Blessed to Teach and Read

I am the PAGE representative for my elementary school.   PAGE is The Professional Association of Georgia Educators .  For those in other states, it is not a union.  It is access to legislative news, legal representation, should the need arise, and professional development. I receive their legislative updates as soon as our General Assembly legislation session starts.  Bill 717, written by Representative Holt from District 112 of Social Circle, GA, proposed that parental involvement be tracked and given a grade, A to F.  It also proposed that each child's parental involvement grade be used as a factor in our newest teacher evaluation system.  The new system is less than equitable, as it makes it next to impossible to earn "exemplary".  We have been told to expect "proficient" or "needs development".  It puts undue pressure on students to move in lock-step with their peers as opposed to just making progress on an individual basis.  Additio...

First, let me say that now that it is February, I have stumbled upon my new year's resolution.  Better late than never, as they say!  I am resolving to improve my blog and also write in it weekly instead of every other month, or every 9 months! Found a link via #TLChat on Twitter tonight to " Seven Features of Highly Successful Picture Books " by Abby Connors.  Her bio states that she is a music and arts teacher of over 20 years.  I loved that even though the article is geared toward librarians or teachers, that I can use it to help my students write fiction stories that are not too complex.  Often, students try to write fiction that is as complex as the stories on their 4th, 5th, or 6th grade reading levels.  They get overwhelmed and bogged down in overly complicated dialogue and too many subplots.  Plus, they simply don't have the timeframe to flesh out and publish a full-length novel. At the bottom of the article was a link to another of Abby Co...

Wow!  It was a whirlwind 2nd semester!  I stayed busy teaching one of the best classes ever!  I also ran our Sharon Knights Relay for Life team, so as you can imagine, I didn't make time for updating my blog. (We raised over $2,500 for the American Cancer Society !) I wanted to post an idea I had that our 4th grade team put together beautifully for the national BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) tour our school was a part of in March.   Mrs. Tate created the iPad acrostic:  Inspire Passionate Accomplishments Daily.   Miss O'Connor helped me craft the giant iPad and printed the colorful icons.  Including Miss O'Connor and Mrs. Tate, we ( Mrs. Daniels - me!, Mrs. Elz , Miss Grimes , Miss King , & Mrs. Simmons ) all had students add QR codes to the apps or web tools that were used in our classrooms.  It was a great collaborative piece for the wall space in front of our Fourth Grade Small Group room.  :)

What's that?  Don't know what a modal auxillary is?  Neither did I, or at least I didn't know I knew what one was.  (a random and new Common Core Standard)  It's those verbs like Can I help you?  Should you take a jacket?  May I get some water?   While I did get a great free Powerpoint on Teachers pay Teachers from Eileen Mays in Eatonton, Georgia , it was trusty Pinterest to the rescue.  Virginia Chronakis' pin via Diane Rodrigues' pin led me to an ESL worksheets site, iSLCOLLECTIVE .  I chose "English" as my primary language, but they seem to have to have grammar worksheets for multiple other languages.  Simply create a free account, and begin downloading everything you could ever need.  You can also create and upload items to share and give back.  

So, while Googling to find a fun way to teach how geographical regions, location, and place affected how battles in the American Revolutionary War were fought, I found 2 very cool  sites! The first one is still in its beta form, but I created an account so that I could explore its potential for transformational use of technology in my classroom.   Tripline , sounds like what it is.  It allows you to use Google Earth to map your trip as a timeline of events. There was a great one created for "The Battles of Lexington and Concord" that shows the movement of British troops and Colonial militia across Massachusetts.  It takes students step-by-step across the map, and shows students information and photographs at each stop.  Creating a Tripline is very user-friendly, and there are links to YouTube videos to teach you, if you aren't as tech savvy.  Additionally, similar to other social media platforms, you can follow other creators to see their Tripli...

While casually checking my Pinterest page for new recipes, I, of course, can't resist the urge to click on a pin that says " Science and Math Toys " that are made from everyday items. In turn, that linked me to a LiveBinders page created by Karen Bolotin for science fair projects. THAT, then led me to " Notebooking Pages.com " = total excitement for the interactive note booking part of me. :) Membership access to all of their pages is $80 for the year, but I've spent well more than that at TeachersPayTeachers and in my time spent looking for quality resources and ideas online. Now, I've got even more incentive to encourage my kids to get pledges for Fun Run Time this year (our school's fundraiser for the year), since I had originally thought I would spend my 10% of monies raised on a membership for Flocabulary . I may have to reconsider and get this membership instead, though my kids did LOVE " 5 Things " by Flocabulary.

Good Morning! Enjoying a relaxing morning at my parents' house for a family visit. We were watching CBS This Morning and saw an interview with Salmon Kahn about his Khan Academy . It offers online videos of a grand variety of topics so that all students can have a "world class education". However, it ALSO has benefits for teachers, other than being FREE, it offers detailed profiles on individual students with an at-a-glance tool for seeing every video that that child has viewed and a class summary graph to show progress or need for remediation. The site also offers a vertical continuum of skills so that you can go straight to the topic you need and/or go back to more foundational skills to tackle more difficult skills. Lastly, the site awards "badges" for student mastery of skills. Students must create their own account and then add the teacher as a "coach". There are several safety features to keep students from posting private informa...