Code.org where have you been my whole life?

If you have not checked out www.code.org and are wondering where to get started in teaching your students or your children how to code....this is the site for you.

You get a free account!

You set up your classroom and add your students for free!

You get to send them a link to sign on with their own username and secret password for free!

You as the educator get free lesson plans to help walk your students thru the basics and they are aligned with Common Core standards for free!

Your students have access immediately for free!

THIS WEBSITE IS.....FREE!!!!!!

I may have just peed a little in all the excitement! 

So I am one of those people that learns something new or gets something new and instead of waiting patiently and figuring out all the nooks and crannies before I roll something out....

I just right in and take the approach that we will all be learning this together so let's see what happens. Now there are pros and cons to this approach which I learned a little yesterday while throwing my ENTIRE class into the world of Coding!

PROS: 

This engagement level, buy in level was thru the roof!!!! (and of course no one came in to evaluate during this process but instead they wait until the worst possible moment and decide to join my class....has that happened to anyone else?)

The excitement and eagerness was amazing. When discussing the different aspects of the program I had total engagement and about 106 questions.

Leverage...those students that usually do not get their work completed or who lolli-gag around and waste time. Totally got their work done since I told them that they would not be allowed to participate.

CONS:

They lost their minds with excitement. Classroom management went out the window a few times because they were so excited and had 106 questions. With the questions they had they also dropped their brains and decided that everyone needed to shout out their questions at the exact same time.

Skill levels- I have some that can barely sign onto the computer and others that flew thru the first course. So this is only in the CONS section because of the lack of control it offered since we are all learning this together.

How I Rolled this Puppy Out...

For you control freaks....you might want to look away at this point!!!

I rolled it out first by discussing my expectations.

I explain to them that my number one responsibility is to teach them 5th grade standards. I even went as far to say that I legally have to do this since the state requires me to teach certain standards. I went on to say that if they cannot keep up with their 5th grade work then I will not be able to teach them the fun stuff even through I can tie it into the standards it is not required by the state. Further more I explained to them that my principal (who is amazing and so very open to new ideas and concepts, #myprincipalisbetterthanyours) will only agree to this if I can prove to him that they are getting everything they need.

Then I started them with paper lessons in the classroom. When I set my class up I got to pick which course I wanted to start them with. 

I chose Course 2 for two reasons: #1 the age group fit and #2 it says to start with course 2 for students that can read. Finally a decision that didn't take a lot of thought process!!!!!! Bonus!

On the Teacher Dashboard there is an option of Lesson Plans and Resources:

This is where I printed out our classroom lessons for the day before they moved into the computer program.

If I had to do it over again in a perfect world I would have started the paper lesson plans on Monday and worked thru several of those before putting them on the computer. But I rolled this out on a Thursday and we have computer lab on Thursday.

Stay tuned for more information about this program...this post is getting long! 

RCET Conference in Springfield, Missouri

Yesterday was day 1 of the two day RCET Conference.

I love going to this conference because I get so inspired. I come out of the breakout sessions with a fire to hurry up and apply what I know in my classroom. 

On the first day I attended three breakout sessions. Session one was a little disappointing because it was more like a sales pitch about surveys and assessments then it was about helping bring technology into my classroom.

My second breakout session was awesome. The speaker was a teacher from Fordland (which is a small town school like mine so I felt like she could relate). I was really shocked to hear her say that the superintendent at her school has made technology their number one priority and they are moving to a 1:1 school. But wait....our school now has a $3 million dollar football stadium for our 28 player football team....insert sarcastic tone.

Her breakout session was on her favorite apps, websites, and Google tools. Let me just say that my head was about to explode with ideas when I left her session.

My first idea that I think will be easy to impliment is having students create a website on Weebly for their American Revolution project instead of creating power point presentations and hard cover books. And as I am typing this an idea popped in my head to have them display this during the Spring Literature Fair....can you feel the excitement coming thru the computer? OMG....I cannot get started fast enough.

My third and last breakout session was a math session and let me go on record as saying that I HATE teaching math. Math was always my worst subject in school so I feel like I struggle to make it interesting....insert TECHNOLOGY!!!! 

One take away that I had yesterday was CODING!

Talk about getting someone excited about life....coding for kids!

I rushed out and bought two Ozobots and a Sphero so that I could take them back to my classroom and get my kids excited about math and science.

http://ozobot.com

I am still new to this so I am still trying to figure everything out but I do know that when I brought it home last night that my boys (ages 17 and 13) played with them and laughed and kept saying how cool these were.

The website has lesson plans already made up so you can get yourself and your students started right away!

ch 1-2, 2016 ~ Missouri State University

Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde -- November book choice

Pay It Forward

By: Catherine Ryan Hyde

As I was sitting here trying to figure out what book I needed to tackle for the month of November I came across the book 'Pay It Forward' that some how did not make it from my bedroom book pile into my classroom. 

