Cookin' Up Some Math and a Freebie

I have been unbelievably busy these past few weeks! You all know I went to see the infamous Lucy Calkins, been there, rode the ride, got the T-Shirt or in this case the book!

Well last Wednesday I had the opportunity to go see Math genius Marcy Cook. She has been around FOREVER, but I had never heard of her, crazy I know! It was a great session and just proved how far ahead of CCSS she was! Her stuff is so basic, yet so advanced, and there is no way I could come up with some of the things she created!

   

Never having seen her, I wasn't prepared for her outfit!  If you have seen her in person, you are already aware of her eccentricness.  I totally just made up that word! This pic just doesn't do it justice!  Do any of you use any of her stuff?

These bears were my favorite!

I have been so blessed in my new position to have received so much professional development while most departments are cutting these types of things from their budget, mine sees the value.  

I am happy to say that my spring break is fully intact and is just around the corner!!!!  It begins Thursday and my family will be heading down to Garden City Beach, SC.  My aunt lives there so its free which is a bonus and as an added bonus, my uncle retired from managing Krispy Kreme down there, so its free hot now doughnuts all around!!  I'll be a fat, red lobster when I leave!

I can't wait to get my toes in the sand!  Thursday can't come fast enough!

Lastly, I have a freebie for my dedicated readers.  I whipped up some new spring Boggle Letters.

(I forgot my external drive at school, so I had to steal borrow the pic from Pinterest!)

Head over to my TPT or TN to pick up your copy!  

D-Day

It's here!  It's finally here!  The day I have prepared all summer for is today.  I was asked back in March to do a presentation on the Reading and Writing Workshop for  my district.  Each year our awesome district puts on a 2 day conference loaded with a variety of topics and the best part is the whole thing is FREE!!  It is a great way for teachers to learn about the newest trends in education.

 I asked both my teammates if they would present with me....and they both said NO!!!!!!  (Thanks, Erica!)  In their defense, Erica knew she'd be back in Michigan and my other teammate isn't comfortable in front of other people  adults.  So that left little ol' me all by my lonesome.  I gave my self a pep talk and began preparing for the presentation.  I was told that my session would be capped at 30 people and was ok with that.

Fast forward to a week ago.  I got a call from Marilyn, the awesome planner of the conference, asking if I could do my presentation in a lecture hall!!!!!  WHAT!  Apparently my session had 30 people registered and 30 people on the waiting list!  So now my session is capped at 75 and over 60 people are registered!  I AM FREAKING OUT!  I know I can do this, but thats a lot of people!

Anyway, please send some good vibes my way!  I will be promoting lots of my favorite blogs :)


**Update!  I was so anxious, I finished my 1st Grade I Can Statements for math!!  Pick them up for free at my TpT!

Techie Tools Professional Development

I am privileged to be part of a group of technology leaders in my district called Pinnacle.  One of the requirements was to begin this blog.  I had never blogged prior to this year, and I honestly didn't see a reason to blog.  Boy was I wrong!!!!  I have learned so much from all of ya'll and I know that this is because of reading what you are doing in your own classrooms.  I would have missed out on so many new ideas that my kids have loved if I hadn't joined the blogging world.

Another requirement for Pinnacle is to lead professional development at my school.  This freaked me out!!!  I can talk all day in front of kids, but adults are another thing.  This has been the year of trainings at my school, so I decided to offer several different sessions on how to incorporate technology into the classroom.  Teachers were allowed to chose which sessions they wanted to attend and opt out of those they were already familiar with.  Overall the sessions went well and I didn't get tongue tied too often!

The first session I did was Blogger and Kidblog.  I LOVE my blog and all the wonderful bloggers I have met through the blog world and I wanted to share that with teachers at my school.  Have you ever used Kidblog?  I love it!  In the past, I have always started it with good intentions, and then let it fall to the side.  This year I have used it more consistently and in a variety of content areas.  If your interested in setting up your own Kidblog, here is the handout I used.

I also did sessions on Photostory and Audacity.  My kids love using these programs with digital storytelling.  Having iPods to use in my classroom, we use Audacity to create podcasts to share what we have learned about various topics.  Love doing this instead of a test!

My favorite session was the last one on using Voki.  What I love about Voki is the fact that it can be used with any age and it is EASY!  I showed my kiddos how to make their avatar once and they were off making their own.  Several kids even asked for the website so they could make them at home!

 
We were studying Presidents in our Government unit so I loved using Abe!

Last week we finished up our non-fiction reading workshop unit and my kiddos each created a Voki showcasing what they learned about.  It was a great way to celebrate the end of the unit.  Pick up my handout here 

If you haven't used these tools, check them out!  They are a great way to spice up lessons especially at this time of the year!