Whose Penguin Flag was flown in Antarctica and a Performance Task Freebie?

I'm Whose Penguin flag was flown in Antarctica? Well, Well, Well, it was the 2nd Grade Robots. We have been working on a writing unit of study on Penguins.

The students have been very excited and interested in this unit of study it has helped them grow into more diverse writers and it has helped me harness and develop my google facilitator skills.

We started using Google Apps for our informational writing and it has been quite amazing. I thought I was merely preparing my students for SBAC testing in third grade but Whoa was it so much more.

The biggest take away for me to invest more time into learning Google Apps for writing was the students eagerness and ability to edit and revise in Google Apps.

Day 4

Here is a quote" I know, I know you won't spell it for me. My teacher is not my spelling resource google is my spelling resource. I will type it in and see if I get a red line."

Day 7
Same girl new day, she was eavesdropping in on my writing conference with her neighbor then she chimes in with this gem. " You know what Chris, you need to use google as a spelling resource. Let me show you. You type your word, then you press space. See you have a red line. It is spelled wrong. Go to Tools Spelling and Google will help you. Look there it is that is how you spell it, click and it is now in your writing.
Soundtrack in my head"Girls hit your Hallelujah, (WHOO) Girls hit your Hallelujah (WHOO).
Don't believe me just watch!"Bruno Mars( FYI sometimes these soundtracks don't just stay in my head I actually sing them in class but I think it is okay it creates joy in learning and helps me connect with my little guys at a neat level(I know the songs they hear in mom's car, or uncle house).

 I mean yes, how many times have I gently paraphrased  words from Lucy Calkins." Have a partner read your writing to make sure it make sense to readers, that the words are written neatly and spelled correctly." to end up with their writing partner saying I don't know what it says and the writers so discouraged they just give up and correct one or two words and submit the piece with little revision. ( This is not to knock Calkins, I feel she is a real genius and this is often an effective strategy) Google has created a safe environment for partners to help with revision and tools that are easy to implement multiplying the reach of Calkins as computers usually do. Thank you Google for Education.  Well, because the students have amped up their writing game I amped up mine I took the time to develop my skills using Doctopus a google add on. So, I began to learn from a tutorial how I can better use Doctopus. Here is the tutorial that helped me. Click here 
So, I did a test run with our Performance task assessment. Which I borrowed from Lucy Calkins Pathways to Writing it is truly a great tool and aligned to SBAC. Here are the Anchor Chart pieces I used: Performance Task Anchor Chart Freebie Combined with Google apps and Doctopus I feel really empowered as an educator to be able to meet my students needs.

We are second row 1st flag. La Verne Science and Technology.

Well, to sum up the unit and provide a little bit of art and global connectedness to this unit the we created a flag and sent it up to the Antarctic to an Adelie Penguin research Center. Our Flag was hanging Jan 15-16 and we just got it back in the mail. This was a fun an exciting piece to our writing. If you are interested in doing this next year here is the link: Classroom Penguin Flags Website
Check us out!!!
Soundtrack in my students heads: " We are so fancy, you already know. We are in the fast lane from LA to Tokyo, We are so fancy, Cant you taste this gold. Remember our name"
I just love it when I can make my students understand how big yet how small the world is and that they can be a connected so many parts of the world through learning. Happy Penguins,Happy feet, Happy Learning!

Who is a Class Dojo Mentor?

Who is a Class Dojo Mentor? Well, it is me I got the amazing news this Wednesday from the amazing Class Dojo team.  Guess what I heard in my head when I read this email" I know you like it sweet, so you can have your cake, Give you something good to celebrate, So make a wish, I'll make it like your birthday everyday." Katy Perry Birthday
Take a look at the super cool email I received.

So, I guess I can stop singing when I see the Class Dojo Mentor Community on Facebook " Cause you're too sexy, beautiful, and everybody wants a taste, that's why(that's why) I still get jealous."
Well, if that was not enough Class Dojo had a super week as well the were voted Best Start Up. Well deserved Class Dojo.  Truly I have been using Class Dojo for about 4 years and I really love it. I love the support and I love the community of educators that I have been a part of and now a new learning community the Class Dojo Mentor Group.  Most importantly I love the way it has transformed my classroom room into a real community of learners who begin to self regulate. Looks like they might have this as their soundtrack" Got Chucks on with St. Laurent, Gotta Kiss myself I am too pretty, I'm too hot ( hot damn) Called a police and fireman."

So,  I thought I need to go in and make some changes to our Class Dojo now that I am a fancy Class Dojo Mentor, also we are having a PD share out session this month at my school to talk about what is working in terms of behavior in implementing Conscious Discipline in our classroom.  This is an interesting program my daughter used in preschool and is suppose to develop a community of learners in your classroom. I have found that some of the language I have learned is super helpful. If you have not had experience working with students in poverty this program really is helpful into understanding their behaviors, I found it very affirming because I have spent most of my career in schools of need and I have had training in the process to adopt my daughter from the foster program.

Anyway, so I have been sort of integrating the 7 basic skills into my ClassDojo. I have put one of the skills as a behavior on Class Dojo at a time and focusing on this and really rewarding for this skill, this is after we did the lesson and implemented the vocabulary into our classroom. What I have found is I spent to much time on one basic skill so I just inputed all the 7 basic skills so they are there and ready to go and ready to remind me to move on as well as spiral back to hit some previously learned skills. While doing this I came upon an article about how a teacher used Class Dojo for small group instruction. Here is the link to the article: https://storify.com/jennakleine/classdojochat-going-beyond-behavior-w-classdojo.
Really, Cool, right, this will give teachers very specific information about student learning some examples of what she did was create a behavior for annotated text. So, I thought I need to amp up our ClassDojo behaviors. I have just inputed everything I need into the behaviors it is a little awkward because it is so many behaviors but I think it will really help me look for these skills, standards all day long and use the specific language. I equate this to posting the standards in a place where you can see them, because as teachers we are running 6 million "open windows" in our brain at all times and some get pushed back or forgotten.  Anyway, I feel a weight has been lifted off my shoulders because, I inputed the, 7 basic skills of Conscious Discipline, 8 math practice standards, 6 traits of writing, NGSS,Reading CAFE, and because I have several English learners Speaking and Listening CCSS.  Wow! I feel so much more organized and I feel like I have a ton new ideas of how to more fluidly integrate these skills into my lessons. Check out some of my behaviors. Well most of them!

I now have a super comprehensive template and I can go back in and add more specifics (so basically " I got some blank spaces baby, and I'll write their names.") for example we are working on a biography unit of study, for Writing organization I could add student, organizes biography in chronological order, Math we are working on multiplication and division we could add, MP 8 students understands/compares repeated addition in multiplication.
One completely new idea I am going to add to my Reading Workshop is to include and ipad recording station, where students record their listening and speaking skills, at an independent center. So, right now I have a group of 5 I work with and we have begun to integrate Edmodo into this guided group, and two other groups reading online and reading hard books. This would really help me gain a ton of data and another way to engage students in powerful learning. I will post next week on our progress with looking forward to collecting more data and being more effective because I am more prepared and organized. HAPPY CLASS DOJO MENTOR DAY!