I began doing some research about the book and found some really good discussion questions on www.litlovers.com. 

Discussion Questions
1. When Trevor first presents his Pay-It-Forward plan—as a way to change the world for the better—many dismiss it. Why? What does their dismissal say about Trevor's plan and what does it say about those wrote it off? Would you have dismissed Pay-It-Forward? (Be objective—pretend you've just learned of Trevor's project for the first time. What would have been your initial reaction?)

2. Eventually, Pay-It-Forward begins to work, creating a chain reaction and becoming a Movement. Why does the concept take hold? What is it about the plan that inspires people? Describe its basic idea and give it another name (rather than pay-it-forward).

3. Talk about Reuben St. Claire. What kind of teacher is he...and what kind of human being? Why might the author have created a character with a severe facial disfigurement? And what's the irony behind the name, St. Claire? Does he live up to his name?

4. What about Arlene, Trevor's mother? What kind of character is she? What does Trevor see in her that makes him believe, at heart, that she's a worthy individual who deserves better than she's got.

5. The story is told through various point-of-view devices: first- and third-person narrators, book excerpts, interview transcripts, journal entries, and central character shifts. Do Hyde's narrative techniques work? Do they enhance the story or make it confusing? Why might she have chosen to structure the novel in the way she did?

6. What about the book's ending? Sad, yes, but satisfying? Does Trevor become a martyr? Would you have preferred a different ending?

7. The figure of Chris, the journalist, and his role in the Movement is curious. Given our media culture, would Trevor's Pay-it-Forward plan have become a Movement without media attention? Will people recognize the inherent goodness of something, give it significance, unless it's surrounded by hype or media saturation? (A cynical, but perhaps an important, question.) Can you find examples either way?

8. If you were asked to come up with a project to make the world a better place...what ideas would you come up with?

9. Do you personally follow the Pay-it-Forward philosophy? Does this book inspire you—make you more aware of what you, individually, or all of us, collectively, could do—to improve the world?

10. Is this a religious book?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

Best I can tell there are a couple of versions of the book, one that is recommended for upper elementary students and one that has been adjusted for high school students. Since I teach 5th grade I am going with the version pictured above.

Of course I purchased my book from www.scholastic.com. It is clearly a site that I have an unnatural addiction to and will probably one day cause me to go bankrupt (kidding)! 

I am thinking this will be an excellent read aloud for my 5th graders for the month of November. Sticking with the theme of Caring (our Character Word for November) I think that this book will provide us with some great life lessons, character education opportunities, writing lessons in that the teacher gives her students the assignment of coming up with a plan to change the world. 

Stay tuned to find out what we do with this book!!!! 

Gearing up for some Honesty...with a capital H!

I HATE Daily 5 in my 5th grade classroom.

There I said it. HATE...HATE...HATE! With a capital H!

To me this is not a reading program but a classroom management system that just doesn't seem to work for me or my students. It feels like a waste of time. It feels like a lot of lost opportunities and busy work. It feels like a complete failure everyday. It feels like a gimmick. 

Now please do not get me wrong, I think the Daily 5 concepts work great in lower elementary grades. I think it provides a great structure to get them use to stamina and provides a break in the reading hour and a half that we have to do this but in 5th grade it just seems a little "childish". Move to stations, read for 20 minutes, if you look around too long we have to stop and practice (because we have time for that), you need to be writing for 20 minutes...write the whole time.

Well what do you do when you have students that just can't.

It isn't in their genetic make-up to be able to focus for 20 minutes.

They practice great. Practice for 20 days and in that 20 days it looks great but what do you do and how do you monitor what they are doing when you are working in small groups and they are in a corner? 

Am I just doing it wrong?

It seems to never fail when my principal comes in to evaluate there is always someone "off task". Am I not providing enough engaging activities? 

Truth be told that my experience with this program and my training consists of...here, read this book and implement the program. 

I need help.

I need ideas.

I need to figure this out before I lose my mind.

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated because I am drowning!

P.S. We do DRA levels. I have 28-80s in my classroom.

DRA 28 - 1 student

DRA 30 - 1 student

DRA 38 - 5 students

DRA 40 - 2 students

DRA 50 - 2 students

DRA 60 - 2 students

DRA 70 - 1 student

DRA 80 - 4 students

A5 Filofax Malden with Erin Condren inserts!

Filofax: A5 Malden

     So I have been working out of my ECLP until recently when I decided that I needed to move back into my Filofax. My ECLP was working great, I was using it everyday and keeping it up-to-date the best that I could but I kept having this guilty feeling rush over me when I walked by my Filofax. 

