Great Reminder. . . .

As we approach this time of year I am thankful that for the first time in my 16 years of teaching I am not preparing students for a standardized state test.  That whole process is stressful for everyone, teachers, students, parents, and anyone else involved in the lives the people taking and administering these tests.  As I watch the 3rd-8th grade classes prepare to take the sample test for the new version of state tests, I am relieved my class is not having to endure what they are dealing with; but, I am also reminded that we all need a moment to step back and reflect.  These tests are only a snapshot of what each child complete at that point in time.  They do not reflect the true learning that has taken place all year long and can be swayed by so many factors ~ hunger, lack of sleep, losing the baseball game the night before, arguing with a sibling that morning, needing to pee but afraid to ask because they are in the middle of the "THE TEST."  I've seen so many factors make an impact and had many stomach aches; but, then I remind myself, these kids are more than a test score and I do more than teach to a test!

As all this has been on my mind today, I stumbled across this on Facebook and thought it was very appropriate and needed to be shared with all parents and students!

What makes it even more appropriate is that it came to me on the day I'm trying to figure out what to do with my youngest son and kindergarten next year.  He's very immature and lacks some of the academic abilities others his age are capable of; yet, I don't really want to hold him back from kindergarten because I think he'd be too bored in another year of preschool.  As I start comparing him to his older brother I have to stop and remind myself, it's not a race but a time of him to develop at his pace and with the right teacher guiding him, he'll be exactly where he needs to be when he needs to be there!

These ramblings may not make sense to anyone outside of my mind right now; but, I am grateful for this picture because it reminds me to quit worrying so much about how my child measures up against others and just allow him to be who he is!  

And yes, I do apply this to my classroom as well.  Goals are great; but, no students should have a set goal as the standard.  They should be individualized and set for the individual student to be able to meet their goal with a little work on their part.  That's why I like AR ~ I set the goals based on individual reading levels and students work to meet that goal.  Same with Rocket Math ~ goals are set on individual writing and process speed and students work to meet their individual goal.  It's not standardized as children are not standardized robots; therefore, we shouldn't teach to them as though they are.

Return from Spring Break

Unfortunately I had to be gone the first day back from Spring Break and the kids were forced to have a substitute teacher.  Fortunately, they are a great group of kids and I expected nothing less than the note telling me how great they are from the sub.  What I didn't expect was to find the clip chart filled with 5 students who moved their clip down.  After looking over who moved their clips down, 3 of them wasn't a big surprise as they are some of our more active boys and I've just learned to work with them.  Two of the students was a bit of a shock so we talked about what moved these 5 students down ~ nothing major, parents don't need to worry, no tags, no bench time just behavior reminders.

Here's what I loved during our talk!  The entire time I had a certain boy with his hand up and I kept telling him hold what he's thinking.  I'm imagining him telling on the boy I'm talking to and giving more information than what the "guilty" party is saying.  As I'm wrapping up our talk I find one of the clip down offenses was running back to class.  One girl says, "I was running with them too but I got to move my clip back up later so I wasn't down with them."  The boy with his hand up quickly nods his head and says, "Me too!"

I LOVE that these 2 kids ratted themselves out!  I would have never known their clips were moved down except they took responsibility and ownership of their actions and admitted it to me!  This is why I love this group of kids!  They are honest and ready to fess up their mistakes not knowing if consequences will be there or not.

The 5 who were on the "Verbal Warning" section of the chart were all worried and I could see the panic on their faces ~ I have to admit, I kind of enjoy that too!  I did draw it out a little as they waited to see if I was going to give a tag or bench time ~ of course I didn't; but, it was fun watching them sweat it out.

Yes, I love their honesty and responsible behaviors; but, I also love torturing them <insert evil laugh>!  In seriousness, parents, you have amazing kids and I am blessed to have the chance to be their teacher.  One even asked why I just don't move up with them next year to 3rd grade ~ some days I wish I could!

Lucky Day!

After hours of waiting, I find our class has won the Gripcase Instagram Giveaway I posted about yesterday!  Very exciting news; but, the day of good news didn't stop there!  At last night's Parent Booster Club meeting, my proposal was approved and they granted me $1,500 to use towards my iPad project!  I really didn't expect to receive anything as they are saving for other projects and other teachers hadn't come forward with any requests; but, after some discussion, they approved the donation!

I've already ordered the screen protectors and mini styluses from NoMoreRack.com.  I also ordered the Gripcase and stands.  I was able to take advantage of their BOGO offer and ordered 1 case and had another sent to the school.  As of right now, I have enough money to completely outfit 3 iPad2s for the class.  I may also be able to purchase an extra iPad2 for later use once I can get the money for another case, stand and screen protector!

I am very excited about this process and seeing it come to be a reality this year!  Once we return from Spring Break, we should have 2 iPads for every group of students.  I am currently working on planning what I hope will be fun and engaging unit for the kids.  I will be researching different uses for the iPads throughout this unit and hope to have the kids interacting regularly with the technology!

Competitions and Giveaways

At the beginning of baseball season I learned very fast I needed to have a class talk about good sportsmanship and competition.  We have some very competitive boys in this room and several were not on the same team and would playing against one another.  They have been great sports all season and I haven't heard of any problems coming to school with them!

