Top 10 List for Mom

When I was asking my kiddos what they wanted to make for Mother's Day, they said how about a Top 10 list? Sounds good! So they wrote 10 things they love about their moms and then cut construction paper to make a portrait. I'm not a mom (unless you count the canine variety), however these just melt my heart!

Wish Us Luck

We start our week-long standardized testing tomorrow. I had a dream last night that in the middle of the test a child took cookies out of their desk and started eating them. Another student stamped his booklet all over with a stamper he had in his pocket. Oh and they put a Pre-K class in with me to hold and they were just running around the room screaming. An administrator came in to ask why I was behind. So I'm guessing at least it has to go better than that! :) Isn't it funny the way our minds work.

I did write them letters that I will put on their desks before they come in

Along with a letter from the Desk Fairy ( I know, cheesy, but they LOVE her):

And a letter from their parents, if they wrote one, I did request it.

We have a motivational song to sing beforehand (to the tune of Roar) and we've prepared I think as much as possible. Now it will be up to them. Hopefully they get more sleep tonight than I know I will! I've posted about my frustration before, this is 50% of my evaluation-however, no one can tell me how the growth will be calculated. If they scored in the 98th percentile last year (which I had 2 students do) and they score in the 97th this year, that will be considered negative growth, right? How will my child who is reading on a 5th grade level show that on a test that's scaled for the grade level he's in? What level of growth are we even looking for to be called effective? I just wish I had more answers-I don't even know what the goal is. I know this whole holding teachers accountable for test scores thing sounded good in their heads! I guess we'll do how we do and if it's not good enough, I'll have a year on a growth plan before they fire me. Not that I'm worried or anything....:)

Ah, the joys of teaching!

"Get Pocket" Site

Do you know about this site? https://getpocket.com/login?e=4  Every time I think of it for some reason the commerical jingle "Hot Pocket" pops into my head. Not Hot Pocket, but Get Pocket. I just discovered it and I LOVE it so far. It's a site where for example, if you're like me and just checking your e-mail and get notification of a blog post that looks really good or you are on your Facebook or Twitter account and see an article you'd love to read, but you don't have time right now. This keeps it in your pocket to read later-like when you are waiting for the washing machine repair man like I was yesterday.  :)

The only thing I don't like is the directions that pop up every time, but I'm sure there's probably some way to get rid of that if I play with it a little bit. It's better than saving it to your favorites and then never coming back to it.

Just thought I'd share-I love when I find tools that make life easier! :)

EdCamp and Twitter

I love to collaborate! I'm one of those teaching nerds that will take ideas from anyone anywhere. The book Thrive by Meenoo Rami was recommended to me by my friend Kimberley over at: 1stinMaine. Now as my Amazon account will tell you, I'm not one to refuse a book recommendation. It was a quick, easy read and I got 2 very important things out of it.

One-I became active on Twitter. The PLN's over there are made for nerds like me! I still haven't really figured everything out yet, have yet to join a chat. But I can see posts daily from other teachers, administrators, journalists--all with ideas in education. I follow some of my favorite authors and although I haven't had the nerve to do it yet, have seen them answer people's questions. Can you imagine being able to pick Donalyn Miller's brain or someone like Todd Whitaker's? I actually tweeted a poem my student wrote about Derrick Coleman (the Seahawks football player) to Derrick Coleman. There was no response, but there is a chance he read it-just that possibility put my student on cloud 9 for the day! One of our local sports celebrities just came to read to a campus in my district because of a Twitter campaign begging him to. People on there are so connected-I love it!

Two-EdCamp. In case you haven't heart of it-my understanding is that it's this grassroots effort by teachers to put on pd's that are more collaborative and meaningful than your average pd. Teachers show up and there is a discussion as to what they want to learn about for the day. Teachers are sharing their ideas with other teachers (fortunately sans powerpoints, etc.) and really just creating discussions about how to better their craft. I am attending my first one tomorrow and am excited about it. I can see how the no agenda part might scare people, but if that means what I'm learning about is meaningful to me, then I'll take it. My guess is the fact that these teachers volunteered to be there on a Saturday mean they are as passionate as I am. And it's all free! Google it and see if there's one in your area-they are cropping up in cities all over America.

I think collaboration is just so important in our business. Sometimes you aren't able to connect with people on your campus or in your district the way you'd like to-here are 2 ways you can change that! :)

Keep Calm James

We are reading James and the Giant Peach right now. If I'm being honest, not my favorite book-however we are going to see the play of it this month so I wanted them to have a frame of reference. One of my students asked me the other day, "I wonder how they'll do the peach on stage?"--good question! :)

Right now James and his new friends are inside the peach and floating on the ocean. I wanted to do a really quick, simple reading response activity to see who was getting it. We've all seen the "Keep Calm and _____ On" t-shirts. Well, I asked them to design one for James-what would his t-shirt say?

My favorite one! This is my baby who has struggled this year-love it!

I like this one too-this is basically all James could do when he was a child

living with his aunts.