Dot Day - What I am learning

Hi Friends,

Have you read or seen the book, The Dot, yet?  Do you know about Dot Day?  Are you participating? Well, as I mentioned in a previous post I am participating in International Dot Day and am loving being involved with creative educators and students around the world!  You still have a chance to sign up and get involved.  International Dot Day is starting Sunday click here for details.

After a successful 'Skype In The Classroom' call to celebrate Dot Day with Christine Gillion's Grade 2 students in Australia, I have learned a few things that help make a Skype in the classroom call successful.  Here they are:

Getting Connected..
1. Test your skype connection before the official connection (Swap contact details, search for the other person, then add them to your account.  Then they will have to accept your invitaiton. )
2. Decide who will call who and make sure that you have your time zones correct
3. Decide what to do if you get disconnected (How long will you wait?)

Discuss with the other teacher

1. How long do we want the connection to last?  (ie Let's connect for 20 minutes)

2. Will we talk "class to class" or "student to student"?

3. Will one class share and then the other? Or will you take turns?

4. What will the kids talk about?  Ask Questions?  Give information?

Kids get very silly when presented with talking to other students online.  (Or at least my students do!)
They know you are focused on the logistics and your attention is no longer on them so...

Prepare your kids (So important, eh?)
1. Prepare the students for the behavior that you expect as a speaker and as a listener
2. Teach them how to be independent and call the next student up to speak
3. Do a run through of how you would like it to go (ie practice!)

During the Skype -
1. Take photos of your students
2. Share the photos with the other school

After your Skype - 
1. Have your students reflect on their communication skills and behavior

If you are in an IB School this is a perfect time for students to apply their communication skills and show their international mindedness.

I'll share more as I go along on this skyping/Dot Day Journey.

Cheers,

Cleaning Up/Tidying up Songs...

Hi Friends,

One thing you would notice if you were a fly on the wall, in my classroom, is that I use songs to teach just about everything.  We are always singing.  I have songs for routines,  songs for transitions, songs for reading strategies, songs for everything.

Some songs are ones that I have acquired over the years, from who-knows-where,  that I sing Acappela. (Not too nice on the ears of adults, however kids are much more accepting!)

Recently though, I have  fallen in love with Youtube for teacher songs.  I no longer need to sing in my tone-deaf voice, I just click play and listen/watch! (Of course, I like to sing-along too!)

Here are a few of my favorites for cleaning up... It is so much more fun to put on music and watch the kids get to work.  Your kids will be experts at tidying up and you'll be stress free.

Tip: show the video first and ask the students to come up with the expectations for what it will look like and sound like in the classroom.  Otherwise, your kiddos will just want to dance or try to see the video on your computer!

Songs are also great for cementing in concepts.  I love to start my units of inquiry, math inquiries, or any inquiry with a song as a provocation... I'll share more of those soon.

Favorite Educational Tune-sters:
Harry Kindergarten 
Dr. Jean  
Jack Hartmann

For Reading Strategies chants and songs, check out Reading Power!

Our class song for this year is ... Will.i.am's What I am!  I just love it.

We may just re-write the song a bit to include the IB PYP Learner Profiles...

Do you use songs in the classroom?  I'd love to hear how, comment below.  

International Dot Day

Hi all,

Have you heard of International Dot Day?  I never had, but it sounded cool, and when I watched the video of the book, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, I  just had to participate.  The theme is creativity, encouragement, and the power of a teacher.

So, I have listed all the links here for you to be able to participate in International Dot Day, which is taking place September 15 (and beyond).   Students and Teachers around the world will be connecting based on the theme - "make your mark and see where it takes you". 

Let me know if you would like to connect with Grade 2's in Thailand!  Just leave me a comment below or contact me on twitter @ innovatecreater.

Here is the main website...
http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/

Watch this video of the book
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5mGeR4AQdM

Here is Skype In The Classroom link
https://education.skype.com/projects/5776-international-dot-day-2013

Here is the Google Doc you can use to sign up and find classes to connect with

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yvBmah-o0JBXgk_ojCMH2SaajThmc4l4MLHMkicg2Os/edit

Here is the link to the International Dot Day Teacher Handbook

http://www.fablevisionlearning.com/pdfs/fablevision_dot_day_handbook.pdf

The Twitter Hastag is

#DotDay

Here is a link to an International Dot Day Connection Sheet I will be using to keep track of our connections.

International Dot Day Connection Sheet

I'd love to hear your comments!






Cheers,

bloglovin'

Dear Friends,

Need a google reader replacement?  bloglovin' is one option that I am checking out after seeing it on Tori's Teacher Tips' Linky Party.  Check it out!


<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5799377/?claim=r7xmtqj9err">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

http://toristeachertips.blogspot.com/2013/06/bloglovin-blog-hop-linky-party.html

Optimum Organization

Dear Friends,

Optimum Organization

Do you love to organize your classroom?  Or hate it?  Or maybe it's a love-hate relationship?  Have you ever noticed that your students behavior is better when your room is more organized and less cluttered?  Is organizing always on your to-do list?   To get some great ideas, I am reading all the great links and linking up with Kristen and Elizabeth for the Optimum Organization Linky party.

My contribution is probably well known and well used - color coding and student numbers.  I know other people have blogged about numbering students, I do it as well and it works wonders for organizing student assessment and files.

This is my anecdotal records system.  The note cards are taped to a front cover of a recycled three-ring binder, bound with book tape along the sides.  Each card is numbered for a student.  I have one of these for each subject I teach.  I know everything should be trans-disciplinary, but our report cards are still organized by subject, so my assessment is as well.  