I mention the above paragraph as an intro to this post because I guess I should have been listening to my own talk!  I'm a not a huge athlete and don't really follow sports; but, I am hugely competitive.  On the ball field, my students are hearing a different side to me (as are the parents!)  I don't see myself as "one of those" dads; but, yes, I do get in to the game and am very vocal!  I try to remember they are kids and I do encourage both teams for their good plays; but, nothing gets my blood pumping and energy flowing like watching my little boy out there playing ball ~ and when he makes a good hit, I'm yelling so loud everyone around probably wants me removed from the field.  But, luckily for my son, once the game is over, I'm over it too!  Tell him good job and we go about our night.

The sad thing is my competitive nature doesn't stop at just watching my kids play sports!  Often times companies will do promotional giveaways for teachers or classrooms.  Of course I'm on top of it trying to win the prize!  Recently an iPad case company I love (GripCase) was offering an iPad case and 2 accessories for the Instagram picture that was most original.  Knowing I'm trying to bring more iPads to our class, I wanted a free case and stand ~ one less I'll have to buy down the road!  So, I got busy thinking of ideas ~ and of course, being me, I couldn't stop at just one.  There were a total of around 12 pictures posted ~ 4 were mine!

The giveaway deadline was yesterday, and ever since I've been constantly checking Instagram, my e-mail and their Facebook page waiting to hear who the winner will be.  Last night they posted they would announce the winner today!  This morning, they began teasing us by posting a picture of one of the entries.  Soon it has become evident they are posting an entry every hour as they lead up to the final winner announcement.  So far, 3 of my 4 posts have been featured along with about 3 other posts.  I have one final shot at being the winning photo and I sure hope it wins!  Of course, my last entry wasn't exactly a photograph, it was a drawing my oldest son did for me and I may be biased but I REALLY think it deserves the prize ~ my idea with my son's artistic ability, really, there is no better combination!

Here's the drawing my son did for the contest as to why we deserve a GripCase, stand and neck strap:

Here's hoping we get selected for the prize because if not, I may be showing unsportsmanlike behavior and that would not be good role modeling :)

Today's AR Quizzes ~ Don't Blame Me!

I take NO credit for how today's AR quizzes turn out!  It's amazing how many students become ready to quiz on a book once you bring out iPads for the first time.  Hmm, no Mr. Price, we really are ready to quiz.  It has nothing to do with wanting to touch an iPad.  Yeah, I'm no fool!

The kids are doing great sharing and handling the devices for their first time out with them.  I did hear a drop and my heart sunk; but, luckily it was just a book that fell out of the way as a student was making room to put the iPad on his desk.

On a plus side, you wouldn't believe how quiet this reading time is in here today.  Not once have I had to remind them it's a quiet time ~ I wish I could say that was because of my great teaching of expectations; but, nope.  I know it's the fear of iPads being locked back up!

iPad Update

Two posts in one day, you won't know what to do with yourselves!

I was sitting here chuckling as I thought about this morning.  We were busy in class doing some things when Mr. Fritz came in to enter the WiFi password in to our class iPads.  I simply took the iPads to him as I continued reading to the kids and he did his thing.  As he gave me the thumbs up, I asked the kids what we can tell Mr. Fritz ~ at that moment their excitement unleashed and there was a thundering "THANK YOU MR. FRITZ!"  He walked out of the room chuckling at their enthusiasm.

Most of the kids knew it was for the WiFi; but, a few had hoped we had our e-mail addresses ready.  I explained what he had done and now they were set for me to begin my next step of putting apps in and setting them up for the kids.

Then, later in the afternoon I got a phone call from the office telling me a package I was looking for came in.  I said I'd come in after school to grab it.  I was just hanging up the phone when a couple students asked, "Did our last case come in?"  They already knew what we were talking about ~ hmm, they should have been working instead of eaves dropping :)

I'm not sure who is more excited, me or them!

That's NOT Fair!

How many times do you hear that whined at you in a day/week/month?  Oh my goodness, I could do with out the phrase, "That's not fair" in my classroom!  Today, we talked all about fairness ~ no, it's not on the approved standards list; but, I find some of our most valuable lessons can't be found in the state curriculum guides.

The conversation started with math ~ yep, some students need extra support than others.  Some need to draw their math out; while others can simply do the math in their head.  I wanted to ensure students knew their job was to do what they needed to do to be successful for themselves!  It doesn't matter what Susie Q needed to do, all that mattered was what they needed to have their own success.  That lead to this great quote:

I love this because I'm always talking to the kids about doing what they need to do to be successful ~ and this plays right up to that concept, using our word "successful" because that's what we want for our children.
Then we were reading from the read aloud.  In case you haven't heard, we are reading The House in the Big Woods.  It's part of the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  We got to a chapter today that began showing Laura's jealousy towards her big sister Mary.  And of course there was the famous phrase, "that's not fair" in the book.  (I just love when the ideas running through my head all coincide with each other and pop up in reading, math, writing, etc. . .)

Now we were talking about siblings and the "fairness" between them and I was reminded of a great illustration I've seen from time to time!  Parents, feel free to pull this up anytime your kids are bickering about fairness ~ it's a keeper for sure!  This image really shows the idea of fairness and led to a pretty good class conversation.

As I pointed out, the first picture shows fairness because they all got 1 box and so that's fair.  Boy, were your kids quick to tell me how wrong I was!  They were able to explain the idea was to see the game and so the 2nd picture showed fairness so they could ALL see the game. 

I'll be saving this picture to remind them that sometimes someone getting something you don't is still fair!