Blogging Buddies

Hi ISTE Blogging Buddies! 
The first step to change is admitting you have a problem, right? Well then, Hello, My name is Jessica and I am a lazy blogger.  

Can you relate? 

I have always loved reading educational blogs.  Some of my best lessons and professional developments have come from reading and implementing ideas found in blogs.  So when I started my blog a few years ago, I thought writing would come naturally.  I had so many ideas to share. Boy was I wrong! 

While at EdCampAtlanta last weekend there was a session on staying motivated as a blogger.  One attendee mentioned ISTE Blogging Buddies.  I looked into it and signed up right then and there! 

Blogging for me is a very personal thing.  I feel like I am letting people see the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I began to feel very venerable which is why I ultimately stopped blogging.   I now realize that the "bad and the ugly" are just as important to explore as"the good".  

So I am writing a new Mission Statement for my blog to help me stay focused.  I found great guidelines for writing a blog mission statement on a blog called CoSchedule. I want to do this right so I'm going to take a few days to get my thoughts organized.  Hopefully, I'll be able to unveil my Blog Mission Statement in my next post.  

Do you have a mission statement for your blog? If not here are a few resources: 
Why You Need A Blog Mission Statement and How to Create One

How To Write A Daring Blog Mission Statement

Happy Blogging! 
Jess

New Beginnings!

I am excited to announce that I will become a part of the Unity Grove family in Henry County next year.  I will be joining the third grade team and teaching a talented and gifted (TAG) class.  The school is adopting a project based learning focus that I am looking forward to.  I have learned a lot about project based learning in the past few years and hope to bring some new ideas to my new team.  

With new beginnings comes a sense of closure.  I have been blessed to be at a school for the past 8 years with many friends and talented colleagues.  Leaving Jackson Elementary is bittersweet.  My administrators always supported me and my ideas (although they probably thought I was crazy for wanting to do some of the things I did i.e. see through bird feeders on our class windows and having a leopard gecko as a class pet that wandered around our class), but they always supporterd and even encouraged me.  I am leaving behind families where I have taught 2 or 3 siblings, a community of supportive parents, and colleagues that have become friends.  

I look forward to getting to know a new group of students, teachers, and administrators as this new chapter of my life begins.     

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.

Donors Choose

I have to spread the word about this wonderful website! I have been posting grants on Donors Choose since 2007 and have received over $7,000 in funding for my classroom.  I have received everything from basic school supplies to a new iPad.  It is amazing to me that there are generous souls out there willing to support projects for students and teachers they have never met.  

If you are a teacher RUN to this website and post a project! With the economic downturn in the past couple years, I have noticed that funding is not coming as quickly as it used to.  However, you won't receive anything if you don't ask, right?

If you are a business owner, or community member that would like to be more involved RUN to this website to support a classroom in need.  Donors receive thank you letters from the children impacted by their donations.  These letters are so heart felt and inspiring.  I've had students cry over receiving a new backpack from a project I had funded.  If you're looking for a way to make a lasting impact look no further than Donors Choose! 

You can check out my projects at:

http://www.donorschoose.org/Mrs.Mercado

Resources from GaETC

Quite a few people were asking four our resources after our presentation at GaETC last week.  I've decided to make them available here for you as well as on the GaETC website.

Gadgets We Love

QR Codes

Evaluating Apps

Presentation

Our Favorite Apps

Please let me know if you have any trouble opening the links, I'd be more than happy to email them to you. 

My Challenge and Inspiration

As I said in an earlier post, a friend and I were selected to present at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference this week, and to say I was nervous would be an understatement.  Presenting to 300 educators was so far outside my comfort zone! However, I've always been one to step up to a challenge.  I like having something to look back on and say "Wow, if I did THAT then THIS won't be a problem at all!" I truly believe that the following reasons are why we were successful this week:

1) We were presenting on a topic we knew a lot about and believed was important. 
2) We have sat through many boring PL meetings and veered our presentation away from what we DIDN'T like about those meetings. 
3) We were prepared! I think we rehearsed that presentation more than 10 times together.

Since we were the last session on the last day of the conference we really didn't expect many people to come.  So, when we saw a crowd waiting to get into our session we were pleasantly surprised.  Then to hear from so many teachers after that were inspired by our presentation and excited about taking our ideas back to their classrooms was icing on the cake.  That's why we were really there.  To think that my ideas are inspiring students I have never met is amazing to me. 

By the way, I'm already thinking about what I will present next year :-)

Educational Technology Rock Star!

I am ashamed to admit that before this week I had never heard of Tony Vincent or his website learninginhand.com.  It's amazing how my approach to using technology in my classroom has changed since meeting and talking to Tony. 

Tony hosted 6 sessions at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference this past week with topics ranging from project based learning to productivity.  All 6 of his presentations can be found here: http://learninginhand.com/gaetc13 but there is something special about seeing him in person.  If your district is looking for ideas for professional development I would suggest contacting Tony Vincent. 

Georgia Educational Technology Conference

I'm excited to announce that Michele Liggins and I have been chosen to present at GAETC next week.  We are both so excited we have totally geeked out and gone out of our way to make sure our presentation is engaging and informative.

We are presenting a session called "iPads and iPods in the Primary Classroom" on Friday, November 8th at 11am.  This is right up our alley since we both use these devices on a daily basis with our students.  Michele has been doing some amazing things with her first graders and the iPods.  She's such an inspiration to me!  She was able to get 3 iPod carts for our school through grant writing and has led the Technology Committee for the past few years.   There's nobody I would rather share this experience with than Michele.  I know we are going to rock our presentation and have a great time!

