Bloggy Love

One of my favorite things about blogging and reading other teacher blogs is the sharing of ideas that takes place. Rather than keeping our ideas to ourselves, we share and enjoy helping and inspiring others which means I am always finding great treasures from other teachers who are creative and awesome!! I am continuously coming across ideas on other blogs that I love and today I want to share what I saw that got me excited.

Sarah from First Grader At Last shared some of her very cute ideas for word work activities and I am really excited to try some of them with my Kindergarten kiddos. The ideas are simple, yet by using different types of materials like playdough and cookie cutters, sand, glittery letter stickers, and mini Magna-Doodles the kids will surely be excited and interested in building words. I might need to adjust the activities for Kindergartners at first, but soon enough they will be building words like pros (I can't wait). Thanks for your great ideas Sarah! I know that I will be making a trip to Michael's when I get back to OR to find some fun letter stickers! I am getting so excited for back to school supply shopping...I even picked up a few things at our local store today because Germany is ALL ABOUT school supplies.

What are you favorite activities to help kids learn sounds and make words?

And in the spirit of sharing, don't forget about Jen's Back to School Teacher Swap which will take place tomorrow. Share your great, creative, and fun back to school activities and get excited for school!

Folders

Thanks for all the comments about my folder debacle. I got some good tips and links to check out. I really like Nicky's folders which came as a recommendation from Sunny at Caffeinated Teacher. We actually used those when I taught first grade and I did really like them. They are plastic, so they are more durable and lasted all year (when they didn't get lost!). These particular ones come in a variety of bold colors and sell for 95¢ each (but you have to buy at least 100, which usually works out well when purchasing for the entire grade level). There are also other versions that have more pockets if you need more space for papers.

The kind we used had two pockets and had "Return to School" and "Keep at Home" printed on either side which was helpful for organization. These were always ordered by my teammates, so I was really happy to get the link from Sunny. I decided that it would be cute to get the yellow ones for B.E.E. folders. Kelly made a good point that the words "family involvement starts here" are a little more complex for Kinder kiddos to get than "bring everything everyday" so I think that Bees win over Fish!

I decided to email my Kindergarten teaching team to inquire about what they might already use and one teacher emailed me back saying she has a brand new box of Nicky's folders on her desk that they ordered for this year. What a great coincidence! She said they ordered black folders and then they color code the classes by inserting colored sheets of paper in the front and black slots. Sounds great to me. Luckily black folders will still coordinate with the BEE theme and I can either just have plain colored sheets like they do or I can use the B.E.E. covers from the Busy Teacher's Cafe. I tend to go along with systems that teachers already have in place when I am the newbie on the team, but I do think that this year I will be a little more forward with my own ideas and I will try to experiment with them rather than always just going along for the ride.

It seems silly to think and worry so much about small things like folders, but I want everything to be organized and go smoothly. Thanks again for the suggestions!!

***

P.S. Sunny if you are reading this, thanks for all of your comments. I read all of your posts and frequently want to comment, but for some reason your page is not loading correctly on my browser and I am not able to post any comments. Just wanted to let you know because I appreciate your blog love and I wish I could return some to you! Your posts are great.

P.P.S If you don't already follow Sunny, check her out! www.thecaffeinatedteacher.blogspot.com

Bees or Fish

I have seen quite a few examples online of organizational folders that are called B.E.E folders (standing for Bring Everything Everyday). Jessica Meacham's page has a thorough description and she even has pictures and links for different pages that she uses in her "Bee Books." I have seen this idea over and over and I would really like to incorporate a take home folder that my Kinder Kiddos get into the habit of placing in a "Homework" basket every day when they arrive at school. Kelly uses this idea with her Kindergartners and said it's a great place for parents to put notes, permission slips, etc. as well as a great place to send home important papers/documents with little ones who are just beginning to learn about responsibility.

I decided that I definitely want to jump on the Bee bandwagon, but I came across some other fun ideas at Busy Teacher's Cafe and now I can't decide between

B.E.E.- Bring Everything Everday

and

F.I.S.H- Family Involvement Starts Here

I created some labels for both and I like the bee labels better, but I kind of like the fish acronym better. I have not yet discussed with my new teaching partners how they handle homework, but I am not quite sure I will be sending enough things home daily to merit the saying "bring everything everyday." From what I have seen, many teachers actually use binders and include a lot of different materials in them instead of simply a folder including information about particular procedures and subjects. I don't think I will be including too much stuff. I will collect the folders daily regardless of whether or not there are items to be returned/sent home, but I do want it to be an initial lesson on responsibility which means I don't want a lot of stuff in the folders that will end up crumpled, ripped, and missing.

I have always used double pocket Homework folders with my first graders and they are less expensive than purchasing binders for everyone. I am afraid regular folders won't be durable enough, so I need to do some exploring when I get back to OR. Since I have two classes, and these would be personal items, that means I have double the expense so I want to find an inexpensive solution.

I like the idea of the fish folder because I do want parents to take an active role in talking with their child about school and touching base with them daily about what they learned, what information is coming home etc. I like the idea of emphasizing family involvement and I think that gives "homework" a different feel as well. Since I only get my kiddos for just over 2 hours, I really hope they are continuing to do learning based activities at home as well. This folder could be a great way to send home "assignments" or ideas of activities students can do at home.

Do you use B.E.E folders or binders? 

How do they work for you? 

What do you include inside them (if anything?)

Do you think the F.I.S.H idea is just as cute?

Literacy Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

I have been working my way through this collection of articles for the past few weeks and finally finished last night while on the stationary bike at the gym. My personal copy contains almost an entire package of turquoise blue Post-it flags marking various pages and sections that really spoke to me. I have read and written a lot about multicultural education in the past year and I am inspired to teach in a way that reflects appreciation for differences rather than a way that views differences as deficits. I have so many ideas, hopes, and dreams floating around in my head, yet I still feel a huge struggle to transform all these flagged quotes and ideas into actual teaching practice.

