Please please please take a minute to help my wonderful friends!!!

One of my dearest friends Stefanie and her husband Ryan are trying to adopt.  I cannot wait for the day when they finally get their own little buddle of joy.  That child will be one of the luckiest kids.  

I work with Stefanie and within a month of meeting her-  we instantly became great friends.  That is just who Stefanie and Ryan are-  very social and easy to love people.  Not only do they instantly become friends with everyone that they meet-  but they also have such a loving relationship as a couple.  They are the couple that you just want to "hate" with envy but you can't because they are just genuinely loving and hilarious people.  

So I ask this of you-  please take the 1 minute to like or better yet share their adoption Facebook page with others.  Not only will it fullfill your "good deed of the day". But you will help in connecting these amazing people with their future son or daughter.  

Thank you so much!!!!!

Hugs for your help,

Danielle

https://www.facebook.com/ryanandstefaniewanttoadopt

Independent Comprehension

This is probably one of my student's favorite times.  When that transition "Move it, Move it" song comes on and on the projector it says, "Come to the carpet.", My kids seriously start cheering.  They know that it is time for our whole group comprehension.

At the beginning of the year we learned many of the fantastic comprehension songs from Reading Power.  So often one of my students during our transition will start singing one of the songs:
*"When I read a story and my brain says, "woah" this part reminds me of my friend Joe.  It's called connect- da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da,da..."

It is just way too cute- I can't stop it and typically start singing along.   :)  I just love how they become pumped for comprehension time.  I will "hook" them anyway that I can!

Even though whole group is just 20 minutes I feel that so much goes into it.  I am going to start by highlighting what my kiddos do independently during "comprehension rotation" as I am teaching a guided reading group.

We use the Journey's reading series.  Each week there is a new mentor text.  I actually like these stories.  Each week there is also a comprehension assessment based off of the text.  The assessment is multiple choice and covers comprehension skills that we have already learned.  I made a little answer key to break down each question type for each test.

This took awhile but it is worth it.  No longer is this JUST a test for the sake of giving it but it is a tool to drive my instruction.  As students miss a question, I mark off the number so that I and my students can clearly see what skill they need to work on.  I involve my students in making a goal each Friday to work on during independent comprehension (formally my read to self rotation.)

Students place a sticky note on the goal sign that they want to have for next week. 

I plan to:
 1.  clean my board (gross!)
and 2.  update these to make them more cutesy this summer. 
*If students don't miss a question, they get to choose any skill to review.


During independent comprehension time- students use materials in their specific goal tub:

 

I have a drawer for each of the comprehension skills that we cover.  The drawer has matching pictures to the poster.  On the outside is also a QR code to a blendspace lesson.  If you haven't checked out blendspace- please do!  I am OBSESSED with it. 

 

 

*****WARNING******  SLIGHT BLENDSPACE TANGENT 

I have always tried to incorporate videos/ photos in my lessons.  However it would take a long time because I would have 17 tabs opened on my computer.  I would go back and forth between, google images, youtube, google docs etc.  Blendspace has one search bar, you type in what you want to search for and down the right hand side are simple clicks to search all of those different places for that same information.  You drag what you want to almost a Pinterest looking "board" and everything that you want to teach a lesson is right there.  You can even make and embed assessments.  As long as your students sign in- it will send the results of the test and analyze them.  I ADORE this FREE program.  It is super fast and easy to use.

 

Here is a picture of what is inside the drawers:

 

 

There are Lakeshore games (These are taught in advance), some awesome task cards that I bought on TPT and also a paper graphic organizer.  Students can use the graphic organizer with any book.  If they choose this option- I have them bring the book to our "proud" meeting before lunch for me to look at it quickly.  On 2 computers we also have the choice of playing the electronic Lakeshore Comprehension games (there are only 4).

 

 

 

I am trying out a BYOT program the last half of the year.  So if my students have a technology device they can also choose to scan the QR code to go to a blendspace lesson.

 

 

 

Students are expected to finish their guided reading group "classwork" first before working on their goal.  If they finish all goal work.  I also have other materials like inferencing pictures available.

 

 

I'm not going to lie- this took a LOT of planning and preparation.  However this is one of the things that once you do it- it is finished and you shouldn't have to do it again. 

