My first blog award!

Well, I didn’t go shopping on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.  Our family is just so over trying to guess what the other wants.  We just bake, and spend time together.  However, I found a HUGE Cyber Monday treat in my inbox this evening!  Bailey Sturdy has nominated me for a liebster blog award!!!  I am so honored and most appreciative.  Now, I just have to live up to it by posting more regularly, and by coming up with more original ideas to share. 

Here are the rules for the Liebster award:

1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.

2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.

3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.

4. Choose 11 other blogs with fewer than 200 followers to nominate and link them in your post.

5. You cannot “tag back” the other blog, but leave a comment on this post with the URL of your Liebster post so I can learn more about you & see who you nominate.

But, I think I will reverse the order just a bit.  First, here are the answers to Bailey’s questions for me. 

1. What is your favorite dessert?  Gosh, this is a tough one!  I’ll enjoy just about ANY dessert, but my favorite probably has to be a toss-up between French silk pie and moose tracks ice cream. 
2. Beach or mountains?  Beach!  I like to swim, and walk on the beach. 
3. If you could travel anywhere you want, where would you go?  Back to Spain, where I spent a month studying Spanish as a high school sophomore with my classmates.
4. What was the last dream you had?  I dreamed I was staying overnight at my school for some bizarre reason, and then felt afraid that I’d set off the security system if I went in or out of the building in the dead of night! 
5. What is your favorite grade to teach?  K – 1.  The sooner we catch the ones that lag & get ‘em up to speed, the better.
6. If you could go back to any time in your life, what would it be?  Actually, I don’t think I would.  I’m pretty contented these days. ;)
7. What color are your eyes?  blue
8. Do you have any pets?  Not now, but I used to have a few chickens.  They lay the best eggs.  And, I used to have a gray cockatiel too.
9. Are you a night owl or early bird?  I’m a semi early bird.  I like getting up between 7:30 and 8 when I have a choice.  I’m quite a party pooper though, I tucker out between 10:30 and 11:00. 
10. Does your classroom have a theme? If so, what is it?  No, unfortunately. It seems all I can do to keep it together sometimes. ;)
11. What is your favorite movie?  Oh gosh, can I pick 2?  The Little Mermaid and Mary Poppins.  I LOVE musicals! 

Now, here’s 11 random things about me: 

1.  I’m a native Florida girl, born & raised in St. Petersburg.

2.  I used to have hair down to my waist, but I had it cut to my shoulders last year. 

3.  I teach a few random different things:  I tutor elementary schoolers, I teach typing to adults, and I teach music to toddlers through pre-K. 

4.  I started graduate school specializing in ESOL last September, and I look forward to   posting about it.

5.  I play the pipe organ as well as the piano.

6.  I also like to bake cakes and cookies.  I especially like decorating sugar cookies. 

7.  I can be moderately crafty at times when I’m feeling creative.

8.  I’ve been working on a simple rhyming children’s book called Duck in a Truck, and drawing the pictures.  I love to draw, but I’m really terrible at it. ;)

9.  I love listening to a wide variety of music including classical, jazz, blues, country, rock & roll and even some contemporary stuff on the charts today.

10.  I like scented candles and nice, hot baths. 

11.  I have a slight vision impairment that can’t be corrected with glasses, which prevents me from driving.  I’m always relying on others for rides. ;(  And I go through life using magnifiers for anything and everything, which is okay.

And now, DRUM ROLL PLEASE…..  Here are my nominees: 

1.   It’s Elementary music  http://itselementarymusic.blogspot.com/

2.   Meyersmusic  http://meyersmusicactivities.blogspot.com/

3.  Do re me  http://doremejourney.blogspot.com/

4.  5^th Grade Chalk Talk  http://5thgradechalktalk.blogspot.com/

5. Shoot for the moon  http://shootforthem00n.blogspot.com/

6.  Miss Math dork  http://missmathdork.blogspot.com/

7.  K & C Love Grade 3  http://kandclovegrade3.blogspot.com/

8.  Surviving the First Year  http://surviving-the-first-year.blogspot.com/

9.  Addie Education  http://teachertalk-addie.blogspot.com/

10.  Another Step to Take  http://anothersteptotake.blogspot.com/

11.  Hip Hop Hurray!  http://hiphophurrayreading.blogspot.com/

Here are my questions for them: 

1.  How long ago did you start blogging? 

2.  What is the most important thing you’ve learned from blogging? 

3.  What is your favorite holiday? 

4.  Do you relax on vacations, or do you like to fit in many activities? 

5.  What’s your favorite recipe?

6.  What’s your favorite dessert?

7.  What advice do you have for new teachers?

8.  What’s your absolute favorite classroom resource? 

9.  If you could meet anyone, who would it be?

10.  What is your favorite artist or genre of music? 

11.  Do you like flavored coffee? 

Congratulations to all of the nominees.  Hope you all enjoy the award as much as I do.

Happy blogging, everyone, and happy teaching!

