Apology & Update

I want to apologize for my lack of posting. This being my first year teaching in a school setting and I am becoming overwhelmed with all the paper work, meetings, programs, events, picnics, and assessment and planning that comes at the end of a school year.  

Wisconsin has their initial educators (and all teachers after a certain date) create a professional development goal and that goal must be approved by a 3 person board and then you work on it for 5 years, and they then evaluate your professional growth.  If you pass, your license is renewed and the process continues.  Because this is my first year teaching in a school setting but my third year with my license, I have to do this process in 3 years instead of 5.  I need my goal submitted for approval this month.  

To top it all off, I just moved back home after 2 years living 3 hours away so my friends and family find the need to cram in two years of missing each other in.  AND my sister-in-law got engaged on Sunday, so there is a family wedding in the next year.  

Wow, long story short, it's been crazy busy which is why I have not posted.

Lesson plans for this week:
Planbook.com
email: sgloudemans@stedwardk5.org
code: gloudemansplans

Technology Tuesday:
Magic School Bus!  I thought Magic School Bus may be a little above my student's heads, but thought it was worth a try.  They not only loved it, but have been quoting it, repeating it, and showing obvious retention of the information!  It made me so proud!  I found a YouTube site "Cartoons in English" that have the full cartoons as we have seen them, but it has captions at the bottom.  This is nice, because it brings in the literacy as well!  Love!  Click HERE to visit the site.

Graduation information coming soon.  I will share what I plan on doing at graduation, my program, my power point.  My only issue is the border I am using on it has a terms of use that is not for editable information-and I am finding this to be the case with all the purchased borders I have.  My only thought is to submit them with no border and provide you with the locations I found borders. The formatting would be complete and the images (which are free to put on the sites as long as I link back) so they could still be helpful.   

I hope to get back on the blogging trend soon, but I hope these help you slightly!  Let me know if there is info you want, info you need.  Leave me comments and I will do my best to comply!

Happy May!

Technology Tuesday-iPhone and Google+

I just got my iPhone 2 weeks ago.  I have since discovered ways to use it in my classroom and personally!

The biggest thing I have used is the camera, photos, and Google +   Let me share!

I HIGHLY SUGGEST you get a Google+ account.

1. I first take a photo on my camera.

2. I then open my Google+ App

I then go to settings and make sure my instant upload is on.  I then click, upload all photos and videos.

I then go to blogger on my computer.  (I prefer to blog from my computer, I type faster).

I then go to the photo icon on top and select from your phone.  Presto!  Photos on my blog, with out having to plug in a cord!

Next, I download them to my computer as back up (and so I can delete from my phone to save memory). 

I go to google.com.  In the top left corner, you will see my name with the + in front:

 +Siraya

I then click on my name, and my Google+ comes up.

I go down the left hand side and click on the camera to bring up photos.

When you mouse over the photos, a menu pops up.  

I click on instant upload.

When you are in instant upload on a computer,  you can select individual photos (the gray check marks wills turn blue) or select all (seen in blue on the top of this image).

Once photos are selected (I had selected all at this point) a menu shows up at the top. You can share, add to an album, or (my preference at this point) Download.  

To my mac, it saves it as a zip file on my downloads file.  In a PC, it saves them to a zip file.  In order to move them to the file you want (I chose the pre-created themed folders in "my photos")  you must open the zip file, extract photos (top left) and pick which file to send them to.

I am just getting into the many ways I can use my phone in an educational way (besides being able to check my email at all points of the day) and promise to keep you updated!

Happy Tuesday!

This post is linked up with Technology Tailgate's Techie Tuesday!

Technology Tuesdays: Soo....I dont have much technology, how do I teach with it?!?

It is rare to find a time when you go to a professional development seminar to NOT find a technology session in there somewhere.  There a blogs devoted to it, there are Technology Tuesdays, there is a push in many different directions for technology.  The one thing they leave out: how to afford technology.

Technology is expensive, there is nothing else to it.  We all want it, but can we all afford it?  No.  Most cases we have SOME in our rooms, but all the great things out there, it is likely we have a small percentage of those items.

This Technology Tuesday is devoted for how to use technology when you only have one item (or a few) in your room.  I am basing it off of what I have in my room, and I would hope to get more (don't we all) to teach more when we have it.

I have a desktop computer in my room.  Most of the teachers have laptops, but I don't.  We do have a small (5) set up computers on wheels for student use.  My computer does not have access to the complete server because it is to old so in order to get on the server, I borrow a student computer.  Lately, I have been resorting to my personal computer (that can get on the server) because it is all personalized and specialed to me. ANYWAY, here are the ways I use technology in my room.