 

 

However I teach first grade and in reality I MIGHT have to replace some of the materials every few years.  Until now- just wiping clean with Clorax wipes should work well enough!  :)

 

 

 

I think that I need a "break" week once a month.  I have had so many things that I have wanted to share but it takes me about 2 hours or so to write a blog post and I am usually grading items or creating items until bedtime each night.  That is why I am super excited for Twitter.  Now I plan to take about 30 seconds every couple of days to take a picture of something and write a sentence.  During "break" weeks I plan on typing out these HUGE blog posts.  :)

 

@LaSotadanielle <-------- Twitter :) 

 

I finally feel hip.  :)

 

 

 

PBL Skype Project

I am very grateful to work with many terrific teachers that inspire me each day.

One of them is a fellow first grade teacher across the district.  She is technology guru and is always excited to try new things.  I am hoping that she starts a blog someday so I can "borrow" all of her ideas!

She wanted to try a PBL project together.  This was all her idea and I am grateful to join the ride!  Of course I have started "geeking" out and have offered tidbits along the way.  :)  This is true collaboration and thank goodness for the use of Google docs to make this all work well!  I will show you some of the items but unfortunately the items that we worked on together I cannot share since it was both of our brains put together.  :)

I have always wanted to try PBL.  I search and search and none of the ideas online really work well for first grade.  I was so thankful to my peer to reach out and ask me to join in hers.

First things first we both had to setup a Skype Account. 

Then we received this URGENT message a few Fridays ago:

Then we called each other with only an audio call.  (I have a video of this but I can't black out all of their little faces or my super "woke up late" hairdo.)  We quickly brainstormed some questions we could ask.  We asked them and made a messy note of it on the board.  After we organized our thoughts on these posters:

lol.  I had my projector on and the kids could see her last name was Simmons.  One of my kids said, "My parents watch Gene Simmons Family Jewels.  So maybe they are related to them."  So one of our questions was, "Are you related to Gene Simmons."  lol.  Talk about trying to keep a straight face!  Oh I LOVE my job!  :)

 

 

We heard the mystery caller say this word so we thought that it deserved a separate poster.

 

These are our predictions.  We discussed later what inference/ fact led to this prediction.  I should have written them down.

 

We discussed what they were inferring.  Boys and girls because they heard voices that sounded like them .  Then they knew that a group of boys and girls is usually a class.  Then they thought that they head a deeper voice and a girl voice.  They were assuming that they were adults therefore must be teachers that they heard.

 

 

The next week I had students work in partners and think about a good question to ask.  I had students debate between their questions and which would give more information.  Partners places their post-it-note question on this poster.  Then we voted on the top 5 questions to ask the following Friday.

The following Friday we asked our questions and then at the end were able to turn on the camera and see who was Skyping us.  We waved and said "hi" as a class. 

Then behind the scenes the teacher and I assigned pen pal partners for our class.  The next week we wrote letters to each other telling them about ourselves.  She has 28 kiddos so some of my kiddos had to have 2 pen pals. 

Here is a picture of one of my kiddos with his letters.  They made me laugh so much!  He dictated his thoughts for me to write.  Most of my other students wrote their own.

I made cut and glue fill in the name address labels.  I taught students where to place each one and we discussed what each item meant and the purpose for it on each letter.  Students glued them on the outside of the envelope and put their letter inside.  We also received letters from our buddies.  My students loved reading these.  After they read them they had to think of a question to ask their buddy based upon what information they learned by reading the letters. 

Then the students sat down and had a one-on-one google hangout chat with their buddy.  They just said, "hi" and asked their question.  Our pen pals each have their own computer as a part of a grant that their teacher wrote last year.  Unfortunately we don't so we just shared one computer.

The buddies will actually have a classroom buddy as well and they will form a team.  After Spring Break they will work in their teams on some projects.  They received a hint by watching these videos:
http://blnds.co/1fHdvsK

Then we discussed and looked at google images for what an architect uses to store all of their work.  Then I set out Pringles Cans, paper, a label that I had made, string, glue and tape out.  I told students that they were going to work in their class partners to make their own blueprint carrying cases.

They first had collaborate and decide on a color and design.  We have been working on group work all year so their compromises were awesome.  "Well you can pick the color and I get to pick what we draw."


OOPS.  I forgot to take a photo of the finished product before I left school.  I am going in tomorrow to help rearrange the classroom and set up our very own architect corner.  :)  I love this font- they are little graph paper lettering.  :)  I found it on TPT.  The background is a chevron corkboard.  Super cute too!  :) 

 

I also am going to buy a mailbox this weekend to setup for our pen pal mail delivery.  I wanted to buy a child sized drafting table sooooo bad but they are expensive!  So I'll just have to save up my money to maybe buy one next year.  :(  However I found some compasses and protractors at the dollar store to help set up the architect corner.  :)  I need a super crafty person to help me make my "vision."  :)

After break we will start our projects and keep our "plans" in our blueprint carrying cases. 

