Finally I am Reflecting Again!

Mirror,Mirror on the Ipad where are you because I need you now?

Well, it has been awhile but I am finally up and running with my Reflector app it has been a long time since I have used it and I don't know why. I know this is no new trick but it is an old trick turned new again. I used it a bit last year in my fourth grade classroom and then this year I have not used it as much at all. I have been delivering PD and working in classrooms and schools that I am not used to and touchy wifi connections discouraged me.  So, I kinda gave up! But I have another PD coming up for the Summer sessions. My partner presenter and I really wanted to do a math PD day and I wanted to walk around. Why walk around because I feel so much more comfortable when I am not hooked to wires and I can move around the room. So, I tried it out at home and success, I had seen JoAnn Fox present (check out my earlier post) with no issues at one of my school sites earlier this year I felt motivated to reflect again.

Since we are doing a math session not only do I want to walk around I also want to show the work with word problems the teachers are working on in REAL TIME. This may seem simple but I have delivered PD earlier this year with no document camera and we had to go Old School ( stand up and show us what you did) then everyone leans over, squints their eyes, turns their good ear toward the speaker hoping to gain some insight from the words the speaker is saying. Then the poor presenter tries to be an octopus holding up a sheet of paper, pointing with one had, trying to hold up counters on a piece of paper to model their work, but of course they slide right off.


If you have not heard about it. You need to know the App is called Reflector and you download it on your Mac book or whatever other things are being called computers these days. I am shamefully a Mac girl but I just got an iphone last year, so to each his/her own.  Then you use the airplay on your ipad and Viola you will be reflecting. I am very excited about this I am making my prezo on Keynote just because I am afraid that an online tool may fail me and I can wing it if Reflector does not work on the network, eventhough I really really really don't want to, but if my whole presentations is unattainable WOW! I am not that good. Well Mirror mirror on the Wall where did Reflector Go? Nowhere I was the one who left and I did not like my time away from you so I am back.

So, check it out it will change your world as well.

Where or where did the Library Go?

As a child in upper elementary I was the kind of reader who read what was required of me in school and I read at a very rapid rate so it was a quick read for me I did not linger in the pages of any books. I did not love books until I read " A Wrinkle in Time" at the time I had no idea why this book changed my desire to read but now I understand why. It is a creative endeavor with bits of tech and great deep rich writing work. LOVE it!

 I even spent a summer after this working in the local library in the Children's Section in a Library Volunteer program, organizing books, checking out books to the little ones, keeping the crayons bins full, hanging up coloring pages and most importantly my grandmother had to walk me over to the library at least 3 times a week and I got to stay 3 hours a day. The seeds of a Geek were being planted.

What changed I used the library in college but nearly as much as in elementary and middle school then as I went into my Masters program I literally never sit foot in a library by this time the internet was fully functional (no more crazy dial up sound) I really did not need it to do my research in a library. During my reading fellowship I fell in love with Amazon prime and my kindle app on my ipad it worked well to gather literature for research. Game Changer!  The only time I spent time with books was in the local book store.  My own children love the book store and in fact we really did not have library cards for many years.

So, Where did the library go? I started to ask and especially after learning about the amazing Augmented Reality book " The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore."  Hear is a quick look at it, the app by itself is fun but when you lay your ipad camera over the book the words are read aloud by an amazing voice actor and the book comes alive!  http://youtu.be/nmxuhGF1yj8


I thought about what would the new library of 2014 look like. I thought of course students will be creating AR or QR recommendations of books for other readers (The Brown Bag Teacher has a great post on this), chromebooks, ipads etc...

 Wait! Why am I not using the library in a 2014 way?

So, I did a search to find my local library. I know they have audio books but I am not going to have some CD's in my cars and then drive them back to the library when they are due (or knowing my schedule late and then I owe the library 27 cents)
Seriously!  To my surprise my local library uses Overdrive an audiobook reader. WHAT!

