Picture Labels!

Once again, I've neglected my blog. Things just got crazy and well, these days I'd rather spend time with my cute hubby than glue to my computer :) 

But, now it's summer and I have all the time in the world! And as crazy as it sounds, I'm already getting ready to go back to school. I'm working on a few things to add to my classroom, including these direction picture labels:

What do you think? I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, and I think they will really help my students keep track of 3 and 4 step directions. Not to mention how much it will help if I have any EE (exceptional education) students in my room this year. You can grab your own set on my TpT site! 

Dr. Seuss Week: day 1

This past week was Dr. Seuss week at school. I made sure to take my fancy-dancy camera so I would get some good pictures. I sure did! The kids had so much fun every day of the week. And I had a blast doing all the "fun" activities (and sneaking some good learning in with it!)

Monday's theme was "Cat in the Hat". I had all my kids wear a red shirt because I wanted to do this:

It was so cute! It's a little hard to see but they each have a "Thing __" sign numbered from 1-17. So precious! As you can tell, I was the Cat in the Hat. We had so much fun and the kids LOVED it! I think they also liked getting all the attention from the other students in the school :)

That afternoon we had an all-school assembly and luckily the weather was beautiful:

A local group called "Ride for Reading" showed up on bikes to deliver books for all the students!

So many books! My kids got to each pick a book which was very special for them.

Stay tuned for day 2: Green Eggs and Ham!

Behavior Management

One of my big goals for the 2012-2013 school year is to have better behavior management. I know it'll be better because I'll be at a different school with (generally speaking) better behaved kids. But kids in the suburbs have meltdowns just like inner city kids! And I need to be prepared.

I came across this on Pinterest:

Source: via Clare on Pinterest

However, the link doesn't offer any source or download or anything. So I just looked at it and did what teachers do best- copied it! I changed a few of the choices to make it fit my classroom, and here's what I came up with:

I love the "I can" statements and the choice that it offers kids. I'll probably laminate it and hang it somewhere in my room. Then when I can sense a meltdown coming on, I can just direct a child over there and tell them to make a choice. Hopefully it works! 

(you can click on the picture above and it'll take you to my Google Docs where you can download your own copy!)

Job update

If you know me, you know that I love teaching Kindergarten. LOVE. It's pretty much all I talk about. And I'm pretty sure it's why God put me on this earth.

That being said, I'm not super happy with my school. I really enjoy the kids, but the school is in a rough part of town and its a lot of stress. More than I can handle at times. I feel like I've given it my best shot, but after 3 years I'm done. So I've been looking for other positions.

Let me just say, my heart goes out to those who are looking for a job. It's tough! I had no idea. I sent my resume out to just about every school in town, only to get rejected quickly. I was starting to get down on myself, and starting to prep for another year at a school I don't love.

But then 4pm today rolled around. And I'm happy to report that I have a new Kindergarten position at a school in the suburbs. And I couldn't be happier! It's exactly what I want (minus the 35 minute commute, but I can deal with that for sanity).

This new position will be nice because it should be much less stress (yay!) which means more time for wedding planning and, lucky you!, blogging. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me, sending words of encouragement, or listened to me complain. So thankful that it all worked out! And I get to still do what I love, teach Kindergarten :)

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

The week leading up to March 2 was "Read Me" week at school. We celebrated by having some guest readers come to our class:Our librarian is the greatest! She just asked us when people could come and then arranged all the volunteer readers. Of course, some teachers ask friends and family to come read, but since this was the same week I got engaged, my mind was not really focused on Read Me week! Sorry kids. We still had some great guests come (even though I didn't know them) and it was a good experience for the kids to have someone other than me read to them.

Then, on Friday March 2 it was time to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday! We had been reading Dr. Seuss books all week so the kids were super excited. I had big plans to make some super cute snacks a la Pinterest, but then my silly boyfriend had to go and propose! So once again, my mind was elsewhere. I don't think the kids minded having store-bought snacks. Here they are enjoying their "Thing" punch (bc it was blue), one fish two fish goldfish and Lorax cupcakes:

They're also wearing their Dr. Seuss hats we made with -at rhyming words. I was a little worried that this activity was over their heads (ha! no pun intended) but they did great! Most kids just did the same words I had brainstormed, but some added words on their own. Love their little minds! Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!

p.s. our celebration was supposed to be at the end of the day, but we had really bad storms all day in our area that day so kids were leaving left and right. Finally at about 1:30 (our day ends at 3:45) I decided to have the party with the remaining 11 kids. Good thing I did because not too long after we had to "duck and cover" because of tornadoes in the area!

Help us!

Remember when I blogged a few days ago about my kids using my iPad? Well, now I have a new Donor's Choose project posted where you can donate and help us get a set of iPads to use! It is SUPER easy. All you have to do is go to my project and give! Your gift is tax-deductible and online giving is very secure. Please please please consider giving, even if it is only $10. My kids really could use these iPad! And please feel free to spread this message around. The more people who know about it, the more donations and the faster my kids can get these awesome tools!!

Here's the website one more time : http://www.donorschoose.org/clareharbison

thanks!!!

iPad in action!

Here's a photo I snapped the other day of one of my babies "playing" on the iPad. He's doing the "Stack it Up" app which is great! You have to visually discriminate which piece is the largest and then stack up the pieces according to size. Sounds easy, but some kids who struggle with sequencing and size it is great. And you can tell from the smile on his face that he is having fun with it!Right now I'm just using the iPad as an intervention with students who are struggling in some areas. The best part is they don't realize they are learning and working on skills, to them it's just something fun. All the other kids were asking when their turn was on Friday. Anyone want to donate 15 iPads to my classroom???