     I think it was the fact that here I spent a lot of money on this planner, carried it for a few months and then abandoned it for another planner. So I decided to combine my ECLP into my Filofax! I had to watch a lot of videos to get my self psyched up to actually pull my planner apart. My last ECLP i pulled apart and used it for meal planning but it was over the summer, I just pulled apart a few pages, and it worked...however, I was planning on pulling EVERYTHING apart.

     I cut up my customized cover. gasp....stress....no looking back now.

     My from and back cover are now hole punched and sitting in my Filofax...I have to say that Erin Condren uses some really strong material to hold together her custom planner covers. I couldn't punch it. I had to have my husband punch it and even then it took him some effort to punch through. Although in his defense the hole punch I was using was a single punch that at times struggles to punch thru 5 pieces of paper. 

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!!!!

      I was only going to tear out a couple of months to get myself started but I teach 5th grade and I am a mother of two boys with very active Spring baseball and Lacrosse schedules I found that I needed to carry with me an entire school year. (I probably should carry June and July but I am holding out until at least January). 

     

     Thanks for stopping by, I would love for you to become a follower! Leave a comment! It all makes me smile!

Stay tuned for my walk-thru of my ECLP in my Filofax post!

     

Erin Condren products in Staples??? WTH?

     So I have purchased a few Erin Condren life planners over the years and I also use the Erin Condren Lesson Plan book. Each June/July I spend hours on her website shopping around trying to figure out exactly what I need and what I cannot live without. My bill usually averages around $175, give or take.
     I love her products. I love being apart of the Erin Condren community of teachers and planners. I love the quality of her work. I HATE that I walked into Staples earlier this week and discovered that I can purchase her items from a box store.
     I am very happy for this company for their recent expansion into the main stream market. I am very happy for this company that they have been able to work out a deal so that their product reaches more people. I am not very happy that this no longer feels like an exclusive club. Yep, I said it. Deep down inside of me I really liked that there was a community of people that knew about Erin Condren and for those that didn't they needed to do some research and find out. I liked that my planner would come in the mail. I liked that I would get emails about when the lesson plan books would be back in stock.
     I understand that when you walk into Staples, you get what you get. There is no customization. Product selection is limited. However, this year for my LP I ordered a customized cover...so why would I need to go back to her website to order my LP when I can walk into Staples and grab the plain generic one and walk out the someday?
     I know that this should not feel like a betrayal, it should not feel like a sale-out...but it does.

I LoVe Erin Condren products. However, I am going to have to do some research on the benefit of purchasing from her website versus going into the Big Box Store and picking up a generic planner. I mean, I have already purchased a customized LP cover.

All items pictured above were purchased by me on the Erin Condren website in 2015. I love everything that I purchased. I am not complaining about the quality of her product. I will be a returning customer.

My dislike is that her products are now available in a Box Store.

My dislike is that I no longer will have the need to anxiously wait for her products to become available on her website.

I JUST HAVE TO DRIVE TO THE STORE AND PICK THEM UP. UGH

I understand that in some regions her products have been in the store for sometime, please note that I live in Missouri and our store only recently started carrying her products. 

The Bully Book by Eric Kahn Gale

 At the end of school this year I was flipping through the scholastic book order to see what I needed to purchase for next school year and I came across 'The Bully Book' by Eric Kahn Gale. Our school district will be implementing a new Character Education program for the 2015-2016 school year so my first thought was, "hey, maybe this could be something I could use." but didn't really give it much thought after I placed the order.

 I have had this book sitting at my house since May and it was only today that I picked it up to see what it was about. Curiosity got the better of me when I was searching for the DRA level and discovered it is a DRA 50, which is what 5th graders need to be at by the end of the 5th grade year (score one for this purchase).

 Eric Kahn Gale does an amazing job of drawing you into the character, relating to the character and eventually routing for the character. I am now in search for his other book, 'The Zoo At the End of the World'

http://www.erickahngale.com

Eric Haskins, the new sixth-grade bully target, is searching for answers, and unexpectedly finds them in a chilling manual for bullies. "Gripping."—Publishers Weekly

Illinois Reads Selection 2014

"A compelling and unusual look at a complex and intractable problem that succeeds admirably as story as well."
- Kirkus Reviews

"A layered and attention grabbing mystery, Gale's accounts of bullying are subtle and chilling, but readers will finish the book believing that the humiliations Eric suffers can be conquered."
- Publisher's Weekly

Note: At the beginning of the book the characters have a couple of questionable comments that if using this as a read aloud I will skip over or rephrase so that I can avoid 5th graders comments and/or the use of that verbiage in my classroom the rest of the year. Questionable comments: 1. page 12 "He put his hand over his crotch and said, "Don't look at my nuts, man." 2. Throughout the book the term "gaywad" is used in reference to the main character by the bullies.