I am particularly interested in the use of multicultural principles and literature when it comes to reading instruction, yet the programs that my district has chosen imply a particular way of teaching that I either have to subscribe to or override it (which I am really not supposed to do, yet feel compelled to). I know that my district is also very invested in meeting the needs of all kinds of learners, yet I still feel conflicted over how to make it work with all that I have taken in from what I have read while at the same time utilizing the purchased reading program according to the district's intentions.

This particular book breaks the overall topic into 6 categories:

1. Awareness & Attitudes Towards Literacy
2. Principles of Instruction
3. Enhancing Reading Comprehension
4. Using Writing to Develop Reading
5. Selecting & Using Multicultural Literature
6. An Annotated Bibliography of Multicultural Children's Literature

Given my role as a [future] Kindergarten teacher, I found sections 5 & 6 to be the most directly applicable. I took a Global Literature course online last fall, but I have not taken one specifically focused on multicultural literature. Both types of literature share similar goals, but I believe a particular distinction is that global literature includes stories from various countries where multicultural literature involves different cultural groups within the US. [that was the distinction in a text that I read, but it most likely differs from source to source].

What I liked most about section 6 in particular was the inclusion of a table listing the book titles vertically and also major themes horizontally. For each book, important themes included in the story were checked off. I think this is a very helpful tool given that as teachers we simply can't be aware of all the great books that are out there. I have become familiar with quite a few titles and have purchased books that I really liked or that I think discuss a good message, yet this allows me to find a book given a particular theme I want to discuss. Themes include--Accomplishment, Community, Courage, Cultural Event, Death, Family, Food, History, Humor, Intergenerational, Play, Pioneers, Relationships, Survival, and Unity. This section also includes an annotated bibliography which provides a brief description of the stories, genre, and what group is represented.

Often I read through a book and put it back on the shelf, yet this book contains sections that I feel like I will refer to for my instruction. I know that the themes and stories for the Kindergarten reading program are already organized in the core program, yet I now feel more comfortable inserting some different stories that may prove to be more meaningful.

I am still left with the burning question--How can I possibly fit in everything that I want to do in 2 hours and 20 minutes. I guess I have to remember I can't do it all every single day, yet I will make a strong effort to incorporate some of what I have learned in order to make the process of learning to read more suitable for children whose backgrounds are different than what our core program anticipates.

As I finished up this book, I was reminded of another text that I read this year called Black Ants and Buddhists by Mary Cowhey. I loved this book because the author demonstrates how she truly incorporated the elements of critical thinking and teaching about differences in her primary classroom. Her stories were very inspirational to me and I would love to be able to watch a teacher like Mary in action!

Also, I have been meaning to mention this for the past week....Jen at Following the Footsteps is doing a Back to School Teacher Idea Swap again this year each Friday in August. The first link up will be this Friday August 6th. It's a great way to share your ideas about fun back to school activities and see what other teachers are doing as well. Last year we posted some pics of our freshly cleaned/designed/decorated classrooms and lots of great ideas were shared. I have my first idea ready and I will be joining her swap on Friday!

Oopsie Daisy

I tried to be productive and transfer my classroom blog over to my work email address so it's not directly linked to this blog which worked out well. I copied the HTML code and the new blog looks just like the old one, which I will probably delete. I love the idea of a classroom blog and I love writing Sneaker Teacher, yet I don't necessarily want the same audiences reading them....I want to keep my classroom blog strictly classroom related.

Then I got a little curious and started playing around with some blog elements and despite the clear warning that one should save their current template before making changes--I did not. Now I have this new template and I am not sure how I feel about it. I like the layout a lot and I think it seems a little more open and not so squished in, yet in changing the template, I got rid of all of the other design elements that I had added like the cute font in my post titles and the Comic Sans font for all of my posts etc. Ugh! I know I can redo those things, but it is pretty time consuming and I am just a tad annoyed over the whole thing. I kind of want a combo of the new and the old. Oh well. My bad.

I do like how there are some additional options on the commenting section. I really like the ones that allow you to link to twitter and facebook, but my design function let me "try it out" then it disappeared and I don't know how to install it. I guess I will need to buckle down for another day of designing sometime soon.

::sigh::

I enjoy figuring out how to do different things and following tutorials to add fun elements, but it's pretty addictive and time consuming and I am just not up to it today. I cut my finger pretty badly last night, so I am just taking it easy today.  I will post about the books I have been reading, but I felt the need to explain the blog changes that you will encounter today.

What do you think? Does it look better or worse?

Magical

Neuschwanstein Castle was amazing! I took this picture as I stood on the very wobbly Mary's Bridge that was high over a little waterfall... It was a little scary, but the view was so worth it!

It was truly magical and it's amazing to me that a beautiful castle like this exists only 3 hours from where we live! We didn't get to ride in the horse drawn carriage because we were told that the wait was too long and we would not make our tour time if we waited, so we walked the forty minute (uphill) trail, which I think I actually liked better because we got some exercise in!

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, but we got to take pictures of the view out the window. A-ma-zing! 

It was so picturesque, lush, and green!

We stayed the night in Austria (just over the border) in a cute little hotel and drove back today. We pulled over a couple of times as we drove out of Austria because the views were gorgeous! The water reminded me of Neverland. I only have a few more weekends with Mr. Sneaker before I pack up my sneakers and leave for OR, so it was wonderful to have such a glorious weekend together.

At the hotel I spent a good amount of time finishing up this book, which I will post some thoughts about tomorrow.

How was your weekend?