I browsed their selection not bad not bad.
I put some books on hold. Then downloaded the app on my laptop and ipad/iphone. Then I found and ebook I wanted and guess what wait for it wait for it. I borrowed it using the kindle app and straight to my ipad it went. Holy Moly Gucamole!

I know none of this is new stuff but this is the first time I have had time to link and set all this up I feel like a 21st Century human. Of course it does not have everything I need but Amazon prime , kindle, Overdrive and my library together make an excellent combination.

Now, back to the classroom how and what will this be good for????
I have a fifth grade class working on Maniac Magee, so I downloaded it in my Overdrive and I thought what power this gives me as a teacher. When I am doing a read aloud I can embed stopping points and model, replay key points use Close Reading strategies more authentically because I am able to focus on words in the text and not reading the text so my students are engaged and understanding. I can roam the room and take notes. Possibly posting these on Padlet or Murraly then share this on Edmodo for future collaboration along with my students. This thought was inspired by a Around the Kampfire blogpost about Anchor Charts.  Well, the possibilities are endless but I feel great because I have found the Library? Where oh where did the library go? Well I had to wait for it............. wait for it....... until they caught up with the digital age but the certainly have done so. So, I welcome you back library I hope we will not lose touch again. K.I.T.

Currently Link Up

So, this is my first time linking up with the Currently Link Up From FARLEY.  I thought it would be fun so here it is. It is part of my new goal to really blog more often to hold onto my ideas so that I am practicing the ideas of taking notes and holding onto ideas like a Reader does in Reading workshop.

So, that is what my April is currently like. I am having great fun playing with Augmented Reality and me and my Sub that shadows me and helps me to work with teachers by releasing them and giving them so I can work with them and they can work alone or with their teams. We played around with: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Who loves Class Dojo!

I do, I have been a big fan of Class Dojo for about 3 years. It started with my toughest group! These second graders were a team trying to take me down. I left at the end of that school year and fell asleep for a week. They were struggling to read and some of them were very upset and had started to show signs of really angry violent behavior. I needed to get them to listen to me and I knew they would learn and grow.

Class Dojo was the only way I could get them to understand their behaviors and not blame adults and act out more. The started tracking their own behavior and saw the clear connections. The clips the cards, the names on the board nothing worked like the lovely little Class Dojo sound for a positive reward.

I also used other strategies from Whole Brain Teaching and Teach Like a Champion, Doug Lemov.  We instituted Class Yes.  The choral response was a great consistent tool.

We started to try to beat the clock or in my class because I likey the music we would beat the song . I selected " Everybody Wants to be loved" Ingrid Michaelson song.


I just loved seeing the boy labeled a bully sing this sweet tune as he packed up his Readers Notebook. Everytime I hear this song I still think of this group of kiddos.



Next, I used Phonevite paired with Class Dojo.

The kids set a daily goal. Yes, daily because that is what they needed. I would call every student every day using Phonevite, with a positive pre recorded message " Yay, you met your goal" or a different positive pre recorded message" Bummer, you did not meet your goal today. Make a plan with your family of how you will be able to meet the goal tomorrow." Then plans and parents flooded my classroom. They loved it and the kids knew everyday before we were dismissed I would check Class Dojo and set up the phone calls to be made in Phonevite. Everyone was getting a call either way. The parents were expecting it. They would begin to monitor and correct behaviors throughout the day if they knew the day was off to a bad start.

Things started to change and this was a class that I really enjoyed and was sad to see go by the end of the year. Some of the plans were, you will have a goal every 30 min to earn 0 negative dojo points and 1 positive dojo point. That's when the ipad and multiple alarms with different sounds came in handy. Each of the kids with the short term goals knew their sound and knew I would be checking in on them when that sound went off as well the rest of the class would check in with them and soon the other students were cheering them on. They were getting their MOJO. No they certainly were not the highest scoring class but they had grown in behaviors and academics some kids doubled their test scores from previous years, some tripled it. AMAZING group!

