When God sends you reminders...

Man...have you ever had one of those days where you just can't seem to remember why you decided to teach? Maybe I am the only one that gets bogged down by the paperwork, daily duties, and endless repeating of directions, but probably not! I am typically one that tries to see the positives in all situations and genuinely loves to teach; however, it was NOT a wonderful start to the day. I was running late. I forgot my coffee. I wore a blue shirt that I was sure was black when I was dressing in the dark, and it was Valentine's Day in an elementary school. Enough said. As I was sprinting to my classroom to open the door for my students, I was already being bombarded with letters, money I needed to receipt, permission forms, papers to grade, behavior issues to fix, and unending questions about candy and cards.

As I put all of the papers to go through on my desk, one of my most quiet students handed me a card for Valentine's Day. I quickly said thank you, but didn't have time to open the card right then. I rushed through the morning duties, taught my morning math lesson, and walked my students to specials. I then had a meeting to go to that was held in my room. Great.

I got back to my room with a couple minutes to spare before the other members of my PLC made it to the meeting. I decided to open the card. What I saw stopped me in my tracks and made me whisper thanks to God. Thanks for the little reminders that even in the midst of chaos, I am exactly where I need to be and am making a difference in the lives of children. After all, what could be more important than influencing the future.

So take heart, teachers. You are making a difference. You do matter, and the most important part of your job will never be paperwork or duties. It is the sweet, quiet, little girl that prayed to be in your class. It is the bullied kid who now knows that someone cares. It is the no-longer-hungry student in your class that you stash extra snacks for, or the student that needs to learn that hard work beats IQ, every time. Take a moment and breathe in the blessings that this profession can bring.

A New Year Means New Beginnings for ALL!

There are currently 30 name tags and empty chairs sitting in my all-set-up classroom. Open house was Tuesday, and I had the opportunity to meet most of the faces that will be filling those 30 chairs, along with the family members that are closest to them.

But that's it. Other than a few details that parents provided, these 30 kiddos have a completely new canvas for this year; an opportunity to make different choices, different friends, different impressions and different paths. I hope to be the teacher that allows them to change for the better, without implications from their past years. I want to help them understand that they have a new, clean slate.

But as I am thinking of this, I realize that it is an opportunity for my slate to be wiped clean, as well. All of the successes, failures, aggravations and celebrations of last year are gone. The students who jumped for joy when they heard that I was their teacher are completely unaware of the mistakes I made in the past year and are giving me the opportunity to start over. Although I had many things to celebrate last year, I have many areas that need growth.

This year, I choose kindness. I choose to celebrate. I choose to love. I choose to forgive. I choose to understand EVERYDAY that these kiddos are so much more than what I see in a test score. I choose to listen. I choose to sympathize. I choose to give these 30 kids the best of me.

New year, new beginnings, clean slate...for us all.

Using donorschoose.org to Enhance my Classroom

      It is widely known that funding for public schools is not amazing.  In matter of fact, here in North Carolina, it seems to be getting a little worse every year. This is no fault of the amazing school or county that I work in. It just is, unfortunately.

      I had to find a way to get some of the technology and other resources that my kiddos needed, so I tried donorschoose.org. My first project was that of an inexperienced user. I posted a request for five chromebooks, with a total cost of more that $1,300. I was having a little faith!
 
     The project lasted until the very last possible day when a guy from New York happened to fund the entire project. I got very lucky.

     Since then, I have learned a few tips and tricks that have helped along the way.  Here they are!

     1. Start small. Projects that are $400 or less have a MUCH higher chance of being funded.
     2. Donate to your own project. (Even if it is $1.) After all, if you can't invest in what you are doing, why s          should someone else?
     3. Get your project out there. Using social media to get the word out about your project truly helps.                  Asking for $1-$5 donations can help get your donors count up.
     4. Once you have a project funded, make sure you send the thank you notes and complete all                            requirements ahead of time. This will help your donors see how thankful you are, and they will be more          likely to donate again in the future.

      I am NOT a donorschoose.org expert and would love to have more suggestions! What has helped you         in the past?

A world where "creativity is as important as literacy"...

Today I watched a TED talk video ("Do Schools Kill Creativity" Video) for a professional development opportunity. It really made me think about some of the students that were in my class this past year. Sir Ken Robinson brought out many topics that are plaguing today's public school systems.

One of his most profound statements is that "Creativity is as important as literacy." I do believe that literacy is of the utmost importance for an individual to be successful and live a life that he/she wants to live, but I also believe that creativity is just as important.

In the video he talks about how our public education is geared toward educating each student as if he were going to be a university professor. However, we all know that this is not going to be the case, especially in a society that is ever-changing and where new jobs are being created all of the time. He speaks about an example of a child who was a dancer from the beginning, and when given the opportunity, she excelled in this area.

This past school year, I had the opportunity to work with a wonderful student who most likely will not be a "university professor". This young man created a Lego bubble gum machine that actually worked when you put money into it. He has created his own virtual reality goggles. He won Honorable Mention in an international inventor's challenge and excels at all things STEM.

