My How Times Have Changed

One of the stories I read to my class every year as part of a unit on friendship, is the story of Jackie Robinson. Today was the day to read it to this year's class. I did it this year without crying. That was a first.

Jackie Robinson was the first black man to leave the Negro Leagues and play Major League Baseball. It was radical and provocative and attracted a lot of emotion. Luckily, Jackie Robinson had Pee Wee Reese on his team - a man who recognized something had to change.

I find the stories of segregation and of how people treated people because of their skin colour embarrassing.  I do, however, find great comfort in how shocked my students are to hear about segregation and of the apathy people showed at that time. My students sit with their mouths gaped open as I explain what segregation means. The idea of having a league based on skin colour was bizarre to them. When I tell them about hotels not letting black people stay there and restaurants not serving black people, and fountains for white people and fountains for black people, they sneer at me. They don't believe me. When I tell them this really did happen they look at me like I must be kidding. There is so much more...but I only tell them a little....a little of the Jackie Robinson story.

I am so grateful that I live in a time where people aren't treated differently (well, not to the same degree) because of their skin colour. I hope one day our society will get even better at it. 

 I am grateful for the pure hearts of children. I try to be more like them.

Kahoot!

Last week I went to a great conference. One of the amazing things about the conference was that at meals people were so excited about the things they were learning that the conversations were often on just that.

One of my friends asked me if I had heard of Kahoot!. She hadn't and nor had I. She said that it had been mentioned in a number of workshops we attended. I decide I had to check it out.

Right away I knew it would be perfect for a workshop I have been asked to teach to a bunch of middle school boys. They want me to talk about study skills. Can you imagine anything higher on the "not interested" scale than that?? I figured I had to find a way to present the information in a fun way. Kahoot! Fits the bill!

My first day back I gave it a try. We just had a week off so in math we reviewed some of the concepts we had covered prior to the break. I was astounded at the buy in from the kids. They were very motivated and are eager to do it again!

Later I tried the same quiz with another group of kids. They are a group whose need a little more think time for math questions. I found some kids got frustrated with how quickly everything went. Some were very motivated, but those who had trouble with the concepts didn't seem to enjoy it much at all. They were frustrated. It moved too fast for them. I will have to be careful about when we use this.

Here is a vine of us playing Kahoot.

https://twitter.com/3affca_nwe/status/666318985877655553

Top 10 Things About ATLE Conf

I was privileged to attend the ATLE Convergence Conference this week. It was interesting to rub shoulders with such confident and talented tech educators. Everyone was so positive and encouraging and clever!

Here are my top ten take always from the conference:

1. Rubbing shoulders with great people was amazing. I got to hang out with the tech team from my school board as well as a few teachers as well. I met all sorts of vendors that had amazing products. I had lunch with the SMART people (have I mentioned that I love SMART? I love that company!). Because some of our tech team was very involved in this conference and because some of them are well connected, I got to meet and have good conversations with tech experts from many different organizations. These are great people!

2. Robots and coding....these two things are big, and I really know nothing about them. This is something I have to work on.

3. Food! The food at this conference was awesome! The venue (BMO center) was great too. It is very convenient to get to and  a beautiful facility.

Image from: http://venues.calgarystampede.com/venues/bmo-centre/

4. Great examples of using tech while teaching. One of the key note used a back channel. I have heard of back channels but have never used one. It was fun!  Even the way the conference was organized was exemplary for those of us trying to use technology to make work easier. There were no printed schedules. Everything was on-line. Some things were changed and added as we went and everyone had immediate access to it. Amazing!

5. Twitter: it was fun to be around people who easily and often use Twitter!

6.  New ideas for teaching: I went to a coup workshops for apps that I have used a fair bit. It was well worth the time just to get a few new ideas. One thing is for sure: there is no one way to use technology in the classroom. They key is knowing your audience, working within your jurisdictions requirements, and getting creative. Lunch with other FFCA colleagues was so fun. Everyone seemed to talk non-stop about the conference and cool things they were learning. There was a lot of: you have to check out ......this app or that Web 2.0 tool. I did and they ARE amazing. I am getting ready to introduce them to the staff at my school when we return from Fall Break next week.