I am super excited to see how it all works out.  I'm crossing my fingers that it does!  :)

I am hilariously trying the Twitter thing-  I can see myself updating it more than the blog but for now it is just double dipping! 

I love the idea of just writing a sentence and quickly posting a pic.  Super easy!  :-)  please write yours in the comments so I can have more friends to follow and to inspire me.  :-)

@LaSotadanielle

A MUST read- you will NOT regret it!

I have been starting a lot of posts for about 2 months but am waiting for the finished products to post it. 

However I thought that many of you might be on spring break right now and might need a spring break read.  This book is utterly teacher life changing.  I think that when I learned about Power Teaching (now Whole Brain Teaching) that it completely changed my classroom management and how I teach.  This book is just like that. 

The book is:  Teach Like a Pirate. by Dave Burgess

It was recommended to me by one of my favorite people- my little tech friend. 

The first half of the book is a narrative when the author describes that YOU can be creative but you just have to change your questioning.  As I was reading it- I seriously was laughing out loud on the couch.  My husband gave me the strangest looks and I knew that he probably wouldn't understand.  The first half Mr. Burgess gives specific examples of what he does in his classroom to engage students.  I was instantly "hooked" while reading his book.  If I was a student in his classroom I probably would have actually understood history!  (By the way- he is a high school teacher and uses these techniques.)

Reading the first half would have been enough to inspire me.  However this book took it a second step which also happens to be the step missing from most of the PD sessions that I have attended; he gives MANY (I mean half a book worth) of specific examples of things that you can try in your classroom. 

Once I started reading the second half of the book, I went to my bag and grabbed my notepad (Is it just me that always has a notepad and 3-4 different colors/ sizes of post-it-notes in every purse/ bag?) and instantly started taking notes- college style.  (I bought the Kindle edition) 

I have been working hard on guided reading, word study and comprehension this year (which I am waiting on pictures to share with all of you!)  This book took my okay lessons -to my students favorite time of day.  They BEG for literacy time.  Do I feel silly like I did with Whole Brain Teaching?  Yes.  However the learning and the enthusiasm that occurs is well worth it. 

I now am walking through my house, store or classroom thinking:  How could I use this to engage my students?  What music can I play to set the mood?  I am learning to ask the RIGHT questions.

No matter if you teach elementary, middle or high school- I HIGHLY recommend this book!  I have already pestered half of my staff to buy it and read it. 

I feel that I am fairly good at using data to drive instruction, differentiation, classroom management (Okay not the neat and tidy part of it) but I feel that this is the next step in my teaching career.  Adding the hooks and engagement part to lessons and making my lessons memorable. 


For those of you on Spring Break- yay for you and those almost there- you will probably have nicer weather than I am now!  :)

I am back to working on literacy hooks and also making tons of QR codes!  :)

My very own fairy tech and guided reading aa-a plans

I hardly every play the lottery but each time I do- I play for the sole reason of winning and hiring a teaching assistant.  I ALWAYS have a giant list of things that I want to make/ do but I never have enough time.


I wish this was the point that I told you, "I won a million bucks!"  Instead I have the next best thing that is even free and provided by my district.  A part time curriculum coach specializing in technology.  :)


This girl is amazing.  She is super sweet, smart and hardworking.  She showed our staff a play list that she worked on to make for another teacher in our district.  It plays during her workshop and plays a catchy song during transition times and then plays classical music during independent times.  I LOVED this idea.  So I asked her to take it up a notch for me.  :)


She made me a literacy workshop iMovie.  I made the jpeg images, told her where to place them and for how long and POOF- she made it happen!  I always have wanted someone like this.  I can imagine things like how I want to decorate my living room-  but I just can't seem to pull it all together- ever.  So having her is amazing.  She is already working on version 2.0 of my iMovie.


This is the coolest idea.  I am going to try to walk you through it just using my jpeg images.


I start playing the movie right after morning meeting and it runs until lunch time.  I never pause it- it just runs the entire time.


It starts with a transition slide for 30 seconds to the song, "I like to move it- move it!"  We share teaching responsibilities and are lucky enough to have very talented reading tutors- that being said students are always going EVERYWHERE!  So it is important for us to stay on schedule.  When the students hear the move it song- they know to look up at the screen and see if they have somewhere to go.  If they don't they know to complete the activity from the top of the slide.

Then after the 30 seconds.  The music switches to classical music and I have different curriculum reminder slides that pop up.  There is always a slide that has a reminder and then version 2.0 has other helpful reminders that pop up during the independent time.

