Crayola Experience

I had the opportunity last year to work with Crayola to develop this video.  It was filmed at my school and most of the artwork you see on the walls (fractured hearts, impressionist imposters etc.) was done in my classroom.  This amazing experience detailed our development of a Creative Leadership Team in our school and how we taught our teachers to set aside some emotional baggage they had when it came to arts integration. The staff from Crayola filmed at our school for 3 days and were the ultimate professionals. Enjoy the video!

Project Based Learning

Students in my classroom have ample opportunities to develop social skills and confidence through role play, class meetings, and student led read alouds, just to name a few. In this living biography picture, we see one of my students dressed as her favorite female historical figure (Pocahontas) reading her favorite book to the class.  

 Other Examples of Project Based Learning in my classroom:

Students enjoy using the iPad to create podcasts about topics they  are experts in.  These students created a podcast about Savannah, GA and the historical figures they studied that were from Savannah.  Students are responsible for creating the script and researching the content for their podcasts.

 

I enjoy integrating the arts as often as I can in my classroom.  This has been possible through numerous trainings on art technique and differentiation instruction.  I have had the opportunity to lead staff development on these topics for all teachers at my school.  If you are in the Atlanta are and would like to know more about integrating the arts at your school please contact ArtsNOW.  Our school has partnered with them for the last 3 years and their training has been more valuable than any other training I have participated in.  

3-D Trees:

Standards: S2E3. Students will observe and record changes in their surroundings and infer the causes of the changes. (a.) Recognize effects that occur in a specific area caused by weather, plants, animals, and/or people.

Students used the mosaic art form to create a 3-D model of what a deciduous tree looks like in all 4 seasons. 

Readers' Theater:
I believe it is important to TEACH the skills needed to read a script.  Readers' Theater is a great way to teach students to read fluently with expression and projection.  This is a presentation I created using Haiku Deck to teach proper script reading for my 2nd graders. 

 

Beginning Blend Project: 

Students researched blends and digraphs for this poster project.  Since this was a student led project, I noticed that they were more involved and excited about the topic.  

 

A Tour of My Classroom

Every productive classroom needs rules!  This is how they are displayed in my classroom.  I use anagrams for a lot of things around my room.  The students seem to remember things better this way.  

This picture illustrates the importance of collaboration in my classroom.  Students are arranged in heterogeneous groups and collaborate throughout the day in order to foster a sense of community and cooperation.

  

Students participate in learning stations (centers) while I pull students in small groups.  As long as you have rules and procedures established this flows smoothly.

I developed these vowel characters and the Story of Mother Vowel to help my first and second graders distinguish between long and short vowel sounds and to recognize vowel patterns within words.

This academic gallery was produced after an artist/author study of Chris Van Allsburg in December.  Students researched the life of the author and used one of his illustrations to produce an original creative writing piece.

We concluded our unit with a Polar Express Day where students drank hot chocolate in their pajamas and read their favorite Chris Van Allsburg stories to the class.

 

I use many graphic organizers throughout the year in order to teach to mastery and assess understanding. This is especially helpful to students in the primary grades where concepts such as comparing and contrasting can be difficult to understand.

The T.A.P.E. method is used in both reading and writing to deepen understanding of a text.  The tier it up word webs are used to increase vocabulary and comfort with writing “dangerous” words.