7. Prizes! They give away great prizes at this conference! 

8. Google educators: I attended as many workshops as I could in Google tools. I am sold. Google does some amazing things for education. When I grow up, I want to get a Google certified teacher too!

Image from: http://www.karegivers.org/2014/08/cur-educ-ation.html

9. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach was the last key note speaker. This is one well versed tech guru!! She knows her stuff. She has a company that does webinars for educators. I receive her emails regularly. I think she is on the cutting edge of PD. Amazing.

10. The Daring Librarian, Gwyneth Jones, was the keynote speaker on Sunday night. What a hoot she was!! I loved her fun style. She was so gracious. I tweeted her and she said to be sure to come say hi. I did, and she remembered my name each time I talked to her! I was so impressed. So is by gracious and friendly. She really knows her stuff too. When I grow up, I want to go around inspiring people like she does. 

Me, The Daring Librarian, and the great, Salima Hudani who I get to work with.

Wild Readers

I am not sure how I came across Donalyn Miller. It may have been that I started following the blog she started called The Nerdy Book Club. When I read what she wrote it struck a chord with me. I bought her book, The Book Whisperer and ate it up. Later, I did the same thing with her second book, Wild Readers. I was more than thrilled when I discovered that others in my school district had also discovered her work and were studying it. This year all the elementary schools in our school district began studying this topic. Our first PD days were dedicated to this topic. Yesterday my grade level team spent an hour and a half with Patti, an expert FFCA hired to help us work on issues specific to our grade. It was inspiring to spend time with her. She was chalk full of ideas. She seems to know our Open Court program well and appreciates the good in it and had great ideas for building on it. I left totally inspire and ready to try some of her suggestions. 

Novel Study: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

We have been doing a novel study in our classroom.

I read this book a few years ago and I must say that reading it with my class really took the reading experience to a new level. 

There are actually two stories in this book. One story is Ben's and is told through text. The other story is Rose's and it is told through pictures. Brian Selznick's drawings are extremely detailed. We enjoyed looking at the pictures and discovering details that helped us not only figure out Rose's story, but also to make connections to Ben's story.

The exciting news is that Wonderstruck is going to be made into a movie. We plan to get together and watch it when it finally comes out.

Why I Love This Place

This has been an amazing week. So many wonderful things come out of our school!

• I am amazed at what the talented people here can draw out of kids. Seriously! That was one well put together production (again). Watching otherwise timid children sing their hearts out makes my heart swell and makes my eyes leak.
• I love it when I come to school and a silly early hour (oh the swimmer parent's life!) and find maintenance guys here before me, building who knows what they're building, to pull off just what we need to make sets work. Who squeezes in an extra task like that?! Guys that are willing to start working at 6:00 am, that's who! They were in an out before anyone even knew.
•  I love how we celebrate everyone's birthday. Birthdays are a big deal to kids and that seems to even spill over to adults. It is nice to take time to let people know they are special to us.
• I am continually amazed at the organization it takes to pull off a day like today: schedules, equipment, creative games, volunteers.....seriously. No one does "sports day" like we do.
• I love it that we aren't afraid to cry when someone says good bye. There are some deep friendships in this place.
• I love it that the superintendent takes time to come watch our kids perform. I never saw a superintendent at any of my or any of my kids concerts.....ever.
• I love it that everyone here works so tirelessly. I can't believe how much people in this building can squeeze into a month. Sometimes, when I mention things happening to my husband, he reminds me how much gets packed into this place. I love it that I work with people who are just willing to go and go and go and go. There is no end to the talent/energy in this place.
• Every time we have something happen (birthdays, assemblies, concerts, ever active day) there is a long thread of compliments and thank you's. People don't always do that. I love that about this place. Everyone here thinks to thank.
• I am amazed at how assembly after assembly never gets old. They are always are so touching. They warm my heart. Whoever thought a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds could pack a message with such punch? The things those kids are learning and sharing are really the most important things in life. If only every kid in this world got to spend time focused on such important things. I wonder how that would change the world?
• I love it when someone comes up with some hair-brained idea like a book tournament in the middle of plays and assemblies and getting ready for Trickster, everyone just says sure, grabs the books, and plays along.
• I love being able to see my students in different situations. I see them in a new way when they perform and when they play all day. Sometimes I think we should do these things earlier in the year. Why didn't I know this about that kid until now?
• I love it how when something weird comes up (no courtyard Monday?!) there is a quick and easy plan and it really is no big deal. No grumbling. No fuss. Everyone just rolls with it.
• I love how parents are so involved and so supportive: In the middle of all this craziness today some parent thinks to bring us samosas. What a nice treat after a long day!

