Who goes to work on Saturdays!

Well, lots of people go to work on Saturdays I suppose but when you are a teacher that is suppose to be your day off.  Well some teachers like to relax, sleep in and/or enjoy a great sunny weather in California and some work. I was in the working group this weekend  I was helping put together an event for a CUE affillate we had a Bring your App's to the 4 C's. The 4 C's the ones every one wants to bring up at every staff meeting since Common Core hit the ground running. Communication, Collaboration, Creativity and Critical Thinking  wahoo! Click here if you want to learn more NEA has a pdf for your enjoyment.

So, this  CUE Coffee Break went off okay but started out as a big pile of FUN. It took awhile to get the network up and running but it did. Since, I did not have access to JoAnn's presentation the day before the event I had to make some guesses on what to test on the wifi I made some guesses and some were right and some were way wrong.  People, I was worried at 4:30pm the day before the event I was still worried 7:00 am the morning of the event still worried but the IT department pulled through for me and one tech guy really made everyone feel comfortable and ready to dig in and learn as well as donate his hotspot to our presenter. Yes, he too came on a Saturday and he was learning all kinds of  tech goodies as well.

If you have not heard of the presenter her name is Jo Ann Fox. Check out her website  Click Here!
She is very certified and friendly.  She was a trooper even though we did not have everything she needed in terms of internet she made it work.

Here we are working hard or at least looking like we are. See the sun streaming in the window no was is day dreaming out the window. Well maybe just me:(




This is the cool thing I am taking away from this event. I had telligami on my iphone/ipad for awhile and I did nothing with it. I did not have an idea nothing. It sounded like this in my brain.....................



That's right nothing. Until this Saturday and then while Jo Ann presented I started to create a telligami.


It is basically an avatar that you can change the background and have him or her talk by recording or typing in the text. I thought about how cool this would be for the introverts of the world who have been forced into doing oral presentations. I thought about tutorials students could make and possible link from Anchor charts with QR codes, what about if you wanted to flip your math class I think it is much cooler to look at this avatar than me.  Cool beans Right! Now, I my brain sounds like this,

dksldksjfkdjsa;lkjdksjfkdjskfjdsljfkldjslfjdsjfdklsjaflkdjskfjdksfjdsfjdklsjfdkjsfkjdsjfdkjsfjdnvmnxkhfioewmnnoewnfdsfbdsjkghjgjajgdkngjkdnsadklsffdksnafndsnafkndsanfkdnsfkldnsmnvdmnvkewjiaerhtpojtnmndsmfldsa.
Yep, not even words just super fast ideas that I can not keep up with. Well, now let's think about this question; Who goes to work on Saturdays? Well, I do along with a group of talented amazing teachers who want to learn and grow into even more talented and amazing teachers.


 As Telligami says Animate Your Life. I animated my life! Check me out!

https://tellagami.com/gami/NHDVH6/

Happy Monday!

What would you do if you were in the same room as your favorite Bloggers?

Last week, I braved the rainy streets of So Cal which is like a Super Snow Storm any where else. I was also super sick but I had already paid for this event and I knew it would be worth it.

What was the Event you ask?

Southern California Kindergarten Conference ( also for Pre K, TK and First Grade teachers)
When I taught Kindergarten I always wanted to go but to no avail. So, here was my chance for me and my kindergarten teacher friend to kinda go. We only bought tickets to the Blogger Bash which I would say was worth the money. Here is the super cute icon that was created by many of the awesome bloggers I stalk. I linked it the Teeny Tiny Teacher's blog if you want to check out her post on the Blogger Bash.