November Currently

Geez Louise!!  Where has the time gone!  I can't believe it's November already.  Whew!  I survived Halloween!  I always hate it when Halloween or Valentines' Day fall in the middle of the week.  They create absolute mayham.  But, they do provide fun opportunities to plan creative activities.  I wasn't as creative this year as I would have liked, but I did manage to tie in the Halloween candy bar fractions lesson I cited earlier, along with some spooky stories and persuasive writing for my elementary schoolers.  My early childhood music class had fun with many different Halloween-themed songs and chants.  I'm thrilled beyond thrilled that the election is almost over, and soon, all of the nasty advertizing and annoying phone calls will stop!!  I'm looking forward to reading other posts, finding new blogs and to joining this little monthly linky party. 

Happy teaching!

Some ESOL Strategies I'm using

This week, my 3^rd grade ELL and I studied a book called Did You Hear Something, perfect for Halloween. 

We created a plot wallet for this book, an idea I stole from Mandy's Tips for Teachers.  This mini-lesson activity was helpful in demonstrating the importance of re-reading in order to decide which ideas were really the most important to include in a summary. 

The week before, we were working on academic vocabulary related to the solar system and space.  Some concepts just lend themselves well to being acted out in order to support understanding.  In order to demonstrate an orbit, I placed a chair in the middle of the room.  We walked around and around the chair, holding onto it with one hand.  It is easy to drop something to demonstrate gravity, but slightly harder to demonstrate that this same force maintains the orbits of the planets and their satellites.  Finally, after some more discussion, and re-reading of a text that the student had read in class, we played a charades game.  Each of us took turns acting out a word, which the other tried t identify or explain. Movement and interaction are a great means to support the acquisition of academic language.  This would have been even more effective if I were working with a small group instead of just one student. 

Happy Teaching!

Cyber Monday: Open Access Week

Hello again,  I wanted to share an extra special resource this time around.  I am a member of the Early Childhood Music and Movement Association, which provides professional development and  advocates for quality programs.  Usually, the professional journal is for members only.  However, a handful of quality blogs open to everyone can provide a peak into the work of the organization.

This week, the ECMMA is providing free access to the professional journal  to EVERYONE during open access week!!  You can visit the site at www.ecmma.org to check it out.

I Won A Prize... YAY!!

Hi folks, I'm so excited to share with you that I won my first blog give-away prize, given by Julie at Primary Pointe.  You can find the original post here.  It is the CD called Shake, Rattle & Read by one of my favorite children's music artists, Jack Hartmann.  I also won a large alphabet chart to go with it! 

Many musical styles are represented on this playful album, from rock 'n' roll to blues and even disco!  In the coming weeks, I'm planning to use this album with my preschool music class of 4s and 5s.  I would highly recommend the Shake, Rattle & Read album to any preschool, kindergarten or even first grade teacher.  It is chock full of emergent or pre-reading activities set to music.  My favorite is "special soup", where the class is invited to concoct an imaginary soup where all of the ingredients have the same beginning sound, and then to revel in the yucky combination. ;) 

Learning really rocks at Jack Hartmann's website, and I know you'll want to check it out at www.jackhartmann.com  His label, Hop To It music produces a variety of other educational resources including math, character education and holiday themed albums.  You can even purchase MP3 downloads of his songs. 

Here's a video of his song, "Popcorn Words." 

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I want to send a special thank you out to Jack Hartmann for offering this CD / Poster give-away prize, and another special thanks to Julie for hosting the give-away, and selecting me as the oh-so-lucky winner! 

Happy teaching!

My math group is in the groove

At long last, I have settled into a routine with regard to my elementary school interventions, and finally have a few minutes where I’m not feeling overwhelmed.  Since this is only my second year in this capacity, I still have so much to learn.  In particular, I’ve been planning for next week’s small group of fifth graders needing extra help in math.  The stated goal is to get them up to speed with measurement, converting units and data graphing.  However, I’m finding that they are also in need of extra instruction regarding fractions and number sense.  Last year, we’d spend our whole hour covering one topic together, strictly following the curriculum book and adding nothing creative.  I wanted to do something different this year. 

Two weeks ago, I thought, naively that I could cover three short mini lessons in the hour that I am with them twice a week.  But I failed to realize how much time the guided practice and scaffolding would take.  I now feel quite comfortable dividing our hour together by only two ways. 

The first half hour will focus on some concept of number sense.  This could include multiplication, divisibility rules, fractions,etc.  The second half will focus on some other data concept such as measuring, graphing, estimating or geometry.  This year, I’ve ben feeling much more confident about supplementing the provided curriculum book with extended, hands-on activities.  In two weeks, I’m going to be using Julie’s Hershey’s Hershey's Fraction Bar Activity.  One of my students is still a little foggy about rounding, so I used this freebie from The Math Coach’s Corner.  Most important, however, is that I want to facilitate meaningful discussions with students instead of just feeding them algorithms.  I must say that I’m not always so successful with this.  I only hope I can improve with practice.  If anyone has thoughts or suggestions, would love to hear them.  

Happy teaching.

Cyber Monday

Today's Cyber Monday link is to Choice Literacy, an archive of articles, videos, book lists and other resources for reading teachers at all levels.  A paid membership (which I don't presently have), allows full access to the archive.  However, the free newsletter, The Big Fresh includes many articles and links of interest to us all. 

I'd just like to send out a very special thank you to my 10 new followers of my brand new little blog!  I'm so pleased that you've decided to stick with me.  Hope that you all have a great week ahead.