....and that is just a start.

My heart is full. I work with some amazing people.

There's something magical about this place.

Team Building

Our school has spent a lot of time and money learning how to use Kagan. I have never really been a pro at it and so I set a goal this year to do more of it.

One thing I plan to do more of is team building. Today we did a Kagan activity called My Life in Film.

They had to write or draw something about their family, about their favorite subject, and what they like to do after school and on weekends. The trick was one of them had to be a "fib".

We did "Stand up,  Hands up, Pair up" to share and guess which were the fibs. It was a big hit. It was a fun way to get to know each other a little better.

The funny thing was they all thought the antennae on the TV were legs for the TV. It only came up because someone asked, "Why would a TV have legs, anyway?" (Many TVs hang on the wall or sit on a stand in their world).

Oh how things have changed!

Spring Concert

The people who work in this school are absolutely brilliant. Every year when we have our Spring Concert I am amazed at what they pull out of these children. This year the show was called Bugz.



Our grade 3 students sang a beautiful song. It was mellow and lovely. I was so proud of them. They sang beautifully.



At the end, everyone joins in the final number, even the children who have gone back to the auditorium seats after performing.

Like Good Canadians Should....

Playoff fever has taken over: 

Watching hockey with their free time

Writing In The New Age

We are working on a new writing project. We have a short deadline, so I decided we would try doing our writing in Word to save having to do a rough copy and a good copy and to make editing easier. I made a template with all the parts of the story we have learned through Barbara Mariconda writing. They then worked on their own stories.

There was some serious teaching going on! We learned how to use word suggestion (no more, "Mrs. Ackroyd, how do you spell....), what the red squiggly lines mean ( there is a word there to correct), how to use the undo button to get back mistakenly deleted work, to save every few minutes (we used a timer to remind ourself), what the save icon even is (did you know none of the have ever even seen a floppy disk??), that you need to put a space after punctuation, green squiggly lines reminded us to put capitals in some places, how to save your own version of a document, and more!!

It was an incredible day of learning!

This was the timer tool we used. Every 5 minutes it would ring and remind us to save what we had written so far.

Dad's Balls

Conversation this morning as we were coming into the school:

Student: Mrs. Ackroyd, you know my dad's balls?

Me: Pardon?

Student: You know.....my dad's balls?

Me: okay.... (Thinking: oh dear....where is this going?)

Student: He used to have LOTS of hair!

Me: OH!! Your dad's bald!!!

Super Powers of Mothers

We brainstormed Super powers that mothers have. It was quite entertaining!

(Excuse the nasty cardboard we wrote on..We ran out of paper on our pad!)

Expediting Learning With Technology

Today we worked on solving riddles* with number lines. This was the riddle today:

A messenger pigeon flies 3 km in an hour.

How long will it take this pigeon to carry a letter to a person who lives 21 km away from the sender?

The pigeon sets out at 1:00 pm. When will it reach the addressee?  

I have been trying to find ways for students to find errors. This problem was tricky for us. Some students said the pigeon would arrive at 6:00, some said 7:00 and others said 8:00.

I took a picture with my iPad of the work with students who got different answers. I projected the pictures on the SMART board and had students talk with their shoulder partner about where the student went wrong.

The discussions were amazing! 