She is quite amazing.
So, did I forget to mention I was SICK so it was not quite the experience I wanted it to be, but still well worth it. Let's start with the negative and get that out of the way. I did not win a raffle prize and there were super cool prizes baskets, binders, beautifully laminated activities, and gift cards Oh My! What I did win was a big fat splinter running my hand under the table to see if I was the lucky winner of a $25 gift card.  No not a winner.
However, I did enjoy the chicken dinner. I also met some new friends that sat with me at my table they were a blast to cheer and hoot with even though I could only hear part of the convo. because my ear was clogged. I got a great little goodie bag with a CD full of fun cool resources, I will certainly be using in my travels from classroom to classroom. I also got a cool idea I have already stolen. That's right I  already ordered my googly eyes from amazon PRIME (pretend the capital letters mean that you sing the word PRIME in a fun voice similar to a chime on you icalendar) I digress. Anyway I don't know how I missed this the first time around but I did and now I am going to so use this.

Eye Like what I see! Click Here to check out Teacher to the Core blog post on it. I have been having these school to school contests for behavior points and it works fine but this, this would be a great way to visually reinforce the idea of participation and behavior management.  I plan to create my little jar this weekend and be up an running next week.  So, the rainy trip was worth it so worth it. I got so many other ideas but this was the first one I am going to begin to implement. LOVE it and Teacher to the Core is pretty darn sarcastic and funny. LOVE that too.

To answer the question:
What would you do if you were in the same room as your favorite bloggers? 
Well, when you sick pretty much just smile, drink tons of water and take it all in. If I were not sick probably run around taking pics on my iphone and asking questions and having small talk but not this time maybe at the next Blogger Bash. Thank you to all the bloggers who were there and put in countless hours preparing for this conference and bash. 

Happy Tuesday!

New bag will organize!

Being a traveling teacher is not all fun and games and definitely not organized. I have a delightful rolling cart that serves as my office and classroom lessons storage. It is quite a transition from being a classroom teacher with cupboards and shelves as storage and a nice kidney table or teacher desk to work at. Here is my office. Very fancy right! Almost like a corner office. NOT!

Then I had this. All stuff I have been carrying around to do my job.  Laptop carrying case which I love, files to organize info for each school site. Pencils, pens post its paperclips and glue. Literature to build lessons for all grades k-6 because surprisingly I cannot remember all the standards for each grade and turn them into exemplar lessons without doing some research. Materials and resources that I have gathered and created for teachers. Tools I need to create presentations. etc...

Then I sometimes just need a few things and my lap top so I surrendered and ordered a Thiryone Utility bag. Now that is fancy and a fancy price tag to go with it. But it is working so far. I have a file sorter in my cart and my beautiful dot bag and things are great. I modeled 4 lessons this short week and one was a catch up from last week. I planned it two weeks ago filed it in my cart and I was ready to go today it was actually a really cool lesson on closing paragraphs. I will share in an upcoming post. So far I 💜my newly redesigned rolling office. I highly recommend Thirtyone bags it is my first and will not be my last. This has nothing to with math but it does make me happy so with that I say Happy teaching!

At Last My Lesson Planner has come ALong!

How many years have I been waiting for this? MANY How many other things have I tried? MANY How many times have I tried to create something neat and cute like this and failed? MANY. I have used paper planners. I have created Word templates that had to be continually revamped. I have eduplanner, school circuit and many other online planners. I have tried excel to no avail and the shagrin of my mother whom is a Controller and Business IT guy husband. I so dislike excel don't understand why the business mind loves it. I even meet Alice Keeler once at CUE and she tried to convert me to her ways of a SEXY SPREADSHEETS. Okay Dokie Alice, I am not buying it. But, now I see the light I see it I see it soo close I am almost there. POW! I opened my Bloglovin feed and I see this planner by Traci Clausen. I have just started to download and prep to use this tool. I waited and debated because I am not in the classroom this year I am a teacher on assignment I debated how will this work when planning consists of, meeting with teachers, modeling lessons, attending grade level meetings.So I waited but then I debated, I am really going to be able to walk around school sites with my phone or ipad and input into my planner all the things we need to do and hall way questions teachers ask, hall way requests and modifications to the schedule. I analyzed what I had in place. I have been using a combo pack of sorts to get by but with a combo sometimes things fall through the cracks. I use my phone to hold onto hall way questions requests. I use Microsoft Outlook Calendar to book and schedule modeling lessons, planning time release time. I also use my phone to write lists of ideas and things I need to do then at the end of each week I open up Microsoft Outlook and my phone and I try to remember and piece together my week for my Weekly report to my supervisor. Sometimes when I am on it I am able to piece it together daily. Oh I forgot on top of that I make a teacher friendly schedule to print and send out to teachers and admin because the outlook schedule is not great to look at when printed. Is it possible that I may be able to condense my combo pack of planning tools. I THINK YES. YES It is. Here it is :::::::::)