However, because of today's legislative expectations, this student is not usually seen as successful. He has difficulties in reading, writing, and math. He does poorly on multiple choice questions and he is usually one of the last ones finished. He has never made the Honor Roll. Yet in my mind, this student has more creativity and potential than a student who makes 100s on every test but does not understand the value of making a mistake and learning from it. I hope this student is never broken by the current mode of testing, testing, testing. I hope his creativity and love for engineering continues to flourish. He is brilliant but in ways that are not measured on multiple choice tests.  His mom tells him that his mind is like riding a roller coaster.  His thoughts may have to go through some curves and loops, and it may take longer than going a straight line, but he sees things that many of us do not.  He is a problem solver and we need to value that.

I absolutely love being an educator. I love it. There are days where it is a struggle, but ultimately, I wouldn't want to do anything else. However, I long for a day where schools do focus on educating the whole child and where learning is not expected to be one-size fits all. After all, we only need so many "university professors".

This story was shared with permission of the child's parents.

Stop Motion Animation!

In my previous post, I talked about the Lego StoryStarter kits that I love! In this post, I want to take those kits one step further and talk about how my kids use these kits to create stop motion animation videos.

While I am by no means an expert on the topic, I have found that using stop motion animation in conjunction with Legos is an extremely easy way to motivate kids about the topic you are covering, while incorporating problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

At first, I started by having my kiddos create summaries of texts they have read using the Legos and a Kindle Fire app. It took some students a few minutes to understand how to manipulate the Legos in order to get the correct sequence for the movie, but it was something they wanted to figure out and solve on their own.

After my students became familiar with the app and how to create the videos, we recreated historical scenes from our social studies units. We used the app and manipulatives to show scientific processes that we have studied, and much, much, more.

In the article I have linked, there are numerous ideas of how to use stop motion animation in the classroom. I can't wait to try some of these ideas that are new to me! ISTE Article: Stop Motion

Using Legos in Reading

I LOVE using Legos in the classroom. Just the mention of the word "Legos" gets fourth grade students excited!  I first started incorporating Legos into my math class. It isn't very hard to come up with ways that they can be used for manipulatives during math. However, a workshop that I attended showed these really awesome Lego StoryStarter kits that used Legos for reading manipulatives! 

Over my short career as a teacher, I have realized that reading comprehension seems to be what students struggle with the most in upper grades. Being at this workshop and seeing how Legos could put hands-on materials in students hands during ELA block really intrigued me, but the kits were more expensive than I could afford with my designated classroom funds. 

So, I improvised and started out with random Legos that I collected.  My kiddos would use what bricks and Lego people I had in my collection to build summaries of passages and brainstorm for writing pieces. The results that I saw were amazing. My reluctant and struggling readers were making great progress because reading had become more concrete to them. 

The following pictures are of some of my students using my homemade Lego kits. 

I loved the progress that I was seeing so much that I decided I had to get the real kits somehow, some way.  I had two of the Lego StoryStarter kits funded through a donorschoose.org project. This past year,  I wrote a grant through our local educational foundation and had four more kits and software funded. While homemade kits will work, if you have an opportunity to get the Lego StoryStarter sets, I highly recommend them. They are build specifically for ELA and contain setting pieces, character pieces, and a TON of other awesome pieces. 

Below are some pictures of my kiddos working with the StoryStarter kits. 

Lego WeDo Robotics in 4th grade!

     During my first year of teaching fourth grade, I was presented with the idea of leading a STEM club for our 4th and 5th grade students. I was told that I would be receiving an EV3 robot and attended a workshop because I had NO experience with Lego Robotics. At this workshop, middle school students attempted to teach my new STEM partner and I about this EV3 robot that we would eventually be getting. These students were AMAZING to say the least.  I instantly saw the value of robotics in the classroom.  If their robot didn't work, they fixed the problem. By themselves. Without a teacher to guide them. These middle school kids were wonderful problem-solvers and critical thinkers and that is what I needed in my fourth grade class.
   
     So here I was, so excited about getting this robot and introducing elementary kids to it. I was a little hesitant because I thought it may be a little advanced for them, but I was willing to try!

    But...I waited and waited and waited... and no robot came.

    So I took matters into my own hands! I had the opportunity of attending a Lego Education workshop with some wonderful people the same year and was introduced to the Lego WeDo robotics kit. I was blown away. These kits were SO much more geared to elementary students! I wrote a small grant and received four of these kits.

    I use these very often in my STEM Club. Students are guided to create their bot with step-by-step directions, then they can play around with coding to get the bot to behave like they want. One of the first projects we completed was playing a soccer game by building a goalie and a kicker. Each team had to code their bot to either kick the ball or defend the goal.

     It was amazing to see how very independent my students became when I took away the fear of failing and gave them an opportunity to use trial and error thinking. They instantly began to solve thier own problems and think critically about the coding they were using. Isn't that exactly what we want in our classroom? Students who can look at a problem, break it down into its parts, and solve it by thinking critically?

    This teacher is sold on robotics and coding. My advice to any teacher wanting to try Lego Robotics in their elementary classroom is to try the WeDo kits. Amazing.


By the way....I now have an EV3 and am looking forward to seeing the connections!