Columbia University Teachers College

Does a big sister ever get pay off for accepting the torture and torment of a little brother? In my case maybe yes.  My lil brother is about ten years younger than me and while I was a teenager he was a little boy. For example: he would set off my car alarm over and over until I moved my car so he could play hockey in the drive way. ( that's how we play hockey on SoCal in the driveway on rollerskates). While driving his stinky friends in my car to hockey practice they would stick their heads out the window and scream at strangers. That is just a couple of the fun things that he did to me or with me depending on the perspective. Well, today some of my patience with his ways has paid off. So he is also much cooler  more courageous and adventurous than me so he moved to the big city NYC. I would never be able to do it I am way too shy, a suburb is where I am and probably where I will stay. 

Well, he made friends in the big city and one of his friends was a daughter of a Marjorie Martinelli (consultant and author for teacher's college, Columbia). He ( the bratty lil brother) arranged for us to meet her and take a top secret tour of the teacher's college. It was not really top secret but nothing like what I saw when I attended the institute a few years back. She even gave me a copy of her book. 

Umm this is pretty darn cool for an elementary teacher like me.  We met several other consultants and saw the children's library they use for research. Very cool experience!!! Thanks lil brother  for being cooler than me. I still however think he owes me one more for the time he took all the brushes and combs on a trip leaving me, with not one brush I had to put a hat on and drive to the store before work to buy a brush for my hair!

Happy Teaching!!!

What is Go Noodle!!!

What is Go Noodle? Well it is a restaurant in NYC but more importantly it is a super awesome tool that merges technology and physical movement. This generation which I am a little old for but definitely my girlies are a part of,well they are being accused of lack of activity. I see it, I see it. I used to play all day in summer with no supervision organized activities. My mother would kick us out and clean, do laundry, study for her CPA examine ( which she passed first try with 3 kids Brag, brag,my mom is smart! Anywho, she would kick us out and we would slip and slide, play with weird turtles we bought in Chinatown which I think are illegal for some reason but they still sell them, Ride motor cycles, yes we had dirt bikes and we also enjoyed beach cruising. FYI we lived on a cul de sac so very little traffic.

My girlies go from Soccer to dance to art to soccer travel team to soccer camp to art camp to play dates to recital practice to.... well you get the idea. My SVU has a lot of miles on it and lots of adult supervision.

 Okay let's bring this back to the classroom. My students love tech and they also love to move it,move it. So, some smart NorCal cookie, ya know the folks up their where creativity seems to be in the air or passed out at the hospital when take home your newborn (instead of a diaperbag). Well, they came up with Go Noodle. I spread the word to all the teachers I worked with last year when I was out of the classroom and GO Noodle gave us head bands (aka the 80's style that is back, stickers pens etc....)  For my PD Seasions,Thank you so much they were a hit with the teachers in our sessions) since I did not have my own class my only real chance to see it in action was from,My teacher bff  and she said"she loved it, her kids loved it and so on and so fourth." I trusted her so I fully engaged in gonoodle during Summer School. I was not going to be the gummy bear teacher in summer school. I couldn't no way, must ....not ......be...... the ......gummy .....bear........ teacher........(that you should read like an action movie main character struggling to overcome the badguy moment) I wanted to employ some gamification and technology. So GO NOODLE it was.

After, morning warm up as the students finished I had them come to the carpet to share out their thinking and noticings from warm up. This is like 20 minutes; 10 to complete the task and another 10 for discussion of focused cognitive work that requires listening and building on thoughts of others as well as using math creativity to come up with your own ideas.  They did it almost everyday with very little prompting I know I know AWESOME SAUCE. Part, of it was that if they did a focused cognitively engaging job the reward was not a gummy bear but a GO NOODLE session.  I randomly selected a student who selected someone to pick a song/dance/movement activity.  It was 1-3 minutes everyone had to stand and those who were well they willing  jammed out. Seriously, they jammed like" go shorty its your birthday, we gonna party like it's your birthday,was pumping at the club.

I first thought I better roam and watch make sure everyone is

 doing it. I found they were or they were at least standing. Then,I thought I better do it to encourage them. Guess what they did not care if I did it they were so involved in doing it themselves they rarely noticed me.  So, at least 2 times a week I took advantage of these 1-3 minutes and passed out work, set up Anchor Charts, changed job chart, organized materials for the day, updated attendance etc. It was Radical!!!!

So that is what Go Noodle is bringing kids back into loving free movement through technology. Thinking of the song " Video killed the Radio Star" How many times have you heard something like " Technology killed the Physical Activity."  Well, it did not kill it but redefined it, I think is a better word. Here are some intro video  https://www.gonoodle.com/how-it-works  I equate this to adults using the ifit or the log my jog apps. Sidenote: I really want an ifit. Just in case my husband reads this post.

Ifit does not send out cheesecakes if we meet our goals we just get an email or a screen telling us way to go you made it further but it works. I think gonoodle is going to be my staple classroom behavior reward and I am going to work to develop some other pieces that do not involve gummy bears, lollipops or prizes to discourage all that junkie junk and encourage movement and experience based rewards. I think this quotes ties up how I feel when some say tech is killing activity and joyous play. The go noodle   team of creative minds connected the dots between tech and joy and movement and teachers are loving them for it everywhere!  Thanks gonoodle team!

"A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have."

 Steve Jobs

Happy Moving, Shaking,Getting Down and Joyous Learning!!!

When will Summer lazy days begin, Not Yet!!

Alright ,Okay so I finished summer school. Celebrated 4th of July then quickly moved into CGI math training.