When you come to our session you will walk away with the following capabilities: 

• An understanding of how you can use iPads to meet the digital requirements of Common Core State Standards.
• A tool to help you evaluate apps before you download them and use them in the classroom.
• Suggestions on how to manage use in the classroom.
• How to create, use, and implement QR codes in the classroom.
• A list of our favorite apps for reading, math, creativity, and management.
• Knowledge of grants that you can apply for to fund implementation in your classroom

All of our resources will also be available on the GAETC website if you can't make the session but are interested in reading more about our session.  

Back to School Goal

 

It's that time! We officially head back to school next week and among asking myself where the summer went I am also starting to think about my goals for the year.   I have been blessed to have consistently high test scores at the end of the school year, showing a great deal of growth, but I know I can do better.  Students are so much more than data points on a graph.  They are so much more than a CCRPI point or a highlighted name on a chart.  I m making it my mission this year to engage and reach each learner where they are.  

This means a lot of things to me.  I want to do a better job of getting to know my students' parents and where they come from.  I want to challenge their parents to take back their child's education and see how valuable it is for their future.  

I have always been  strong supporter of small group instruction.  I don't understand how some teachers (especially in the primary grades) don't see that differentiated time as a necessary part of their day.  This year I want to make our time together in small groups more meaningful.  I plan to do that by tossing out old small group plans that I have used for years and recreating what a small group looks like in my classroom.  I anticipate more on this to come in a follow up post, but for now I am committing to a massive overhaul of my small group instructional time. 

Close Reading & Technology Integration

I was looking for a quick and easy way to assess "close" reading and integrate technology when I discovered Google Drive Forms on Jennifer Jones' blog 'Hello Literacy' 

I almost jumped out of my chair when I realized that after the answers are collected on the form, Google automatically creates a spreadsheet of the answers. This feature is going to make scoring extended responses so much easier!

If you're interested in using Google Drive here are a couple useful links:
The Paperless Classroom
80 Ways to use Google Forms In Your Classroom

Must Have Monday- Organization

I don't know how I survived my first 7 years of teaching without this All-Purpose Organizer from Lakeshore.  The bins are the perfect size to hold all the resources I need for my day and I love the bright colors.  These past few years have been my most organized and I have to think it's partly because of this little contraption.  Thanks Lakeshore!

Cooperative Learning Groups

This past year I had a group of students that were not the most cooperative children in the world.  They had a lot of trouble getting along with each other so I decided to spend a great deal of time teaching them how to work in groups together.  

At first, I conducted a lot of research on how to build group dynamics and through the use of Morning Meetings (that will be another post) I discovered that my students were very dependent on an adult to solve their problems.  They hadn't  really developed social problem solving skills.  I realized I needed to take myself out of the group equation.

I was then awarded a grant from Crayola with a professional development about cooperative learning.  Learn more here. This inspired me and motivated me to continue working with my students on their group skills.  

In my class I assigned the following roles for our first Math cooperative learning experience and it worked rather well.

My students were assigned to one of 7 groups (4 students in each group).  The team captain was assigned but they had to decide amongst themselves who would do the other tasks.  The tasks were as follows:

Captain: Final decision maker when the group can not decide together (this kept them from running to me to solve disputes).

Recorder: This person wrote the answers that the group members decided on together.

Materials Manager: The only student in the group that was allowed to get out of their seat to retrieve materials.

Fact Checker: make sure the team is turning in quality work.  Double-check to make sure the recorder is recording the right information in the right place.  

I was amazed at how well the experience went! There was no arguing because their roles within the group were clearly defined.  We repeated cooperative learning groups many times throughout the year with the same results. When students were allowed to choose their roles within the group they seemed to have a sense of ownership with the assignment and the results. 

Educational Leadership

I really think this picture says it all. I have taught at 3 different schools in my career and have found that good leadership makes all the difference. The administration at a school can determine everything from teacher moral to student achievement.

In my opinion, an effective administrator is in touch with the climate of their school.   They are able to measure the morale and support of the staff by communicating and asking questions in a nonthreatening way.  They allow their staff to take risks and encourage innovative teaching styles. A good administrator is visible and professional.  When the staff, students, and parents know you care, they are more willing to go the extra mile for you.

Showing Some Appreciation

Our library assistant is leaving this week. She has been an amazing motivator for my students this year. We wanted to show our appreciation so I gave each student a colored index card and had them fold it so the lines were on the inside. This created mini-cards that we posted on a piece of poster board I had in my classroom.

Here are some of the notes from their cards:

"Thank you for helping me to become a better reader. It is because of you that I am going to 3rd grade."

"You are so nice. I like you. Thank you for helping me find books."

"I will be so sad not seeing you anymore. Thank you for helping me in the library"

What an Adventure!

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Welcome to my blog! 
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I am excited to share with you what I have learned in the past 10 years as an educator.  I have taught primary grades pretty exclusively (6 years in 1st grade and 4 years in 2nd grade) and I can't see myself doing anything else with my life.  I love my students and enjoy finding ways to make their educational journey exciting.  

I hope I can help both new and veteran teachers spice up their classrooms with my own personal stories and experiences.  I look forward to sharing both my successes and failures with you!  Happy reading!