*(We have taken to calling word problems riddles. It is much more fun that way!)

Danger! No Reading!

Well, books are rather pokey. They could be dangerous. (/sarcasm off)



An eight-year-old girl in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. was told she's no longer allowed to read books on the school bus because it poses a risk to the safety of other students.
​Sarah Auger loves reading and used to enjoy using her 20-minute ride to and from school to read for pleasure.
But recently, her bus driver told her she had to stop.
She says she was told reading posed a risk to other students on the bus.
He suggested they might stand up to see what she was reading, or she might poke herself in the eye with the corners of the book.

Father wants rule changed

The no-reading rule is not sitting well with her father, Daniel Abel.
Abel says he's proud of his daughter for loving to read, and wants to encourage her to do so as often as possible.
He wants to see the rule on her school bus change.
"I find it stupid and useless," he said.
Abel complained to the school board, which deferred to the driver, saying the person who drives the bus is allowed to make the rules.
"The responsibility of a school bus driver is to transport students safely," said Mario Champagne, general secretary and director of communications for the Hautes-Rivière school board.
In a statement, the board concedes that "obviously" reading is not dangerous.
The statement also specified that personal belongings of students, including books, must stay in their bags during the duration of their trip home.

So focused!

Can we skip science and keep writing?

If only I could figure out what prompted this love for writing!

Morning Supervision Conversations

I love being on supervision in the mornings. The things kids say are hilarious. One of the more interesting conversations this morning:

Student: Mrs. Ackroyd, my back is really sore.

 Me: Oh dear. Why?

 Student: I cast a spell on myself to grow wings. I think it's working.

Fridays: Reading Response

I love Fridays. That's when we write about what we've been reading all week.

My students are getting better and better at writing about what they've been reading. One of the turning points was when I started doing the same thing. I first share a post about what I've been reading that week.  It has made all the difference in improving how they talk about what they've been reading.

Go figure.

Choice in Reading

Others at my school grapple with teaching reading just as I do. I spend a lot of time reading and thinking and trying to plan ways to get my students excited about reading and turn them into life long readers.

Donalyn Miller says, “Students will read if we give them the books, the time, and the enthusiastic encouragement to do so. If we make them wait for the one unit a year in which they are allowed to choose their own books and become readers, they may never read at all. To keep our students reading, we have to let them." ~ pg. 177”
― Donalyn Miller, The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child

Others say carefully selected texts read in a "close reading" style is important.

What's a teacher to do? I tend to think a balanance of each is key.

My students who struggle seem to do better with guided, close reading experiences.

They are also the ones who don't always choose to read on their own.

Is that because I'm not giving them choice? Or is that because they still need to strengthen their skills so they can enjoy independent reading well?

This is one of my more dedicated readers. Notice the book in his desk? We were reading a story all together from our anthology. He wasn't that interested in it, (Frankly, nor was I.) I tried to snap a pic of him reading it inside his desk - but he was pretty aware I was watching him. Just that says a lot! :)

 

He had a book hidden in his desk that he was trying to read while we read a class story.

 

As soon as he was finished the computer work we did about the story he was quick to pull out his book and get to reading something he wanted to read.

 

 

My dilemma...

How much choice to give?

Are group reads valuable?

How do I balance it?

Geoboard Apps

I know manipulatives are important. I really should use them more in math.

Do you know the madness of it though?!

Little plastic shapes on the floor, on the desks, everywhere!!

Ta gram pieces missing. Who's missing a rhombus?! Who!

Broken elastics on geoboards. Snap! Owwwww!

We are not playing with lego. We are showing tens and ones.

Sometimes I just can't take it and back to pencil and paper we go.

Today we we're supposed to use geoboards. I remembered that we had an app for that. What a difference it made!! The kids were really keen to use them. I didn't even show them how to use the app. They played around and figured it out quickly. They had a challenge question to solve. I quickly showed them how to take a screen shot and airdrop their solution to me. 

It was amazing! 

Yea for technology! It makes life better, for sure.