Well, Well, Well, the folks at Class Dojo are much smarter than me and they took this one step better and now Class Dojo can be linked to texts. What you talkin bout Willis?
You can do a few amazing things;
1. Send out text blasts ( similar to what I was doing with Phonevite )(I still love Phonevite but I do not need it for this anymore)
2. Send private text with parents and leave those open for parent responses.
3. Send out private texts to parents and just leave it so you know they read it. They are properly called; read receipts.
Their info graphic is much prettier than mine:

Oh YES! and do not forget it works for both the iphone (itunes store) people and the little green Robot folks as well (Android) I am new to iphone so I love both. Green robots! Hmmmm! MOJO is this maybe shall I quote the movie Star Wars; "I am your father MOJO."says Android. Maybe IDK, I see a resemblance.

Can you say Hollaaa! I can but I do not really like to because I think Holllar has seen it's day. I will say Goody Goody Gumdrops, or Winner Winner Chicken Dinner (classics).


I am in love with these new features. I am an Teacher on Assignment this year and I have been trying to find ways to use it for my new role. Sometimes I model lessons and sometimes I just release teachers. If you have any great ideas I would love to hear them.

P.S. MOJO is much cuter than Android.

Who won the Golden Ticket?

So, you ask are you, still talking about CUE. Well yes, I am Kinda Sorta. A few years ago I had the amazing opportunity to be a part of a fellowship. In this fellowship I was able to spend two years with a mentor working and reflecting on my teaching practice. I had a amazing experience and it helped me to spice things up a bit in my teaching or as Trisha would say " Take it up a Notch".

Long ole' story short, my partner selected math and I selected reading so we could collaborate and share together our fellowship learning. Smart move!We have never looked back.

Early in the fellowship we got a hold of a Trisha Callella video KINDERGARTEN math based on her learning in the fellowship as well.  Here is a little snippet of the video of several years ago. She was Common Core and More before most of us had even seen or heard of Common Core. She is the first one on the video the curly blonde. The thing that amazes me about Trisha, I am going to call her Trisha like I know her, is the things her kids can do. Yes, she is amazing but the things her students produce is powerful and the true meaning of learning.

Still in my long ole' story, anyway we watched her video about 20 times taking "crazy time" notes it is a 55 minute video. Then we were given a Golden Ticket opportunity to observe in her class. I said" Yes please ME ME ME ." Now, I know why my students do that. I went and I watched another impressive lesson then we got to ask her questions and debrief in the presence of a true master mind changes you and your work forever.

My fellowship ended and every now and then I would see Trisha at a fellowship conference, or hear about new fellows speaking about her with amazement. Then, I am at CUE conference and who is listed in the CUE Guide. Trisha Callella doing a session on App Matching.  My fellowship mentor told me and I just could not believe it until I saw it, I could not wait to see how she uses technology, how her students use technology.

Well, I am in the session and in walks in Sharon Sutton, aka former admin. at UCLA lab school, ( lab school is like a school of your dreams, amazing educators happy children beautiful streams and bridge going through the campus when you are there you hear musac, like harps and violins playing softly behind the children learning) Oh yeah! I know I am in the right sessions, she hangs with my mentor so they start talking and she says" I hear she is amazing!"

CONFIRMED! I am in the Right Session.

Trisha is presenting at a Computer Using Educators Conference and she opens with I am not a Techie. What? Why? some of the people in the session begin to look away start to pack up their conference totes. But then she starts talking and she starts talking fast (because when you are this smart you have to talk fast to get out all that is in your head). Next it sounded like this....




Silence, again last time I heard this kind of silence it was in my brain trying to come up with an idea for telligami. (No more head silence thank you Jo Ann Fox)

My fellowship partner turns to me and says" She is what you have been looking for." She is referring to my comment that I love techie educators, their risk taking sprit is awesome but when I go to TCRWP and CGI trainings from UCLA, super advanced level of analytical curriculum and teaching they are not that techie and they do not need to be they are amazing in a different way. "I wanted it all! to quote Veruca Salt (Willy Wonka).