My little girls had a great time at the LA Galaxy game plus firework show. We killed two birds with one stone. We went to our first professional Soccer/Futbol game and we saw a killer firework show.  By the way Galaxy WON!

I enjoyed the weekend and then prepared for my 1-2 hour commute each way to the Big City area for CGI math training. I had been implementing CGI for about 4 years, I read all the books, I have observed it in many classrooms, given intro presentations at the district level, facilitated CGI cohort groups at one of my school sites last year so I think it was about time to update my skills. So CGI calls it CGI for Non-beginners, not advanced or accelerated training they call it Non beginners, how very West LA. If you are from Cali you know what I mean West LA is it's own beast with a unique kinda like wealthy granola, nerd, hippie population.  Anyway the team of presenters were super smart and thought provoking in a very calm West LA way, Angela, Nick and Caralee.

I told my hopefully new administrator with confidence" Yeah,I know CGI I can help you really develop that here at your new dependent charter."  I guess I need to deliver. The entire teaching staff is getting training at the beginner or non beginner level this summer. Awesome SAUCE!!!! that I will be at a working in this environment but now I need to live up to previous statement.

So here are my take aways that I am needing to incorporate into my instruction next year. 

1. Problem Solving is the heart of my math teaching and I need to give it the time it needs. I have previously worked at a Math Science Magnet and problem solving was not the heart of it I lost that and learned a lot about test prep and computational fluency so now I am working on a schedule that has embedded problem solving. The Cool Beans teachers that were at my table talked about how they do at least one if not two a day. I do not think I will get to 2 a day but a least one. 

2. Counting Collections, I need to put this in my schedule for math starting day 1/2 and we need to do it daily in order to build number sense skills needed for the true algebraic thinking. We watched several videos and analyzed the students counting and reasoning skills the presenters did  an amazing job of pausing in places to allow us as teachers to speculate and analyze. That was Radical!!! and made the case for Counting Collections again.

3. Fractions, Fractions, Fractions, I started to play around with this idea of building fraction knowledge in the lower grades. I read the CGI fraction book and I experimented with some lessons and found first graders were way more flexible and understanding of fractions. I want to develop this in my second graders.  Here's an example:

Which is greater?

4/5 or 4/10 

5/11 or 8/11

If I use my prior knowledge I am lost if I am more flexible these are super easy. I read this in the book but watching the kiddos share their thinking amazing. 

4. Number Talks books. Have you read the Number Talks book it is quite amazing and it was used in my district I used it quite a bit. But building off the fraction idea and the upper grade ideas check this out:

How many wholes do you see?

Hello, Holy Moley Gucamole! is it one whole with 8 parts or 4 wholes with 2 parts or 2 wholes with 4 parts. Mind Blown! dots are for older kids too. 

5. High Yield Routines

I read this book one afternoon while my kids were in the backyard swimming and playing. I thought maybe I can add something to my math wall. I skimmed it and thought bummer not to much but then I dug in and some cool ideas. If you number your students then create a set of equation cards that the you can pull and if the students number is the answer they are dismissed. How about if you seat your children in rows give them a coordinate number like 0,0 next 0,1 0.2 etc then give them answers and if their two numbers equal the number answer selected they are dismissed. The other piece is using these routines for assessments. That is a whole post by itself. 

Happy Five for Friday!!!!

How do you use Green Screen into Summer School?

Well, Summer School has been over for about a week now but I am finally getting around to posting this my first attempt at Green Screen.  So, how did it begin it began with this I was teaching English Learner Summer Camp and the last week was a short week and we had to assess the little cuties so not much instruction could happen.

So, a light bulb went off and I thought Technology, English Learners, Listening, Speaking, Writing and visuals..... Yes Yes Yes and Yes these all fit together. To add an extra piece of connection electricity the theme of the English Learner Summer School was National Parks. ZZZZZZZ that is the sound of electricity in case you thought it was sleeping.

We learned about Yosemite and The Grand Canyon these two National Parks are close to us in Cali but not close enough for a field trip. How on earth could I take these kids to these places and show off the science and language learning??? Da da duummm GREEN SCREEN.  I quickly did a little research to find an app or something to make this work I found this app in the itunes store it is $2.99 it is called Ink Do Green Screen.

I bought it with one of the itunes cards I received as a gift last year from one of the teachers I was working with (Thank you). I then went to the lovely lovely amazon prime and tried to find an inexpensive green screen set up. I could not find one in my summer budget but I did find a screen screen and some clamps for under $20.00 worth a shot!!. 

I was ready to Green Screen. Since it is a 3 hour 3 week program the little people were not going to be able to draft and revise their own writing at the level needed so we created a piece for each park together they provided the info from their learning and we drafted it on chart paper together. I was a little hesitant to do this because I really prefer them to own their own work but I refocused the objective of the lesson. I refocused the lessons into a close reading and fluency lessons. We worked on phrasing and reading with expression in fluency and for Close reading the students annotated their typed pieces (I typed up our collaborative writing pieces) they underlined tricky words, scientific words, parts to read with expression. They also put notes about what photos should be on the green screen during different parts of the pieces. Okay, I saw the value of this and to allow them choice I allowed them to choose either Yosemite or the Grand Canyon.  They took their pieces with notes home and rehearsed. The turn around had to be quick so I found images that night and had them ready for filming the next day. So Lights Camera Action 2 days worth of 30 min ELA lessons, one days worth of homework and here's what they came up with. 

I usually do not put up names and photos but this little gal and family gave me permission. I was totally impressed with this sweet potato she did a great job and coached some of her peers. That is how I used Green Screen in Summer School? I am super excited to further use and develop curriculum for next year using Green Screen. In my new position!!!! I think I may even invest in a kit.

Happy Teaching!