Storybird

June 18, 2014

I really enjoyed creating a short children's storying using Storybird.  Even though the themed illustrations were limited with the free account, I was able to creatively use the available pictures to tell my story.  I wanted to tell a story about being happy with who you are.  I also wanted to tell a story about a turtle, because I just love turtles and my students know it! Unfortunately, school was out by the time I finished this Storybird tale, so I wasn't able to share it with this year's class during our folk tale unit.  I plan to share it next year during the same reading unit because it'could be used for a demonstration on determining the lesson or moral of a story.  The moral of this story is that no matter what others have, if you are content with what you have in life, then that is good enough.  I also tried to create a little rhythm in the text, so I could even use this during our poetry unit next year! 

End of School Fun

June 14, 2014

Yesterday was the last day of school! This school year went by so fast I could hardly believe it! I heard another teacher in the hall yesterday afternoon, going on to another colleague about how it was the longest year of their life, and I had to pop my head into the hallway and shout, “I disagree!” It always seems like the end of the year creeps up so fast after April vacation and I’m always trying to fit content from lessons I know I won’t get to into shorter versions of those lessons.  At the same time, I’m trying to make the final days of school as fun and memorable for the kids as I possibly can.  It helps that our final unit has to do with role-playing and discussing adaptations.  The students really enjoy the movie version of Charlotte’s Web.  I show them the cartoon (see below), because I’ve always been drawn to “originals”.  It’s always fun when a student comments, “Miss Luginbuhl—you made your voice sound just like the voice of the character in the movie!” That leads us back to inferring feelings, overall moods, and character traits, which also helps students write in their Reader’s Notebooks about overall similarities they noticed between the characters in the book and in the movie.   

The Culture of Teachers

June 10, 2014

I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of how I could put a name to the concept in my mind.  The only phrase I can come up with is “the culture of teachers”.  Most teachers I know follow this unwritten code of being the most caring, giving, selfless individuals around.  The more I talk to friends and family members in other professions, the more I appreciate my co-workers and the relationships I have with them.  We make each other amazingly scrumptious breakfasts each month for birthday celebrations, throw over-the-top baby and bridal showers for one another, willingly and without a second thought share materials we spent hours creating without ever begging for credit, and leave cards and flowers on each other’s desks just because it’s been a bit of a stressful week.  We are also loyal to each other, yet keep a very straight and professional face when an outsider whom we may never be rude to says something negative about the teacher down the hall who happens to be one of our best friends (but how should they know that…they’re not part of what we have).   Out of loyalty, grows friendship. Or is it the other way around? I tend to think that loyalty comes first in “the culture of teachers”.  Someone I know had a child in an elementaryclass in my district and one night at a gathering, this person made a comment that hinted that they were slightly dissatisfied with their child’s teacher over something she’d done.  I don’t remember exactly what the comment was but I remember defending that teacher and her probable reason for making the decision she made.  I had never even met that teacher, but I couldn’t stand the thought of her name being disgraced even in the most minor way when I know, deep down, how much heart and soul she must put into her job each and every day. In our culture, we not only give all we can to the children in our classrooms, but to each other as well.   

Ed and Alma's Grandchildren

June 6, 2014

My grampa Lug passed away this morning.  Just typing it right now makes it feel more real than it has all day.  I’ve kind of been in a daze all day but I’m blogging now (in a word document because I have no internet access at my gram and gramp’s) to release some tension.  Just ten days ago, I was sitting with my gramp on his couch, showing him one of the Animoto videos I made.  It was a slideshow of all his grandchildren and great-grandchildren set to the song “All Because Two People Fell in Love”, sung by Brad Paisley.  He absolutely loved it and I showed it to him three times in a row so he could fully appreciate each picture.  Little did he know, my mom was taking a video of us on her iPhone while we were watching the Animoto.  My gramp kept making little comments about various grandchildren and their spouses as photos flashed across the screen.  99% of Gramp’s comments would have made the people he was talking about laugh or smile if they heard them.  Of course, there was that comment that made my mom’s video un-showable, if you know what I mean! Oh, but we laughed! A smile just spread across my face to think of it.  And that was only ten days ago….significant changes don’t take long, I guess.  However, I am super grateful I learned how to produce a quality Animoto video and had the opportunity to show it to Gramp and Gram together, witnessing first-hand the joy it brought them.  I started the video with a picture of my gram and gramp when they were in their late thirties.  I’ll never forget my gram’s comment and the huge smile it put on Gramp’s face: “Oh, Eddy, look how handsome you are!”

Animoto project for class

June 3, 2014

My Animoto project for class had to do with our school motto: C.A.R.E.S.  It’s a motto adapted from the Responsive Classroom model, as we are a Responsive school.  The “C” stands for Cooperation.  The “A” is for Advocacy.  The “R” stands for Respect.  The “E” is for Empathy.  The “S” stands for Self-Control.  CARES is a big deal in our school.  Each day, I move a stick or two from the whole class jar into the CARES Award jar and those students know they will be recognized over the announcements on Friday for showing cooperation, advocacy, respect, empathy, or self-control.  Even when they’ve known since Monday afternoon that they’re getting a CARES award, they are still sitting on the edges of their seats with baited breath when announcements come over the loud speaker on Friday morning.  After the announcements, the principal and school librarian come to each classroom with awards in hand and a camera.  Those students get their names announced in front of the class again and the principal states what aspect of CARES they’re being recognized for.  Afterword, those students go into the hall to get a group picture taken.  That picture gets posted on our CARES board in the hall and is up for several weeks with other pictures of past recipients.  It’s quite a victory for those students! So, I created my Animoto for my new second grade class to view the first or second day of school in the fall.  It shows a definition of each aspect and what each aspect “looks like”, student-wise. 

Loving Animoto

June 1, 2014

Animoto is my newest favorite toy.  Yes, toy. Among the many reasons for the bags under my eyes lately because of lack of sleep is Animoto.  I have spent many nights in my bed, awake on my computer with my headphones in, creating until 2:00 am.  The first video I made was one of my fiancé and me, from the time we started dating eight years ago through our most recent photograph together.  I plan to show it to him the night before our wedding as a surprise (shhhh). I started making the video using the educator account we created for free but then upgraded and paid just $5.00 to get the videos to play through more than one song.  It was so worth it! I got to add all the pictures I wanted to my first slideshow creation (and I made myself cry each time I previewed the video after matching certain pictures to certain lyrics…because I’m corny like that…).

Reading A-Z

May 28, 2014

I fell in love with Reading A-Z materials this year.  When I received my  class’scumulative folders in August, I was taken aback by the fact that two-thirds of my class were below grade level, and out of that two-thirds, half were significantly below grade level.  The first thought that popped into my mind was, “I don’t have nearly enough leveled texts that are sixes, eights, tens, or twelves.” I downloaded as many free texts from the website as I could until it denied me further access.  Anyone who knows anything about this profession understands that teachers cannot just sign up and pay for membership to every educator website out there, or we’d really have diminished funds! So, I contacted my principal and he informed me that we had access as a school through our reading consultant’s log-in.  From that day on, my grade-level partner and I emailed our lists of desired leveled texts to be printed, and how many of each, to a friend in the administrative office (once again, we couldn’t afford to print them using our own ink, what with the cost of ink these days…). Having access to these materials made my teaching life much easier this school year as I planned my guided reading lessons for groups of students reading at and below level 14.  I also borrowed many text sets from our “reading room” and a few from the first grade teachers.  However, it was definitely the Reading A-Z texts and the variety from which to choose that helped me teach engaging small group lessons and fill my students’ reading bins with texts they could actually read with ease.