How is that fun?

Today during indoor recess, my kids were doing this. Why is that fun? Crawling and sliding on the floor? Oh to be a kindergartener!

Bloom's Taxonomy

If you're not in the education world, you may not be super familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy. I know what it is, I understand it, and yet I have a hard time explaining it to others (which the teacher in me tells me that means I don't really understand it, but I really think I do). As such, here's a brief explanation:

It refers to a classification of the different objectives that educators set for students (learning objectives). Bloom's Taxonomy divides educational objectives into three "domains": Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor (sometimes loosely described as knowing/head, feeling/heart anddoing/hands respectively). Within the domains, learning at the higher levels is dependent on having attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels.^[4] A goal of Bloom's Taxonomy is to motivate educators to focus on all three domains, creating a more holistic form of education.^[1]

While on Pinterest over the winter break, I found a link to this poster:

How awesome?!? One of my teaching goals is to have better questioning, i.e. more "higher order" questions and less memory and recall. I've already emailed a PDF of this poster to the curriculum instructor at my school since she has access to a poster maker. I can't wait to get it blown-up into a poster size and put it up in my room! Hopefully it will remind me of my goal and get me thinking of some better questions (and hopefully those come while I'm being observed so I can get a good grade! lol).

**if you click on the picture, it will take you to the original link. There is also another super cute butterfly Bloom's poster that I think might be even better for Kindergarten, because it's very simple. I'll probably eventually put that one up in my room too :)

Happy 2012!!

Happy New Year! I joined the masses last night and went out for a night on the town with my boyfriend and several of our friends. Here we are all dressed up:

It was definitely a fun night and I'm very excited to start the new year! 2011 was quite a year- mainly full of either pre or post surgery worries, complications, outcomes, etc. I'm feeling really good and just ready for a normal year.

So of course I have to make a few resolutions. Hopefully I'll keep at least some of them!

- Be more organized- I'm usually SUPER organized but have slipped a little recently. Hoping to get back on track.

- Eat healthier- I realize everyone under the sun makes this resolution, but that's because it's a good one!

- Eat less take-out- not only is it healthier, it will save money $$

- Be financially responsible- I'm not getting any younger, time to stop squandering away those millions of dollars I'm earning as a Kindergarten teacher (can you detect the sarcasm?)

- Do more for myself- I'm always doing things for other people. I need to remember to take time for myself.

What about you? Are you making New Year's Resolutions? I'd love to know what your goals are for 2012! I'm off to enjoy my last 36 hours of freedom before I have to go back to school (and yes, I did count!).