I am still working out the kinks of how this will work for me I am hoping next week will be an AHHHHH Yeah week for me with my new planner when I pull it all together but I will wait no more. I can just imagine walking around with my ipad and knowing where I am going, what I need to work on, what supplies I need etc. I also will simply need to print a copy for my teachers and admin. and it looks professional and teacher friendly. So, I begin my new journey with Numbers guided by the amazing work of Trace Clausen at Dragon Flies in First, Check out her blog and her TPT store. This lesson planner is ideal for the classroom teacher.

Happy Teaching!

EUREKA! CGI book!

This three day weekend I decided to clean out a piece of my garage. I said a piece because it is big and because three years ago I moved my house And classrooms at work, yeah the same summer days apart. Two years ago I moved schools and grade levels. I had been a primary teacher forever and moved up to the big leagues to work under an awesome principal. Then this year I am a teacher on assignment, no classroom. Whew! So I have been adding and adding boxes with no time to really go through and organize it. I had two goals one, go through every box on three shelfs and throw away and begin to group and organize. 2nd I have been looking for my Close Reading book by Sundae Cummins that I just skimmed last year and my Extending Children's Mathematics, fractions and decimals book by Epsom and Levi. 

Well, I have not found the books yet! But I did find some amazing work my second graders had done with CGI and problem solving. So, I ordered the book with my amazon prime account💜💜💜. Never thought I would love paying 79 dollars but I do 💜Amazon Prime. The book arrived the next day. What! Who is, How is Amazing I love it. I worked on the garage and hung out with my kids. Then Hunkered down with my long lost book. Um, I thought I would re read a few chapters I needed to help some teachers with coaching questions from last week. No, read it cover to cover taking notes and sticky notes. This is amazing. It really brings back the idea that we need to invest in training teachers not to learn how to deliver instruction based on another's curriculum but to learn content and curriculum in deep rich way like modeling the CCSS. I relearned so much and made powerful connections to Liping Ma' s work. 

I was trying to share the idea that I learned from her to some kindergarten teachers that we cannot just learn place value we need to learn it and understand that the teaching of conceptual place value leads to deep understanding of fractions and decimals, it is part of a package we are teaching and to teach only in the context of the k/1 standards does not address the package. Here is a peek at a math package.

  I now have examples and quotes to support this thought. I highly recommend this book for both primary and upper grade teachers. It is awesome  and has inspired some new thinking more post will follow with all the ideas that have bubbled up from this night of reading, the best part of this reading was me and my third graders trying to solve the problems together, she loved it and was thrilled that she was working with fractions in advanced ways. Great read. Have a happy 3 day!

Scholastic Instructor Me No way!

I don't know how many of you subscribe to Scholastic Instructor magazine. I have for a year or so and it is chuck full of tips and resources for teachers. I have learned so much from this magazine so when the opportunity to be a member of the advisory board came along I jumped at it. I jumped through the process and I amazingly I was accepted. It is a surprise and honor to be a part of anything Scholastic this company has a long standing great relationship with educators.  Here is the link to the magazine. I highly recommend subscribing. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/instructor

The magazine also has a companion website.

Thank you Scholastic for this opportunity I am hoping to learn and share a great deal from this collaboration.

And here is my mug published ....

That's me on the bottom row. A tiny bit odd seeing myself in a magazine.

Happy Teaching!

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