Laptops/Computer

Typing skills are and will continue to e a critical skill in our students' lives.  Even if they get the new up and

coming technology in their future, they will still have a keyboard.  I have my students sign in on the computer.  This is developmentally appropriate as they are learning letters, and specifically the letters in their names.  It is amazing to see their little wheels turning when they see their name on their sign in cards with a capital first letter and lower case rest of the letters, but the keyboard is in all caps, and it shows up in all lower case on the computer.  That is a lot of things going on there!

After scaffolding this lesson a couple of times, I then had them hit enter on their own so the next person can write their name, and it also capitalizes their first letter.

Then, when they all had their first name memorized, I moved on to their last names.

Then, I taught the space bar and had them write first then last.

Then, after Dr. Seuss week, I took it up a notch and had them write: "I am ____" like "I am Sam."  They had to use shift to capitalize their name, space between words, and enter for the next friend.  Amazing literacy skills and technology skills happening!

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Watching Videos

Pinterest is an amazing thing.  I have found many wonderful teaching things on Pinterest, including videos.  (click here to visit and follow my pinterest account).  Our school, fortunately, does not block pinterest so I have access to it during the day.  I sort all my finds into categories: teaching: fall, teaching videos: fall, etc, etc.  They especially love Brain Break videos on those rainy indoor recess days!

I simply go to these videos, turn my desktop computer around, and allow students to watch, enjoy and move around to.  Also when they open in YouTube, you can see related videos and I end up pinning many more or playing the ones they say, "PLAY THE ___ ONE!  PLAY THE ____ ONE!!)

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Videos (on laptop/computer) and Handwriting

(click here to visit)

 I have a personal iPad, but not one for student use.  I used the app to record my voice making every letter of the alphabet. (available on my YouTube page as well as my Parent Website).  This also brings the technology home if they have the access.
One of my Technology Tuesday blogs was about using ScreenChomp, an app for the iPad.

After showing this video to students at the beginning of the week for the letter of the week, I then play it and listen as I show them I am writing according to the exact directions on the video.  I then gave them the choice: do it the right way on your own, or push the space bar (play) and do it with my voice.  They love it!

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Music

Students, especially early childhood students, love music.  I use music every chance I get.  I have all CDs and other music I find downloaded to iTunes on my computer. I have an old iPod (I no longer use, but got super cheap on Ebay) and a clock radio dock (super cheap the day after Thanksgiving) that I play all my music to.  I have a relaxation CD (originally bought for personal use) that I play for morning yoga time, Barney's cd for days of the week as well as many thematic units such as "The Green Grass Grows all Around" for our tree unit, and other brain break music.  Having all the music on one machine a the tip of my fingers if they need a break is great!  Also, check out Educasongs on TpT.  GREAT Mp3 thematic song downloads for affordable prices!
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Overhead Projector

I used this mostly for my unit on shadows, but the students still ask for it!  they did math on it, the made shapes and added and took away, they made shadow puppets talk (language development) and they worked with scientific principals and persistence (making it look the way they wanted).  Old technology, but still loved!






This post is linked up with Technology Tailgate's Techie Tuesday!

Pets

We started the book reading: The Perfect Pet.  It taught is a variety of pets you could have.  We then made a list of all the animals they could have as pets.  We also went into a discussion on all it takes to take care of animals such as cleaning their cages, litter boxes, and the back yard.

We did the animal leg sort and alphabet match from my Pet Pack.  Students did
really well with leg sort.  Some students simply counted the legs they could see (though I tried really hard to make it so you could see each leg), and others used their deeper thinking and knew how many legs many animals had.  They did very well though!

The alphabet sort went well. Even the kids who did not know on their own, did use the tools in the room to match (alphabet on the wall in the room, word wall).  Problem solving skills are good in 4k too!

I re-did our dramatic play area to be an animal shelter and vet office.

Add caption

Waiting room and sign in sheet.
Also a phone for the secretaries
to answer and magazines to read
while you are waiting.

I LOVE seeing the students using the center the correct way!

 We live in a rural community in which many of the students come from farm families.  Since we are discussing pets, many students see the farm animals as pets.  One of our students has a small goat farm so she brought in her twin baby goats (3 weeks new!) for us to see!

Sensory Table was shredded paper I found in my parents' basement over spring break.  I told them it was like pet paper and they need to dig in it like hamsters to find the letters (capital and lowercase) to either sort by capitals and lower case or to match the letters to each other.

I used littlest pet shop in the blocks area.  They are building cages and
saving animals.

