Purely Personal

My dear blogging friends,

Today's post is completely personal.  I am crying as I write it, so be forewarned.

I am an introvert and a very private person.  I have debated whether or not to write a post this week telling you what is going on with me.  But kept deciding "no". Then my dear, wonderful friend Fran sent me an email checking up on me.  (Thank you Fran!)  That made me realize, I should let you into my life.  I love Bloggyland and the many friends I have made out here!  Plus, Kristin told me that I can write about personal stuff whenever I want.  Right, Kristin?  So I am going to let you into my life and also let you know why my posts are now so rare and why there may not be any for awhile.

This past week has been my Spring break.  I had all sorts of plans including sleeping in, creating amazing teaching plans, reorganizing my classroom, cleaning my house, working in the yard ... nothing super exciting, but all things we put off.  However, on Monday my dad's heart took a turn for the worse.  Since then he has had two emergency room visits and a few nights in the hospital.  He is now home in his assisted living apartment.  (In my opinion, the hospital sent him home way too soon!)  I have spent most of this week with my dad.  It was not what I had planned, but to have this week off has been such a blessing.  Only a group of zealous teachers would understand that this meant I did not have to create sub plans or worry about details at school.  Instead, I could focus on my dad.  I have spent most of the day with him and then my sister spends the nights.

I am stunned by the sudden change in my dad.  Since Monday he has been going downhill.  He had a stroke in November and had been recovering beautifully from it.  In December, my sister and I moved him from Oregon to California so that he would be closer to us.  It has been a rich, amazing time.  Thirty years ago my dad (and mom) moved up to Oregon.  Even though I visited there at least twice a year, it is not the same as having him close by.  I feel like my dad has now become an integral part of my life.  We were always close, but now we are even closer.  That makes it even harder to watch my dad lose strength each day.  He is scheduled for an angiogram and maybe and angioplasty in the next few weeks.  But I just don't know if he will be strong enough to go through either procedure.  My dad is accepting all of this with beautiful grace.  My dad told me that when my husband died suddenly, he started praying that God would give him a year so that I wouldn't lose both my husband and my dad in the same year.  Every time I think of that I cry.  Who could ask for a sweeter father?!?  I lost my husband a year and a half ago, so God has answered my dad's prayer.  Of course, I don't want to ever lose my father!  Part of my struggle in dealing with my dad's issues is the fact that my husband always did such a great job holding my hand (and my heart) during tough times.  My sister is awesome, but it is not the same.

So, if you are still reading and are so inclined, your prayers would be most appreciated.  I do not know how to ask you to pray.  Sometimes I look at my dad and think how hard all of this is for him now and that he is ready to go to Heaven.  But really, I do want him here with me.  So pray as God leads you.

Love to all,
Camille

P.S.  I really do mean "love to all".  I cannot believe how close I feel to so many teachers that I have mostly never met!

Bigtime for Me!

Heh!  Heh!  Heh!  I feel like I have made it into the big time!  I am a guest blogger over at Teachery Tidbits today! Yep, a guest blogger.  While the wonderful Natalie is in Japan, she is entrusting her blog to a variety of guest bloggers.  It is a little like having house sitters.  Brave girl!

So ... go on over to Teachery Tidbits to find out about one of my very, very, very favorite spelling activities.

Love to all,
Camille

P.S.  My class is still waiting to receive our iPads so I can't tell you how it is going because it isn't going yet.  Boo hoo!  Hopefully they will arrive soon!  I said to my students, "I know you want them to arrive tomorrow."  And they responded, "No, we want them to arrive NOW!"  Okay, I got the message! (...and I feel the same way!!!!)

iTalk iPads

Thank you to all who suggested iPad apps.  I am busy researching them all!!!!

So here we go ...  Camille's adventures with iPads .... Part One

Preparation

After school on Monday I attended a four hour training on using iPads in the classroom.  I will be receiving 26 iPads to use with my class thanks to a district grant so this training was to get me going.  Since I had never, ever used an iPad I tried to soak up as much as I could at the training.  

Day One:  Tuesday

I took the one iPad I received at the training into class.  (The other 25 iPads are being prepped.)  During stations my students took turns using the one iPad. I quickly discovered that even those students who had never used an iPad before, quickly left me in the dust.  I just had them use Doodle Buddy (a free drawing app) to introduce them to a touchscreen.

Day Two:  Wednesday

I introduced my students to a new app by placing my iPad on the document camera.  Students were easily able to see it and thought it was super cool to see the iPad so very, very big!  The app we used today was ShowMe.  It turns the iPad into a whiteboard that records what you write AND what you say.  I am in love with this app and plan to use it all the time.  (... and can you believe it is free????)  I made a few recording myself and showed one to the class.  They were hooked!  I asked for three volunteers to come in at lunch and try out the app.  (That way my maiden voyage with my class and this app could be done without a huge audience.)  The videos turned out great!  They actually made me cry.  I admit to being a sap, but really, hearing my firsties voices explaining how to solve a math problem is so endearing.  Here is one example.  If you could see the huge smile on this little girl's face when we played back her recording, you would cry too!!!  Just so precious!!!

Math Talk Using ShowMe

In addition to math, ShowMe could be used to record student writing (as long as it is only a sentence or two because that is all that will fit on the screen).  Or to give directions or teach a lesson to the class.

Although I am excited about getting an iPad for every student, it is nice to have just one to start with.  This way I can ease into this new learning situation.  It is exciting, but also scary.  I am so glad that I have my bloggy friends to hold my hand in my new adventure!