My question was; Where is the deep analytical educator using technology in powerful ways to bring DOK and Blooms into play and the students are the producers in a very authentic way?

"We are the music makers... and we are the dreamers of dreams." - Willy Wonka

Continuing with my Willy Wonka quotes: I was dreaming for a unique kind of educational music maker.

Found her! Trisha Callella

Here is an example:

Full circle the student has become the teacher. LOVE it!

The biggest take away from her session was to dive deeper into my understanding and implementation of Driving/Essential questions!
For example Trisha asks questions like this to the students:

What is the best tool to share an interview?

Instead of we have imovie you are going to use imovie to share your interview. The students have lost the learning of what tools are important for what purpose. Of course this may require some frontloading but WOW! I am sold. I feel embarrassed that I am just posting my learning and not my students but I am on Spring Break I am working on a lesson right now for next week.   So, Who won the Golden Ticket I did once.  Is it possible to have another Golden Ticket Opportunity to shadow or observe Trisha again! I don't know for now I have so much in my head from her session.  I end with this thought as I prepare for next week in my classrooms!

So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you. Willa Wonka

What did I learn at CUE conference?

So, I have returned from the CUE conference and I have settled into my Spring Break schedule which consists of a lot of catch up. I am preparing to do my taxes, cleaning closets and watching movies I never get to watch. I also have the great fun of picking my kiddos up from school for a week. They love as much as I do. No, Spring Break trip this year. Just enjoying a slower pace of life.

Let's talk about CUE before I continue to ramble on. I had a great experience at CUE as usual. It keeps me in touch with the techies teachers and inspires my creativity every time.

1. So, a while back I watched this super cool video by Dan Meyer and I applied some of his strategies in a 2nd grade classroom and they worked.

Well, Hello!!! guess who is the opening keynote at CUE, Dan the High School Math Teacher. GREAT and inspiring again his original TED talk was called: Math class needs a Makeover. You can find it on my post  in October.

Dan has many great ideas, I love his new message of Perplexity and how we need to provide students with perplexity in the math classroom beyond adding their names to the word problem.
I have started following this guy on twitter because I need to be around amazing minds like this.  Here is the link to my previous post about Dan but I intend to try out an idea in one of my classrooms next week based on his new ideas about Perplexity that he shared with us at CUE.

2. Levar Burton aka Reading Rainbow guy aka Jordy. This is not the learning you would expect but I did learn about Levar Burton. So, I am working the registration booth at the CUE conference and a registrant runs (speed walks) in swishing their conference tote side to side clutching their ipad mini, and says"Which way to Jordy?" I just starred at her. (insert puzzled face) Then they lady next to me says"  That way down the hallway." I pretended that I knew what was going on and continued my job while thinking: Who the heck is Jordy?????
Then the group of registrant volunteers gathers and says did you see the tweet about " Jordy and Khan (Sal Khan of Khan academy closing keynote) together at CUE, then they belt out these belly jerking laughs, some of them threw their heads back and fist pumped each other. In my head I am thinking WHAT? One of the volunteers asks"Are you a Trekkie?" I shook my head "NO".  She explained that Jordy is the character Levar Burton played on Star Trek and Khan is an infamous bad guy from Star Trek as well ( not the Khan academy Khan).  WHO Knew Not Me?  But now I know! And here it is: THank YOu Willam Shatner! and my husband who upon me returning from CUE said" You do not need to be a Trekkie to know about this Khan moment, it is iconic." I have watched and I am now sharing this video in case you have not seen it or don't know about Khan, then you want have an awkward moment at a CUE conference like me ya know just trying to help out.


3. You know what a GOOGLE SLAM is? Well its always a good time. They don't even have to try GOOGLE SLAM is a good time. (In my head I hear the Carly Rae song "It's always a Good Time.")

Here were the SLAMMERS. Megan Ellis ,

JR Ginex-Orinion, Lisa Highfill,Karl Lindgren-Streicher,Diane Main,Joe Wood all worth following on Twitter. LOVE Twitter super fast quick PD. 