Students also made the spring blossoms for our seasonal tree.  I am
taking the snowflakes down ASAP!  I think they are jinxing us!

The second week of pets we did another page from the Pet Pack--the dog food addition.  Students had fun with this activity!

We did our Pet Emergent Reader (freebie!). Students really enjoyed coloring the pictures and working with the animals!


We have finished our Letters of the week.  Please see the letters of the week tab for details!  Though I thought the students would enjoy watching the videos of the letters while doing their handwriting sheets, I never guessed they would love it so much! They loved it so much I got a great idea!  Since they love to watch the videos over and over, what better way to practice handwriting (how they exit carpet when their name is called) than give them the choice to write from memory or push space bar (play) and doing WITH the video!  They loved it and letters looked great! Check out my Letter of the Week Page!

We are going to start on writing the numbers next!

Technology Tuesday

We talk of integrating technology into our daily teaching.  Not just using technology to use it, but to integrate it into the learning and to make the technology part of what they are learning.  Technology is to keep the students involved as it becomes more and more a part of their digital lives, but also to make learning more fun; to connect to them on a level they enjoy and understand.

Our principal brought up Digital Portfolios, after attending her most recent principals meeting.  It would integrate the technology, allow students to express their learning in ways the enjoy and feel confident AND it is a space saver for us teachers.

My last "Technology Tuesday" I showed an app: ScreenChomp, and showed how I would use that to do an assessment with my students.  I could use this digital assessment to combine with their online portfolio and have a paperless record of each of my students.  I fell this could be done at all grade levels.

Consider it! We are in a new age with students learning in a whole new way, let us learn to teach the way they have learned to learn!

Dr. Seuss

We started with watching a full episode of the The Cat and the Hat!  I found this GREAT site where you can watch Dr. Seuss movies!  It was a great way to let them hear the rhyming and have fun with the text in a different way.  

I started with a paper plate.  I drew a circle
around the flat part of the plate.  I then
squared off the center (so there are 2 small
semi-circles on the sides.  I wrote the
line for the initial sounds and the ending
"at" sound. on all four sections of the hat.

I then cut the half circles off and around
the top curve of the plate.  

Students then needed to follow multi-step
directions and color an AB patter of red
and white on the sections of the hat.  Together, we started
with the word "cat."  We sounded out the initial sound.
We then came up with some rhyming words and sounded
out their initial sounds.  

Students then wore their hats as
they played in their centers that day!

My PM class apparently had a bug go through,
four were absent!  But look at these cuties in their hats!

We read the book: Ten Apples up on Top to practice the book, reading, and counting. I liked reading this book to the class because it is one that has pretty simple text that the students can figure out by looking at the pictures.  It was nice to hear them trying to read the book in the reading center.

We then read the book: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  This book was silly and fun.  I would stop every few pages and ask the students if they heard any rhyming words.  By the end of the book, they were raising their hand to tell me a rhyme every page!


I found a game on a blog for rolling fish and putting in the bowl.  It was supposed to be a board game.  I do not take credit for any of the grahics or the work put into creating the  Dr. Seuss 1 Fish 2 Fish Game.  Please click on the link to visit the original site for the game and to see her other many great ideas!  I  made a copy for each student.  I printed the fish in black and white.  Students rolled a number dice, and a fish dice.  Students took that many fish, colored it the color on the die, and glued that many in their bowl.   They did this a second time.  I then made a number sentence strip for the to fill out.  They write the first number in the color they colored that fish.  They do the same for the second.  This equals the number in the whole bowl.  I used the mathamatical language to help them begin to understand addition and an equals.  They did really great with this!

On Monday I plan on reading Green Eggs and Ham.

Students will work on a Green Eggs and Ham worksheet.  I, again, take not credit for the graphics or work put into this.  Please check the original source for more of their hard work.  I modified this project to fit my needs.  I printed 2 plates to one page.  I then covered up the numbers on the page.  I had students roll a dice and put that many eggs on their plate.  They did it a second time for their second plate. Students then circled more for the plate that has more and less for the one that has less.

When signing in to the computer on Tuesday, I am teaching the students to type: I am ________.  It plays off the "I am Sam" from the book, but also teaches the space bar and shift key on the computer.  I have a little table tent I made from card stock where I just wrote, "I am ______."  They can use the card as a reference when typing and then I will be there to support the space and shift keys.  Students did well with their last names and the backspace (some found this necessary with accidental letters or to many), so I thought it was time to take it up a notch. Students are doing great with technology integration and letter recognition!  I will update with how it went!