What's been going on

I am so sorry I haven't posted in a month! Things have been a little busy around here...I'm ENGAGED!!! In about a year from now I won't be Ms. H anymore, I'll be Mrs. A. Wonder what to do with my cute teacher bag? Oh well, too many wedding plans to worry about that!

It was also my birthday at the beginning of the month and my awesome parents got me an iPad! I feel a little extravagant getting such an elaborate (and expensive) gift, but I'm using it in my classroom so it serves many purposes. I'm just beginning to explore with apps and such, but my kids love it! Today they were all wanting a turn on in during rest time, not realizing that I'm using it as an "intervention" for some low performing babies.

Here are some fun (and FREE!) apps I've found:

Source: myfirstapp.com via Clare on Pinterest

Source: myfirstapp.com via Clare on Pinterest

The first one is called "My Mosaic" and the 2nd is "Sort It Out". They are both free and come from myfirstapp.com. Both are great for problem solving, sorting, visual discrimination, etc. Can't wait to find more. Any suggestions?

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 :)

Posting Standards

Have I mentioned already that I'm having to submit super detailed lesson plans? Ok, I know I have and I know I probably sound like I'm complaining about them. I'm sure in a few weeks, they won't seem so tedious and I'll get the hang of it.

One of the parts of this new lesson plan template requires me to list the standards that I am covering. As a way to remind myself what we're working on, as well as inform anyone who walks into the room what we're doing, I decided to devote an area of my whiteboard to the standards.

Voila!

I decided to just post the English/Language Arts and Math standards, since they make up the "meat" of our day. Not that science and social studies aren't important, but at the Kindergarten level they are more about the process than the content. However, there is a little bit of extra room to the right (where the class rules are posted, those can be moved) so if I decide to add them I can.

So far, I really like it. I have the Common Core Standards we are addressing that week listed, as well as just a short list that helps me focus on what we're doing. I already feel like it's making me a better teacher. Time will tell!

What would your buddy do?

Well, the first full week of school is behind me. And let me tell you, I was EXHAUSTED!! I have a room full of 20, very energetic, very talkative kiddos. They are sweet and hilarious, but it is very hard trying to rangle them all together and get them to learn the school rules. Finally by Wednesday, I had to get creative. I went to one of the 5th grade teachers, and asked if her class would want to be "buddies" with mine. She agreed, so her kids came downstairs and walked my kids through the school.

I talked to the 5th graders before about how they are the leaders of the school, they set the example, etc. We also talked about how they could help their Kindergarten buddy. Here's what I got:

How sweet is that? They were so precious walking through the halls of the school. The big kids helped my littles tie their shoes, reminded them to be quiet, helped show them how to navigate the stairwell, etc. Eventually we plan on having them come read to my class and vice versa. But for now, I'll take walking in the hallway! And it helps to remind my kids when they are acting up in the hallway, "What would your buddy do? Would your buddy crawl on the floor and make cow noises? I don't think so!" (and yes, that actually happens)

My Secret Addiction

So first I'm a hoarder (see previous post) and now I'm an addict. A font addict. My name is Clare and I'm addicted to cute teacher fonts.

This has prompted a pretty funny (and long!) facebook thread on fun fonts. So I thought I would compile a list of my favorites to share. Keep in mind that this is as of 8:01pm August 1, 2011. I'm sure there will be many more added to this list! The best part is that these are all FREE! You can just Google them and download them in a snap.
What are your favorite fonts? I would love to add some more to this list!

Teacher Movies

Like a lot of other teachers, I love teacher movies. They inspire me, they make me cry, and they make me remember why I do what I do. Sure they are corny and cheesy. But do you also realize that probably 99% are based on a true story? That means that these are real people, real teachers whose stories are being told on the silver screen. I caught the very end of "Stand and Deliver" yesterday, and it make me think about my favorite teacher movies.

1. "The Ron Clark Story"- fabulous movie about a guy who decides to move to NYC and teach at an inner city school. He makes a huge difference in his students' lives and now runs his own academy outside of Atlanta. I have his book, The Essential 55.
2. "Mr. Holland's Opus"- I went to go see this movie for my friend's 10th birthday back in 1995. And I have probably seen it about 25 time since then. And I cry every time. I hope someday my students look back and remember me like Mr. Holland's students remember him.

3. "Freedom Writers"- I had to read this book and watch the movie for grad school. I am so glad we had this assignment. It really makes you think about who people are and where they come from. And that no matter where we come from, there are similarities that tie us together. It also makes me remember to never give up on my kids, no matter what.

4. "Dangerous Minds"- this was the first R rated movie I ever saw. It's another true story about an ex-Marine who goes to teach in inner-city LA. It has a similar theme- a teacher who does not give up on her students.
Sure, all of these movies have a "never give up" attitude about teaching. But for where I teach, that's the attitude you need to have. Just because a student comes from a poor background, or has a bad home life, or whatever does NOT mean he/she cannot learn. Every child can learn. And if we didn't have these cheesy teacher movies, we might not have any teachers around to help those kind of students.

They got me into teaching, didn't they???

The secret to my success

We have had a rough couple of days at school. Nothing horrible, just the kids have been very "tattle-y", arguing over little things, and forgetting simple procedures. All of a sudden they stopped writing their names on papers. The rough days this year would have been good days last year. But this group of kids is so different, and for the most part things have been going along fabulously. So again, not horrible, but just not our usual greatness.

I remembered someone telling me, the secret to a well-run classroom is organization and planning. So I looked back at my plans. They weren't great. I had to take a step back and realize, ok Ms. H, the reason things are not going well is because I am not well planned. So I stayed a little later yesterday and got things in order. The result? A better day today!

I realized it doesn't take a magician to make us have a good day. All it takes is a little extra effort on my part and a little more planning. When the kids know what to do and how to do it, they behave. They want to do well. They want to succeed. And I want to help them do that.