This stays up for 2 minutes.  Then I have different word work choice boards that cycle through the 13 remaining minutes.  This way a child can look up and choose a word work choice.  When they look up again- a different choice board will be displayed.  

 These are 2 of the different boards.  My students know that the easier options are on the top row, middle for medium difficult and the bottom row are the most difficult options.

Whenever we rotate to whole group.  The move it move it song plays with a black screen that says, "Come to the carpet."  Then for the remaining 15 minutes this Carpet Rules image is displayed during whole group.  Sometimes I have to minimize it to teach the whole group lesson.  For this time there is no music playing but the movie is still playing.  At first for whole group I said that I would pause the movie. My tech fairy offered to add a black screen and mute the music.  I am really glad that she suggested it because it makes it a lot easier to stay on task!  :)

The video repeats these steps for all of my rotations and it even tacks on writing at the end.
When we transition from writing whole group to independent work- I don't have the move it song because I am not very consistent with whole group writing.  Some days I need them 20 minutes and others only 10 minutes.  This way I have the music muted for 15 minutes and then the classical music softly comes back in and the writing helper slides start playing.

This plays for about 2-3 minutes and then writing helper signs rotate during the remainder of the time.

My major focus this year has been on finding/ developing better whole group and small group reading instruction.  So this little treasure is making it easy for me to stay on task and even for me to highlight items that I normally might forget to highlight with my class.

I just finished my guided reading levels aa-a plans.  They have worked REALLY well.  They are a combination of The Next Step in Guided Reading, Orton Gillingham strategies, and my own spin of stuff.  Almost everything that you need is include.  Click on the icon below to go to my TPT store.  Click on the preview to get a peak.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Guided-Reading-aa-A-Plans-1069975

I am LOVING these snow days now.  I'm sure that I will be HATING them in the summer when we have to make them up.  :(

My New and Improved Daily 5!

I finally finished my first round of the new Ohio Teacher Evaluation Assessments.  WHEW!  I chose the first round to be focused on math.  I wasn't nervous because my students LOVE math and it is something that we do every day.  The electricity in my school ended up being off for 3 hours that day of my observation but I am lucky enough to have a classroom that gets good afternoon sun.  I love using technology and student fact rotation and my whole group items were all on the computer.  I decided to make a go at the lesson anyway- without lights or power!  :)  My students did a fantastic job and I was so proud of them for making good choices especially with the excitement of no power!

I had my post conference and have already started to think about my next observation in January.  I will be teaching reading.  I have built in differentiation already but while looking at the rubric- I started to get nervous that I don't have enough differentiation!  At a professional development meeting a couple of weeks ago my team and I sat down and started to think of a tic/tac/toe board to allow more Gardner/ Bloom's choices.  I went from these and created boards for read to self (fiction and non-fiction), work on writing. vocabulary (well-the more difficult board is adapted by my lovely 3rd grade friend), and word work.

So I just slightly adapted my schedule and added the boards to my reading block.  For the next couple of weeks I am going to have our 3rd grade buddies come and practice using the boards with us.  Most of these are choices that students already know how to do- they just may not have seen it in this format.

Here is an overview of my block:

Reading Block

8:55-9:10 Guided Reading Group and Work on Writing

*Students use Work on Writing choice boards in page protector sleeves and mark off when they write the story.  Often students take 2-3 days to finish their writing.  So each writing choice board lasts 2-4 weeks.

All choices have been taught and practiced individually before they are given the choice boards.

9:10-9:30 Whole Group Comprehension

*We have a focus text of the week from our reading series.  On Monday we listen to the story and use stop and talking points with partners.  Next we either introduce or review our Reading Power comprehension skill song and discuss how to use the strategy.  (Make connections, ask questions, retell, make inferences etc.)

*On Tuesday we listen to the story again but stop and retell after every two pages using motions with a partner.  Next we review the song and ask for volunteers to tell how they used the specific comprehension skill.

*On Wednesday we have partners discuss how they use the comprehension skill before reading the book.  Then we read the book and I stop halfway through and ask partners to share how they used the comprehension skill.  Finally we finish the book and I have partners discuss how they used the comprehension skill again/ fill out an organizer together.

*On Thursday students take our reading series multiple choice comprehension assessment.  Students are also asked to read a book and fill out an organizer using the target comprehension skill.

*On Friday students are asked to share their organizer from the day before with a partner.

9:30-9:45 Guided Reading and Fiction Read to Self

*Students read a fiction book and complete activities off of one of the fiction read to self charts.

