Living the Life

Hi friends,

So, Monday I worked my first twelve-hour day in the schools. I know this is typical or at minimum, not unusual for you all, for me, it’s my first. Even though it was a long day, the past 48 have been full of so many highs and I just wanted to share J

Last night, we had a School Spotlight where students showcased their awesome work for parents and administrators. In our classroom, student showed their families their Show Me’s, as well as, how to make one, their about-to-be-complete personal narratives, how to balance math equations using a scale, read their favorite Mem Fox books, showed-off their 100 Year Old pictures and writing, and played their parents in Roll to 50 on the SmartBoard. It was really neat to watch our friends lead their parents around show-boating about their awesome learning! Plus, hold on to your hats, 19 of our 22 families showed-up – WOAH!!!! Awesome, awesome success.

Other victories and happy moments throughout the past two days –

(1) I have evaded the head lice and pink eye that have appeared in/on our friends!!!!!! *fingers crossed for the next few days*

(2) Occasionally the teachers at my school are given the opportunity to order out for lunch and the PTO delivers it. Monday was this special day. I got a Pimento Cheese sandwich. Please understand I LOVE pimento cheese and rarely eat it and this was HOMEMADE pimento cheese. As you know, I *might* be picky but this is my favorite pimento cheese...quality stuff.

(3) Have you checked out the The Classroom Creative? They are a beautifully organized and fantastically designed website that stores/links hundreds of awesome free activities for teachers. It is SO well laid out and ridiculous easy to use. I received the sweetest note from Karen, who runs CC, yesterday and it made my day. You should definitely check them out!

(4) Since we are 1^st graders and have 12:35 lunch, every week a friend brings in snack for the class. This week we are being spoiled. Yesterday, we had already-peeled and individually bagged Cuties and today we had chocolate-dipped bananas. Wow.

(5) Story Buddy! As we finished up our personal narratives, students are turning their paper copies into digital story books. This awesome app (only $4.99) allows students to type in their narratives, add pictures and/or illustrations, has awesome font/color/background options, and audio-overlay options. After an initial introduction, our students can work mostly-independently on their stories and it has been a huge motivator…like “Can I work on my story during recess?” as well as, the unfortunate “I will stampede my friends while racing to the iPads.” It has been awesome  to watch students’ pieces develop past their ‘final’ drafts as they type. They are realizing where they incorrectly spelled words, did not add spaces, have too long of sentences, and where their stories do not make sense! Our friends are becoming better writers to the page! Plus, the books can be downloaded to the bookcase on our iPads and emailed to parents. So exciting and completely worth the $5.

Well, I am off to look at students’ work from math stations today. As I start, a final high is that we started asking students to highlight their names before turning in work, and there are ZERO no-name papers in my stack right now: holla!