Skipping down the halls

It's April and it feels like most days come "in like a lion and out, um, like a lion."  State testing stress, tired staff members, the stomach flu (Really?  Again?) have all taken their toll.

And yet.  There are some things that send me practically skipping through the halls.  Last Friday was one of those "skipping through the halls" days.

I was looking for Mrs. Sedgwick, one of our first grade teachers, to ask her a question.  The class wasn't in their room.  They weren't in music class.  They weren't in the library.  You know where I found her?  She and her little people were all in Mrs. Schoonover's third grade room learning how to use KidBlog together.  All those little first graders were buddied up with an older and wiser third grader, learning how to blog.  And where were the teachers?  Standing at the back of the room, side by side, each with her laptop open, moderating the blog conversations.  Not a single kids was whining, complaining, avoiding, sleeping, or passive.  Engaged learning, indeed!

As if that weren't already enough to put an perma-educator-grin on my face, I went down the hall to Ms. Chandler's fourth grade class for a formal lesson observation.  You remember fourth grade, right?  Land of recorders and kickball and reading novels?  And Hot Wheel cars.

Recently, Ms. Chandler wrote away to the Mattel Corp. for a deal that they had called Speedometry.  Speedometry is a STEAM challenge using Hot Wheel Cars and tracks.  Children work in teams to design, build, and test their track designs.


It was amazing.  The kids were so focused and involved.  Once they built and tested their designs, they tried it out on other surfaces (changing just one variable of the experiment at a time).  I had so much fun watching them, I almost missed my next appointment!

I love seeing all the innovative, exciting teaching and learning that is happening at our school.  I love seeing the kids collaborating, being creative, using their critical thinking skills, and CARING!

Spring Break Reflections

Oh, Spring Break, how I needed you!  I may have optimistically blogged about a life of balance in January.  It was a good thought.  I just have no clue how to get there!

Now I find I have slogged my way through our late winter rains into this beautiful spring.  Mom, Dad, the dog, and I threw everything but the Easter ham into the car and drove 9ish hours to visit my brother and his boys in Nevada.  Beautiful, isn't it?

I enjoyed a week with nothing more pressing than one more game of Uno with Benjamin (age 12) and the rare Gabriel sighting (age 15) as he emerged from his teen gaming cave.

Yesterday's ride home was a great chance to play the endless show tunes soundtrack in my head (mostly The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music), since dad had the window open for hours making that lovely whap-whap-whap-whap noise that happens when open windows meet 60 mph on a highway.  The view was incredible:  the sparkling blue Trinity River, green trees graduating from oaks to pines to our lovely home redwoods, spring wildflowers in bloom.  It was also a good chance to reflect on where I am and where I am going.  No, not east on highway 299!  With my busy life and direction at school.

Reflection 1:  Where's the pep?  On the last day of school before spring break, I went to a workshop on Goggle apps led by Amy Fadeji.  Let me tell you, this lady has PEP!  And I don't think it's just because she's a tad younger than I am!  I am inspired by her buoyancy and optimism.  I want to be more like that too.  It's awfully easy to get bogged down in all that's not working; to get sucked into other people's drama.  But that truly doesn't help anyone.  It's time to lift those bags under my eyes and remember that there's more going right than going wrong.  There are certainly circumstances that I don't like that I have no control over.  So why do I let them drag me down?  More pep.  More smiles.  More Kindergarten hugs.  That's what I need.

Reflection 2:  Somehow I managed to make it through upper education without getting a post-grad degree.  Not a huge deal unless I ever decide to work outside my county.  I'm a known quantity here--not judged or evaluated by the degrees I've attained, but by the quality of my work.  Yet if I ever work outside this county, I am restricted by the degrees I do not have.  I am seriously thinking about doing an online masters course.  I have no doubt that I CAN do it, but the allocation of time concerns me.  Where in this busy life do I come up with approximately 15 hours each week?  And I throw words like "balance" around?  Well, as usual, I don't have it all figured out yet, nor have I thrown that first big tuition payment out there yet.

Reflection 3:  "High on a hill was a lonely goatherd!"  Did I mention the endless soundtrack in my head?

Refection 4:  Ah, the perennial spring attempt to lose weight before summer!  I'm joining a work-based Weight Watchers group.  We start on Wednesday, but I'm already armed with new plastic bowls for lunch salads and a shopping list filled with fruits, veggies, and lean protein.  :)

Happy spring, everyone.  I wish you luck, long days, and, if we're lucky, a bit of sunshine.  I'll be packing my bags with salad and pep as I head back to school on Monday.

Infusing Geography

A while back I posted thoughts on a video format for the morning message I share with the students every day.  The message content comes from Project Wisdom.  I use the Photo Booth app on my laptop and upload the video to both Google Drive and Youtube.  Youtube is sometimes hard to access with our safety filters, so this way teachers can choose the format that works best for them.

Recently, I have been playing with the custom backgrounds in the app.  I have been adding backgrounds of Moscow or San Francisco and asking students to guess where I am.  It's a little like the 90's show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.  (I had forgotten how great that theme song was!)

The content of my morning message is the same, but the effect has been exciting.  By adding something novel, it captured the students' and staff's attention in a new way.  A teacher emailed me, a little sheepishly, asking if the background was Russia.  (It was.)  Kindergarten students stopped me in the hall to ask if I was REALLY at the Golden Gate Bridge or not.  (I wish!)

Yesterday, the first grade teachers asked if I could focus on US monuments in the month of February.  It's an instructional practice of theirs.  Yes!

I can think of all sorts of educational connections that can be made just by changing the backdrop to my morning message!  The third grade has been studying zoology.  Imagine the fun I can have with that!  Travel the solar system?  You bet!  Focus on colors and shapes?  Absolutely!

I am thankful that I have a job that allows me to sprinkle a little fun and creativity through the day.  I'm also thankful for tech-savvy friends who help me when I hit a technology snag.  (Thanks, Rae and Ryan!)