of my very favorite Open House activities: School Walk.  This is actually a whole school tradition that we have been doing for a zillion years.  (Not that I have been teaching a zillion years, but almost!)  Our Open House is always on a Wednesday night.  The next morning, right after we take attendance EVERY class in the school goes on a walk around the school.  It reminds me of a parade.  We weave in and out of every classroom in the school so that by the end of the walk, students have visited ALL classrooms.

In the beginning we did this so that we (THE TEACHERS) could see every adorable classroom all gussied up for Open House.  But then we found many, many side benefits.  The children love seeing the classrooms they used to be in. ("There is my old desk."  "Why are those chairs so small?" "I remember when we did that project.")

I love being able to show my kiddos what lies ahead.  ("When you are in second grade, you will be writing animal reports like those on the wall." "Here is an art project you may do.")  I take forever in each room because I love foreshadowing what is to come for my students.  I think other teachers hate following me in the parade because there is always a traffic jam behind me.  As I enter each classroom, I really do try to be quick, but ... there are so many things that I want to show my kiddos!

I LOVE this tradition and encourage you to get your school to try something similar.

So ... what traditions do you have at your school that you would like to share with us?

Love to all,
Camille

My Super Heroes!

Hi Bloggetts,

The idea I am sharing today is a fun, joyful idea.  Looking at this project on the wall always makes me smile!

Here is the background:

Last year I went with my neighbors (who are dear friends) to their first grade daughter's Open House.  I brought my camera, which they thought was a little weird, but you all understand, right?  Well, thank goodness I brought my camera because I found LOTS of great ideas as I ran from class to class (which they also thought was a little weird).  There was one idea I loved so much that I quickly incorporated it into my own Open House.  How cute is this?!?!

That's my girl flying through the air!

I loved this idea so much, that I incorporated literature and even music into the lesson.  Here are the steps I took:

1) Read Quick as a Cricket to the class.  

2) Discuss the nouns (animal names) and adjectives in the book.

3) Play "Everything at Once" by Lenka.  (I learned about this song from a blog.  If it was your blog, just tell me and I will credit you for your great idea!)  I downloaded the song from iTunes to play to my class, but I just found a YouTube link that displays the lyrics while Lenka is singing.  (But you will have to quickly skip the ad if you use this!)
   Everything at Once

4)  Discuss the nouns and adjectives Lenka used in her song.

5)  Create a class list of adjectives that describe us and related nouns.  (Although I let my students choose whatever nouns and adjectives they wanted.)

6)  Students complete write five cloze sentences (I am as __________ as a __________.)  I actually gave mine a form to fill in to make it simple.
7)  I took photos of each student "flying".  At first I was too controlling and was trying to tell them how to stand.  This led to unhappy campers in my class and a very frustrated teacher!  I even had blue paper for them to pose in front of, thinking it would make it easier to cut the pictures out later - but it really didn't matter and it was sooooo hard to keep them in front of the blue paper!  Then I let them pose however they wanted for their flying photos and the results were much better!  Here are some examples:

Graceful!

Super Hero stance!

Original pose!

 

Superman pose!

8)  I typed up all of the poems and copied them on cloud paper (which I have never, ever been able to find at Dollar Store - sigh).
9)  I cut out my kiddos and glued their bodies to their poems and laminated.  (If I was brilliant, I would be able to do this all on my computer - but I am not brilliant!)
10)  I created a display titled: Mrs. Johnson's Super Heroes!  Thank you to the unknown teacher that had this on display in her classroom for me to see!

To close, I will leave you with the poem created by the future Steve Jobs / Bill Gates / Donald Trump.  (Andrew, when you make your first million, please remember your first grade teacher!)

When I questioned Andrew about the fat wire, he patiently explained to me that "fat wires" are actually very thin.  Who knew?  Oh, and the third line reads "I am as shocking as a circuit board."

Love to all,
Camille

I LOVE Bloogyland!

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your sweet emails and for all of the warm thoughts and prayers you sent my way!  My dad is doing really well right now!  He had a few more emergency room visits since my last post, but has steadily been improving and is feeling stronger.  His official diagnosis is "Chronic Heart Failure" which means his heart will keep failing, we will keep rushing him to the emergency room, the doctors will do amasing things, and then dad will go back to his home at assisted living.  In the meantime we are all savoring the moments when dad is feeling good!  Today my dad is spending time with his amazing friend Stan, who flew down from Fairbanks, Alaska to spend the weekend here in California with my dad.  Yep, his flight was almost longer than the time he will be here!  Stan couldn't get any time off of work, so he decided that coming for the weekend was better than not coming at all. I told you he was amazing!  Stan is like a son to my dad, so I know their time together will be precious!

So ... I am sending LOTS of love your way!  Thank you for being the marvelous community that you are!  I APPRECIATE you all!  

Love to all,

Camille

P.S.  It has been so long since I last posted that Blogger has completely changed their look.  When did that happen?  Or is it just me forgetting how to create blog posts?  Sigh.