9:45-10:00 Guided Reading and Non-Fiction Read to Self

* Students read a non-fiction book and complete activities off of one of the non-fiction read to self charts.

***I have 2 back to back rotations because intervention students are pulled out and cannot miss whole group instruction.  This is also why the more difficult rotations are planned for when struggling students are pulled out.

10:00-10:20 Word Study

*Monday- students are given a spelling pre-assessment using words from our reading series.  If students pass all words- they are given 2 challenge word lists (1 list for home and the other the student glues into their cheap spiral word study notebook.)  Then students are introduced to the 2 new common core vocabulary words for the week.  If they don’t pass all words- they are given 1 list to glue into their word work notebook.

*Tuesday-Thursday there are 2- ten minute group rotations

First Grade List Group

	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
1st Rotation	Introduce new sort cards, model sort and ask students to discuss in partners how the words were sorted.  Give students new cards- have them cut out the cards and repeat the same sort.  They will keep their cards in a baggie and write the words for the sort in their word work notebook.  Review one of the vocabulary words with students.	Students share what they did the day before for vocabulary and word work.  Students complete the same sort from yesterday but as a speed sort.  Students suggest new ways to sort the words and then students complete the sort suggested.	Students share what they did the day before for vocabulary and word work.  Students are given a pre-assessment for their spelling words that they will take tomorrow.  The missed words are assigned as words to focus on during word work.  If no words are missed- students are encouraged to practice words for next week.
2nd Rotation	Student practices 1 new vocabulary words.  If finish early/ get stuck- they move on to word work (where they practice their spelling words.)	Student practices 1 new vocabulary words.  If finish early/ get stuck- they move on to word work (where they practice their spelling words.)	Students start word work or practice more ways to review the new vocabulary words.

 

Challenge Word Group

	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
1st Rotation	Student practices 1 new vocabulary words.  If finish early/ get stuck- they move on to word work (where they practice their spelling words.)	Student practices 1 new vocabulary words.  If finish early/ get stuck- they move on to word work (where they practice their spelling words.)	Students start word work or practice more ways to review the new vocabulary words.
2nd Rotation	Ask students to share what they worked on for one of the vocabulary words.  Introduce new sort cards, model sort and ask students to discuss in partners how the words were sorted.  Give students new cards- have them cut out the cards and repeat the same sort.  They will keep their cards in a baggie and write the words for the sort in their word work notebook.	Students share what they did the day before for vocabulary and word work.  Students complete the same sort from yesterday but as a speed sort.  Students suggest new ways to sort the words and then students complete the sort suggested.	Students share what they did the day before for vocabulary and word work.  Students are given a pre-assessment for their spelling words that they will take tomorrow.  The missed words are assigned as words to focus on during word work.  If no words are missed- students are encouraged to practice words for next week.

10:20-10:35 Guided Reading and Word Work

*Students complete word work by practicing their spelling words in their word work notebook and a choice board.  If they feel that they have mastered their list anytime during the week- they are encouraged to use a dictionary and write their own list of words that they do not know.

 

 

 

***I Use some of these vocabulary words/ cards:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Common-Core-Vocabulary-770313

 

*Read to self takes place throughout the rotations.  Students use Raz-Kids and are scheduled accordingly to miss a rotation that is either too difficult, which often results in behavior problems.  I also make sure that students are not scheduled during a rotation that they really need to practice. 

Here is a peak at what I uploaded to TPT Daily 5 Choice Boards (It is on sale now!)

 

 

 

 

Accountability needed?- pin it to win it

I absolutely adore my class. 
They have character, spunk, and are not afraid to get loose!  :)
During the past few weeks we have had a lot of fun activity days including: Candy Corn Bandit, Fall party, 50th day, voting day (which was SUPER fun- I'll have to write a post about it soon!), Literacy Luau etc.  This has helped attribute to the full on personalities surfacing in my 17 boy and 5 girl class.  :)

That being said- sometimes some of them need a bit of accountability!

The times where most choice is during reading and math.  So I created choice boards that will be inserted into a page protector in the front of their reading folder and front of their math folder.  They will use a dry erase marker to cross off their choices that they have made during the week.  I have many kiddos that ALWAYS choose measurement for review center.  Which this is beside the point of a review math center.  I also have kiddos that appear to be reading a book during read to self- but they may not actually be doing it.  Therefore this should help!

Here is a peak of the reading and math choice boards:

If you pin it and comment below- I'll email a copy to you for free.  :)
(Hopefully I'll all caught up on who I owe- if not- email me and demand it!)  :)