Lots and lots of love to all,

Camille

iTalk iPads

Have you ever received some news that is so wonderful and amazing and incredible that you go into stun mode?  You know, that mode where you just can't believe it so you don't think about it too much because if you do, you might find out it's not true.  Deep sigh.  Well, I am definitely in stun mode!

Here is my wonderful, amazing, incredible and actually quite a bit scary news:
I was chosen as a pilot teacher for iPads.  Can you hear me screaming?  But wait, it gets better ... the pilot program is for a 1:1 iPads.  (More screaming!)  That means 1 iPad for each child.  (Hopefully you are covering your ears!!!)  That means 25 iPads for my class.  (I know, it is so amazing that I may never stop screaming and may never come out of stun mode!)  That means .... I don't know what all it means.  This is such new territory.  I am fairly techy, but I have never used an iPad (though I have always coveted one).  I wrote up a super long application with lots of ideas for apps and projects, but now I am quaking in my boots (and this California girl knows all about quaking!!!).  I keep telling myself to breath.

So (deep breath) ... I thought I could devote my blog once a week to talking about lessons I have learned about using iPads in my classroom.  Although I hope recording my journey will help others, I will definitely derive the most benefit.

Monday I go for the preliminary training.  It is for four hours after school.  I will be joined by four other teachers.  One I know and she is marvelous.  I just hope the others are nice since we are going to be breaking new ground together.  (How pathetic do I sound?  Somewhat like the little girl going away to camp with a group of strangers?  "I hope they are nice!"Been there, done that!!)

If you are using iPads in your classroom, whether it's one iPad or more, please let me know.  I have found lots of resources, but you are the folks in the trenches and you are the ones I trust the most.

In case you are wondering, my grant is from my district.  Here is a link for my iPad grant application. The formatting may be crazy because I simply cut and pasted it from Word into Google Docs.  If this can help anyone, great!

Love to all,
Camille

I'm Late to the Party!

Kindergarten Lifestyle is having a linky party to link up all K-2 blogs.  Yes, I am a little late to the party since there are already 171 blogs linked.  That's a lot of primary blogs!!!!!  IRL if I were to arrive at a party with 171 teachers already there, I would turn around and go home.  That's too many people for me!  But since this is Bloggyland, I decided to join the party.  

Love to all,
Camille

P.S.  Remember how I was rejoicing in our beautiful weather out here in California?  Well, times have changed ... it has been cold and rainy and dreary for the last few days.  We do need the rain, but I sure miss the sunshine!

Cute, Cute, Cute Leprechauns!

My class just made the most adorable leprechauns today.  These are from a unit by the wonderful Reagan called Looking for a Leprechaun.  Each day my class has to complete a page from Reagan's booklet before they can read the daily letter from Lucky, our class leprechaun.  Today we had extra time together as a class, so we made Reagan's leprechauns.  How cute are these guys?!?

...and here is a whole army of leprechauns!  There are even more ... I didn't have a bulletin board that could contain them so they are also around the windows smiling.  This is the good news about having larger class size ... you get LOTS of art to decorate the classroom.  My students LOVED making these; especially curling the paper for those amazing beards.  (Notice the handprints in the background ... We made those handprints in August and I usually find a way to work them into each display ... it just didn't work this time and I just didn't have the heart to take them down.  Oh well ...)

                      

Tomorrow's letter from Lucky mentions these leprechauns.  Lucky LOVES them!  (Yes, I peeked at his letter on my way out the door!  Hopefully, Lucky didn't see me peeking!)

Love to all,
Camille

My QUIET Class!!!

Last week I was pulling my hair out ... my class was so talkative ALL the time.  They are sweet, wonderful kiddos, but so N.O.I.S.Y!!!!  Part of the problem is that I have a combination class, so I need my students to work quietly while I am working with the other grade level.  But all of my normal tricks were NOT working.

So ... I solicited the help of Lucky, my new favorite leprechaun.  Good old Lucky has become a great helper!  Lucky began by writing a letter to my class introducing himself.  It seems that Lucky lives in our classroom, but he only comes out in March.  Lucky explained to the students that loud noises scare him so when the children get noisy, he hides far away.  When the children are working quietly, Lucky likes to peek out at them.  My children were enchanted by Lucky's letter and worked quietly so that Lucky would come out of hiding.  They were so quiet, that several students swore they got glimpses of Lucky.

Every day Lucky leaves a new letter for the children.  In each letter, he sweetly mentions a time of day that is a little too noisy.  For example, on Thursday Lucky's letter explained that he had never watched the children at stations because the noise scared him.  So guess whose class was super quiet at stations?  Oh yeah!  I LOVE Lucky!

So if you are looking for a way to calm your kiddos down, you might have one of Lucky's friends come live in your room.

Of course, there are some issues with this.  I got in a little trouble with our yard duty personal.  It seems that my sweet students were so excited about our having a leprechaun in the classroom that they began conducting tours outside our classroom during lunch.  The highpoint of the tour was peeking in our window in the hopes of glimpsing a real leprechaun.  Because of the tours children were running back and forth from the playground AND getting overly excited.  (My students are always overly excited - not sure if it is me or them.  Actually,  I do know since it happens every year.)  So ... Lucky's letter the next day mentioned how scared he got at lunch when he heard so many children looking for him.  He said he hid extra deep and didn't come out until it was dark and he knew we were all gone.  Please, please, please could we make sure all those children didn't come looking for him again?!  So no more noontime tours, thank goodness!

Also, I think I may be loosing my grip on reality versus fantasy.   But that is somewhat normal for a primary teacher, right?



Love to all,
Camille