Parenting and Teaching

I began taking an online class on classroom management a few weeks ago.  (Amazingly our local public library offers a set of local university classes for free and this is one of them.)  Around the same time, I read a review of a parenting book that looked interesting so I downloaded that and began reading it.  I have a class full of first graders and a house with a 2 and 4 year old so both seemed like good ideas.  As I begin moving through both I realize they say almost the same thing!  I don't know why this is surprising to me.  I mean the basics of love and discipline really don't change regardless of who gave birth to the children.  I guess I just expected... something else.  I am not done with the book or the class yet, and some ideas seem more obvious, but some very interesting things I have learned so far...

Take the "I like" or "I love" or "I appreciate" out of your praise.  Unless a child does something directly for you...say draws a picture or makes you a ceramic cat... do not connect their achievements to your approval.  This just teaches the child to do things because they want to please you instead of learning that they should be responsible and behave correctly in society or they should work hard to get where they want to be.  I was blown away by this because in the classroom I am always saying things like "I love the way Ann has her safe body and voice off."  or "I really appreciate the way Jack is working hard on his writing."  Instead I should say things like "Ann, great job on remembering to have a safe body and voice off."  or "Jack, this is good writing.  I can see you have been working very hard on it."  The parenting book says the same thing!  All this time I thought I was doing well by pointing out the positives (which is good) but I always, always connect it to myself.

Second (and I knew this, but it was a good reminder AND showed up in both resources) give choices anytime you can and put them in a positive light so the positive consequence shines through.  For example, instead of saying "If you don't eat dinner you can't have desert." say "Sure, you can have desert as soon as you finish dinner!"  The outcome is exactly the same but the way you say it highlights the positive.  In the classroom, "You may go outside when your work is through." instead of "If you don't finish your work you will have to stay in for study hall instead of going outside to play."

So maybe all of you knew all of that already, but its been great for me.  I am a parent to so many children!  I feel I still have some learning to do to really handle a classroom with ease, set all of my boundaries, and enforce consequences in a way that just comes naturally.  Any other great tips you can give me for seamless classroom management?

I'm BACK!

Somehow life got ahead of me for the last.... YEAR.  Sheesh.  I have posted nothing.  I have tons of motivation but so many other things going on.  I added more to my TPT store, writing curriculum for the district, coaching a First Lego League team, tutoring, and teaching a regular first grade classroom.  Then I come home to take care of my babies.  (4 and 2 ).

However, I recently received not one, but two comments on a fact family post I did last year.  Now I want to blog again.  So here is my short little post to say I'm back.  If you are one of my ...errr... followers... you can be sooooo excited.

AARRR and Other stuff

YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!   Both of my projects were funded through Donor's Choose.  I received my Ipods today.  I had to do report cards, so I couldn't set up the Ipods, but I can't wait to get them into the kids hands.  So much can be done with them.  The shipment of picture books (my other funded grant) won't be here until Friday or next week.  So excited to get those too.

Other happenings...

Yesterday the kids went to see a musical called "A Diary of a Worm, Spider, and Fly."  I heard it was pretty good.  I was home with a sick little boy so no play for me.  However, I did let the kids make dirt.  Pudding, oreos, and gummy worms!  No pictures - I wasn't there!

We are working on the "ar" sound this week.  So many fun things to do with this sound since it is all that pirates say!  I, of course, stole a great idea from the internet!  I hid AR words all over the classroom and the hallway (even one in the ARt room).  The students had to find them, read them, and put them on our treasure map.  When we found them all and the kids got to grab some treasure of their own.   They loved it!  What's that?  You are missing the pictures?  True, I slacked on taking them.  I'll add some in later.

We also played a game that practiced subtracting doubles.  I modeled my thinking (example:  "Hmmm, 12-6.  Well, I know 6+6 is 12 so 12-6 must be 6!)  The kids laughed because I was being a little silly, but I'll be darned if they weren't saying those exact things when playing the game!  We are working on strategies for subtracting from 20 and the kids keep asking for more "tricks" to solving problems.  They aren't tricks, they are just understanding numbers - but hey, if tricks are more motivating, well then I will keep teaching them tricks.