This is one of my favorite things that would make you look super cool as a teacher or doing PD try google speak to search for something but test out what you want to search for before hand because  similar to another friend on the iphone it is not always accurate. This would be a great tool for younger students to do searches without having to type and build language skills. I am thinking ask the students a driving question " What would we ask google to help us find information about Pandas? What words would best help google know what we want?
I would love to hear what they say. This could be a possible mini lesson on being concise and making your message clear.  WORD CHOICE writing lesson ;)

  Google SLAM session continued! So, the session was packed (with people and info) but it ended with this. Gotta love it! I would love to make one of these videos when I go back to work.

Well there they are 3Three things I learned at CUE but there are so many way too many for this one post. My head is full again and that is why I love going to CUE! Enjoy this video!!!

Is it Spring Break Yet?

Is it Spring Break Yet? and Who goes to a conference two days before spring Break? I go to a conference two days before Spring Break. So, I spent this week dreaming literally dreaming about the amazing PD I was going to attend the week before spring break. It is like a Smorgasborg of Great PD. I could barely focus on my day job. I mean it is the kind of PD that just makes you giddy. First of all it is the week before SPRINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG BREAAAAAAAAAAAAK!I should have been counting days until I get to sleep in well sorta sleep in my babies are not on Spring Break with me so I will be at their school. NO not me I was counting down the days until Tuesday Night Wahooooo! So,Tuesday Afternoon, I meet with a cohort group of fellowship Alumnus and about 4 of them had just returned from, the amazing and overloading Teacher's College Reading and Writing Workshop at University of Columbia. They were such lucky ducks(not really they have been working at this for over 10 years,I observed at their school a couple of years ago and holy moly gucamole it was amazing) but they did get a really big grant and they flew out to NY and attended a 4 day training on Informational Reading and Writing integrated with Science and Social Studies. Say that three times. It is a mouthful but boy oh boy the juicy nuggets of goodness that they shared were amazing. I can not wait to begin experimenting with them. Thanks Ms. Tara from Louisiana. So, 7:00 pm sharing time finished 8:30 parking lot discussion with teacher buds I do not get to see everyday anymore ends. INSERT SAD WIMPER! :( Oh did I forget the assessments, the looks the stares the OH YEAH's the assessments are sooo cool. I will post about this soon. If you cannot wait check out the TCWRP website.

 Let's move on to Wednesday afternoon, where oh where am I going. That's right you guessed it more PD. This was not as delightful as Tuesday but equally as cool. It was EDCALIBUR. It is a online lesson plan, data management tool. I have not fully explored it but it has a great calendar tool for planning and sharing lessons online. As I am typing I am thinking this needs to be combined with a Confer App, Daily Pensieve, or Chronicles App (found out about Chronicles Tuesday Night) to really pull you lessons, conferring, strategy groups lessons, and data to drive instruction.

 And now Wednesday Night I am writing this blog, doing laundry,setting up my sched. for the CUE CONFERENCE. Yeah! for CUE. My Husband will be Dad and Mom for the next few days. (Please if you see my children with messy hair and/or mismatch clothes, do not make fun of them their dad did his best) My teacher friends who have never been to CUE are like oh you get to chill out and relax. No Way Jose you have to pack tennis shoe, jeans and cute tops for the evenings of networking. The day starts at 6:30am when we start walking to the Convention Center with all the other crazy teachers. Then we speed walking from one session to the next sometimes waiting in line for the Apple Sessions, sitting on concrete in hallways like we are kids again waiting for concert tix. Gotta leave it to Apple to make their sessions ticket only sessions. Then in between sessions  we are all trying to find outlets to charge your tech support systems, smartphone, tablet, laptop. I just found out one of the most amazing math teachers will be at the conference. So, Cha Cha Cha for that!

Well, I am super excited to learn a bunch at CUE and then if I make it through the Conference then I can enjoy SRPIINNNNNNG BREAAAAAAK! So, the question is:
Is It Spring Break Yet? No, but I don't care I am too busy and geeked out to care.