Yellow - Reading

Red - Writing/Spelling

Pink - Art

Blue - Math

Green - Units of Inquiry

Light Green - Personal and Social Education

Each Area of my classroom has the color coded sign. 

  

Then for a quick visual in my planbook, each block of time is color coded.  (Purple corresponds to all specialists classes) 

 The supply, book and math bins in each section are also color coded. 

 

These color-coded sticky notes help me to organize and label all the paper work in my student files. 

 

Above you can see some of the formative and summative assessment papers, including a Daily Reflection Sheet.  Notice all the work of a subject is clipped together and labeled with a color coded sticky note.  You can see the files below are numbered.  Using numbers means you don't have to be changing the labels each year.

Do you use color-coding or number systems?  I would love to hear your comments.  

Cheers,

How We Organize Ourselves - Effective Group Work

Hi Friends,

Do you use cooperative groupings in your class?  Most of us do, don't we?  We have groups for The Daily Five, Math Workshop groups, or research groups.  For today's, learner's socially constructed learning is a reality and a necessity, right?

Well, one of my  How We Organize Ourselves Unit of Inquiry (A transdisciplinary unit) focused on the central idea 'Groups are organized in order to achieve a common goal'.  The most interesting line of inquiry for my students was:  'An inquiry into the different roles people can have in groups'.   During this unit, my students inquired into what makes group work effective and how could the ro'les people have help the group to succeed.

The teacher questions and the concepts included:

• What is a group? (form)
• Can you name a common goal of that group?  
• What types of roles do people play in groups? (function)
• What is leadership? (form)  
• Why is leadership important in achieving a common goal?  (function)
• What is needed for a group to work together well?  (perspective)

I had really loved doing this unit last year and was excited to see where the students would take it this year.  My previous class and I co-created a rubric for effective teamwork (free download) as a part of their summative assessment.  

 

 Looking to innovate
This year, my students used this rubric to evaluate their own group work.  The new students thought it was really cool to use a rubric created by last year's class.  Somehow the fact that other students had helped to create it, gave it more importance.  Anyway, they were very honest.  Through this reflection, they found out that it was common for at least one group member to not fully take part in the group and therefore not every group was successful in achieving their goal as a result.  After this realization, there was definitely more awareness, but not a quick or easy solution.  It was at this point when I entered into my own inquiry into how I, as the classroom teacher, could help the students be more successful in their cooperative learning groups. 

What I created
Why don't the students fully participate?  A frequent answer was that students just forget what they were supposed to be doing.  So, to help the students be successful, I thought I would to add a manipulative that could serve as a reminder.  Maybe its not the most creative solution.  However, my kids love to have things to hold.  If I can turn an activity into one that is hands-on or add in a manipulative, it is oh, so much more engaging to my kiddos. (Ask me about boo-boo tape and revision!)

To this end, I am pleased to report that I have just created my first paid product for TpT and Teacher's Notebook.  I designed role cards that could be used for a variety of groupings:  Leader, Writer, Fact Finder, and Speaker for example. I also added Literature Circle roles and beat the calculator cards.  There are twenty-one role cards and two different versions of each.  Check them out.

 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Role-Cards-for-Cooperative-Group-Work

Can you relate?
How do you handle cooperative groupings?  Do you have good strategies for getting all your students to participate in group work equally?  Do you use role cards? Do you find it helps?

I would love to hear about the successes and challenges you have in your class.  Leave me a comment below and let's chat.


Thanks for reading and commenting! 

Parent Night Tips

Hi there,

Whew... Parent Night was a success. Have you had yours yet?  If so, how did it go?  Any great ideas to share - just comment below!

 So, I thought I would share with you some of the things that I thought worked.  I am vowing to redo my Parent Night Power Point today with everything fresh in my mind.  Let's see if it happens.  The art teacher and library teacher are both away on a course, so my usually free Friday - will be filled with covering specialist classes.  Do your schools get substitutes for specialist teachers or do you cover your classes?

Before Parent Night (Back to School Night)

Tip # 1 Send home a questionnaire for parents to fill out about their students  
Typically, I have called this "Homework for Parents.  The students love the idea that their parents are getting homework.  Send it home at the end of the first week of school and it will set the tone that you really want to get to know their children as individuals.  It also helps reduce parents urge to talk to you about their children on the night.  It sends the message to your students' parents' that their opinion is important to you.

Parent Survey

Tip #2 Have student work hanging up
Have Parent Night in mind when you are planning the first week of school.  Think about the work that you will be able to display.  For example When we learned about our classroom jobs, I had the students illustrate mind maps of the class job descriptions.  I also had them illustrate "Who We Are In Numbers".  The students illustrated things like their age, their phone number, their height and their address.

Chevron banners are from Schoolgirl Style - Primary Apple Theme


Tip#3 Have the students write their parents a letter to leave on their desk for when the parents arrive
Parents love getting this letter and they also go home and tell their parents that the letter is waiting for them at school.  I had one mom who had completely forgotten about Parent Night, and was reminded by her son who bounded through the door saying mom you have to go to school tonight to get the letter I wrote to you.


Tip # 4 Set everything up before you go home
It does not look good if parents arrive and you are unorganized.





During Parent Night 


Tip # 5 Have a blank sheet of paper for the parents to respond to their child's letter 

Tip # 6 Use a Keynote or Powerpoint Presentation 
It will help you keep to the main points, keep you on time, and if you don't get to everything you can share it with others.  I love the book Presentation Zen... their advice?  Not more than 6 words on a slide.  Just a title and a great image.  Good advice.

Other ideas:

• Have an ice breaker to get the parents to know each other
• Provide a provocation for the parents by having items that represent some of the main topics their students will learn about for the year.  

Do you have tips for Parent Night?  I would love to hear from you.

Cheers,