Tomorrow we are making "synonym" rolls.  I promise pictures.  I totally stole this idea off the internet too.  I love teacher blogs.  So many great ideas.  I'm babbling.  I feel inspired to write yet have no actual topic.  Maybe tomorrow.

Versatile Technology

My project is up on Donor's Choose - its to get some Ipods for my classroom.  Do you realize how much differentiated can be done with technology?  Amazing!  If you follow my blog, take a minute to check it out and donate!  Even $5 helps.  AND if you donate before March 19 and use the code BLOOM in the match code box (you will see it at check out) your donation will double!  Click on the picture below to check out my project and donate.  You are awesome!

Science City Field Trip

What a day!  I applied for, and received, a grant to take our grade level to Science City.  It was GREAT.  The kids had so much fun.  We learned how gears turned by playing with movable gears on a magnetic wall.

We walked through a "Mystery" Hotel full of optical illusions (this was a favorite.)  

Here, you can "lose" your legs.

There was a giant chalk wall to write whatever you wanted.

A bike on a rope.

A maze, a treehouse full of birds, a place to dig for dinosaur bones, a minature train city (that was actually HUGE and awesome), a sewer slide, crime lab, science sphere, life size artery, space shuttle, helicopter, waterfall and so much more!

 (if you look closely, I am in the middle of all of those kids with a pony tail!)

It really is such a neat place.  Some of my coworkers were a bit more worn out than me - but I am a high energy person so I can forgive them :-)  I have one little friend who is, quite literally, obsessed with trains.  He found a little piece of Heaven when he hit the train exhibit.  You could start the sounds of a real train engine, play in a caboose, see real trains from a lookout, and - of course - the super cool model train city that lit up and moved at the touch of a button.  I mean, this thing even had tiny little people on moving seesaws and merri-go-rounds that actually moved.  It was so neat.

When I asked the kids what their favorite part was the Mystery Hotel won, hands down.  They got such a kick out of all the optical illusions.  I took some pictures inside the hotel, but it was too dark so they did not turn out so well.  Can't wait to go again!

Projects, Projects, Projects!

Wow, been a few days since I blogged last.  I need to do better at this, but we have been busy!  We learned all about the water cycle (of course, the song as well!)

In honor of President's Day we did research on George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  The students compared and contrasted all the facts to write a great report.  (I was really impressed by their work and effort.)

We celebrated Leap Day by making frogs.  On their tongues we wrote our doubles facts to 20 and on the back of the tongue we skip counted by 4.

And of course - we can't forget to honor the one and only Dr. Suess.  I completely stole all of this off of Fun-in-First-Grade (an awesome blog that you should totally check out.)  We read The Lorax and identified the story elements.  After that, we made environmental posters.

On top of all this we did a massive writing project about our favorite teacher and finished up a unit in Treasures (our reading series.)  I finished up having my observations by my principal and my evaluation (which went very well!)  Whew!  Goodbye February, Hello March.  It went so fast.

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Donors Choose

Ever wanted to donate to a charity or a cause and didn't because you were not exactly sure who your money would help or what it would be spent on?  If those causes were education related, Donors Choose is the answer!  Thousands of teachers have projects listed from every state.  Everything is for their classroom.  The teachers never see money and are only given the supplies that are listed in their project, so there is no fear of your hard earned money being used for anything but these amazing projects.

I, of course, have projects up and ready to be funded.  One is for picture books to use in the classroom.  Not just for my students to read, but for me to teach with.  Starting any unit with a good book is sure to capture the attention of my 6 and 7 year olds.  The other is for iPods in the classroom.  I have a link at upper right hand side of this blog... it goes to my giving page.  You just donate to it and the money goes to my projects.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!  Donors Choose is hosting a matching campaign from March 12-19.  If you donate between these dates they will match whatever you donate!  All you need is the matching code... which they haven't released yet.  But as soon as they do, I will let everyone know so you can get double your impact for your donation.

If helping out a classroom and students wasn't enough, you also get a tax break.  Every donation is tax deductible.  Everyone wins!  So, give $5, $10, $500...ha.  It would be amazing to have both of my projects funded in the double matching week.  I think we can do it!!!!