The challenge we were trying to solve was to make a bigger triangle out of two triangles and a square. We couldn't do it with flat shapes yesterday - but we figured it out on the geoboards today!

nope. Not quite right.

Uh, you have to use elastics, not draw.

You got it!!

Another answer!

Kirby Larson's Blog

Head on over to Kirby Larson's blog and you will see ME! Moi! Dawn!! I'm featured on her "Teacher Tuesday" blog post.

Kirby Larson is a wonderful author. I loved her books Hattie Big Sky, Hattie Ever After and The Friendship Doll. I need to find a way to use those in my classroom soon!

ReThink Charter School

There's a new kid on the block:

The educators involved with this are brilliant people. I am excited to see this new school evolve.

Wellness Week

Our school has a knack for fitting more into a week than is even comprehendable. This week, with all the fun of getting ready for Spring Break, wrapping up units, writing poetry, service learning and more we threw in Wellness Week. We had daily body breaks. We learned new songs. We danced. We sang. We had smoothies for everyone. And we prepared for an awesome assembly.

Reader's Theatre: veggies are snacks too!

Get up and dance!

Casual Day Surprises

Our AP is more fun than your AP!

Notice the red runners that complete the ensemble.....

She embraces every casual day theme with gusto! Today as dress up day. It is a tickle trunk extravaganza! 

She even changes throughout the day. We sure love her! Thanks for the laughs you bring! 

Appreciated Accolades

Sometimes you wonder if all the work you do makes any difference. It's so nice to get emails like this now and then:

Hi Everyone,

    

We wanted to thank you all so much for your participation in the Book Battle for the past few months! 

    

We can’t explain to you how much impact this has had on [our daughter's] reading and even the rest of our family reading time.  We have enjoyed all the books that were chosen and love to see the excitement in our daughter’s face.

    

When I  was growing up I did not read and thought I didn’t like it.  I think it is because I didn’t have the right people to show me how to embrace reading.  Since grade 3 (book club) [our daughter] has become such a passionate reader and we thank you ALL for your influence on her passion for reading now.

    

Thanks AGAIN for going above and beyond!

The truth is, I'd keep doing this stuff even without the lovely pats on the head. I love it. It is so great to hear the parent's perspective though. The more I read about the importance of reading and the more I see it make a difference in kid's lives the more motivated I get to put work into it. The bonus is that it's really fun too.

The Battle of the Books night was interesting. Truthfully, if I had to do the questions they had I wouldn't have done very well. I'm not good at remembering details from books, especially way after the fact. It's interesting to see what sticks with certain people though.

Bottom line is: I love the feeling of a story. I get lost in it. I guess whne it's over it leave me and I move on to the next one! LOL

 

Battle of the Books!

This year I got to be involved with our grade four student's Battle of the Books. We started in about October with a list of five books. Students formed teams and asked a teacher to work with their group.  Some groups met often, others less often. Some groups assigned book experts, others read every book. We all met together after school and that is where the battling began!

The teams:

And of course, there was food:

We had a great time!

These are girls after my own heart!

Free Friday

I believe choice in the classroom is really important. I also believe there needs to be time for free play. It is a complicated dance for me as I try to plan activities best for learning. One thing that has become really beneficial in my classroom is Free Friday. It is amazing what 15 minutes of whatever you want to do can be a benefit. 

We actually take 20 minutes for Free Friday. If students had days where they neglected to do homework or didn't get their agenda signed they have to sit out the first 15 minutes of Free Friday. We rarely have anyone sit out. Bonus: parents are signing agendas each day and staying informed about their child's work and homework is being completed. 

I do have a couple rules though. Kids have to be caught up on their work. They have to first catch up before they can play. They also have to have a clean desk. For those who can't quite figure out how to keep their desk clean all week, they at least get it clean on Friday. I believe that is important so that kids can stay organized. 

During Free Friday some kids choose to do their homework.

Some choose to play with electronics.

Some draw and do crafts.

And some enjoy some good old pretend play.

Measuring Perimeter

We are learning about perimeter. So many things to measure. So little time.