January 6th- January 10th

The perfect book trailer to kick off Digital Learning Day!

Digital Learning Day is coming on February 5th! In the next few weeks, we will begin planning how we can celebrate Digital Learning Day at Star Academy! Some of you had asked what this might look like with elementary students, so I'm sharing my post from last year's Digital Learning Day in my first grade class! Click here to check it out!

Dates and Details

January 6- NCS staff development day 9:00-11:30 in the library with PACT
January 8th- cadre meetings
January 9th- open lab tech time with Joe-- anything you need!
January 15th- no meeting
January 16th- tech time- connecting with authors via Skype and Twitter / Digital Learning Day

January 17 report cards sent home
January 22nd PIP Wednesday and Jennifer off campus visiting John Swett Elementary in Martinez, Julie teacher-in-charge
January 23rd- DLD planning at tech time

January 27th - ALA Awards broadcast! December and January: Mock Caldecott at Star Academy! Click here for the link to the live broadcast of the awards ceremony!
January 29th- no meetings 10:30 Pennies for Patients assembly

Tech Tips

Did you know you can create a PDF with any document just by selecting a different printer in your print window? This can be very helpful when you have a PDF that won't allow you to save what you've typed in. So, just type into your PDF and then click print. This window will pop up:

Just change your printer in "Local Destinations" to "Save as PDF" and voila, instead of printing it will save whatever you are working on as a pdf which you can then save to your computer and print out or attach. Easy!

Posting to Blogger via email: Check out these three posts for submitting blog posts via email! 

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/02/how-to-post-to-blogger-via-email.html 

or

https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/41452?hl=en 

or

http://bling4yrblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/posting-to-your-blog-with-email.html

Welcome back and have a great week!

December 16th-20th

Food for thought...

It's Kind of Like Riding a Bike

photo credit jonny.hunter on Flickr

This past Thursday, after 85 phone calls, Petra's sub job failed to fill. Here's our text message exchange after 75 calls from our sub system:

And just like that I was teaching first grade. I reviewed Petra's plans, picked up her kids and headed into class. Secretly, I worried I would be out of practice...and I was just a little excited. I love to teach! So then I did what substitutes are NOT supposed to do-- I failed to follow most of Petra's plans. Oops.

Now, I did follow the schedule, we did morning meeting and SIPPS as planned. We went to the computer lab and the kids went to Spanish. But I didn't do a single worksheet, even though there were several listed in the plans. 

I totally get why they were there. It's tough to plan for a random sub when you're sick. But I wasn't just a random sub. Luckily for me, first grade is right in the middle of their Winter in the Woodland GLAD unit, which I taught last year. Sweet. I knew what I wanted to do. Reading. Writing. Art. 

OWL MOON! My favorite picture book from this unit. Maybe of all time. Ever since I met Jane Yolen in 5th grade, I have been a fan. 

We read the book while looking at the pictures, and then watched the video again. While watching the video, the students wrote words that they heard in their writer's notebooks. 

Later in the day, we went to the computer lab where students entered their word lists into a Google form. 

I then used Word It Out to create a word cloud using the words they had written in their notebooks. 

(Word it Out works on a Chromebook-- it's my new favorite!)

To end this day, we did some owl drawings using this YouTube video. You might want to give it a try! 

So, I found it is kind of like riding a bike! Although I didn't know all of the routines and procedures for Petra's class, all in all it was a good day! I love Owl Moon, I love first grade, and I love, love to teach! Thank you to Mrs. Luhrsen's class for making my day! (I promised them I would blog about it!)

Things I loved this week...

Gingerbread in Kindergarten!

Winter art in TK

A student leading the learning in Mrs. Torres' Class!

• Also, Joe's NCS EdTech News blog post about the awesome teacher bloggers here!
• Petra's first grade class zipping through their SIPPS phonics sounds
• Maria's students in workshop-- they were loving their Patricia Polacco study and were working hard on their timelines!
• Hope's students chanting away about ungulates, using amazing signal words and sentence frames filled with academic language
• The vampire Gingerbread men in Amy's class
• Ms. Fraser's kids writing everywhere around the room-- even on the floor!
• Writer's notebooks in Alex's class- her students were excited about writing!

Dates and Details

December 18th- Ballet and Music performance in gym at Star 6:30 PM (after school enrichment only)
December 18th- late start Wednesday: breakfast at main campus 8-9

December 20- end of semester & first annual BLING IT ON DAY!

December Winter break- December 23rd-January 3rd

January 6- NCS staff development day

January 17 report cards sent home

January 27th - ALA Awards broadcast! December and January: Mock Caldecott at Star Academy! Click here for the link to the live broadcast of the awards ceremony!

Tech Tips

Did you know you have a YouTube channel? As part of our Google Apps for Education, you do! You can easily upload videos taken with your phone, iPad, and even upload from your computer. Just look for the share button and enter your NCS Google account information. It's that easy! Then you can easily embed in your blog or post on your website.

Having said that, YouTube sometimes adds random related videos at the end of your video. This is not always what you want. To find out how to turn off this feature, check out this post!

How to Remove Related Videos from an Embedded YouTube video

Have a great week!

December 9th-13th

Food for thought...

Inspiring Learners

This past week, our parking lot was fuller than usual as we hosted our first Project GLAD demonstration lesson for 27 K-3 teachers from all over Northern California. As often as I could, I peeked into the classroom to see what was happening. On the last day it looked like this. Who's doing the learning?

Everyone is learning. From each other.

photo by Petra

photo by Petra

I still remember being one of those teachers in the back in a GLAD demo several years ago. My mind was blown that it was just business as usual for the kids, even though there were over 25 adults in the room. My mind was blown by what the kids could do. And my mind was blown by the level of engagement. It was busy. It wasn't quiet. Kids moved on the carpet. And they were happy. Just like this past week in Petra's room. Everywhere I looked, I saw collaboration and learning.

I think there is a lesson to be learned from these smart first graders. We learn by doing. We learn from each other. Learning should be fun. And we can accomplish amazing things! Thank you all for inspiring me every day!

The books are here! The books are here! 

Some Caldecott hopefuls!

Stop by my office and pick up a book or two! Then hop on the Mock Caldecott site with your class and vote! Here's the link to the site with book trailers and a little summary of each.  There are 30 books which will have a home in our new library!Have fun!

http://ncsala.blogspot.com/p/books.html

Dates and Details

December 9th- CPR training at Star- let me know if you are interested or visit http://www.axiompros.com/  only $30 (only 12 spots available)

December 10th- Dental presentations by grade level  Click here for link to assembly schedules
December 11-13 Secret Santa (Reveal night Dec 16th!)
December 12th- Tech Time!

December 13th- Phil Tulga assemblies (9:30 and 10:30

December 18th- Ballet and Music performance in gym at Star 6:30 PM (after school enrichment only)

December 20- end of semester & first annual BLING IT ON DAY!

December winter break- December 23rd-January 3rd

January 6- NCS staff development day

January 17 report cards sent home

January 27th - ALA Awards broadcast! December and January: Mock Caldecott at Star Academy! Click here for the link to the live broadcast of the awards ceremony!

Not really a tech tip, but....

If you are looking for a play to put on with your class this year, check out Bad Wolf Press. I can tell you I have done FIVE of these plays and they truly are the easy button. Kids love them and they are FULL of awesome academic content. Visit their site at http://www.badwolfpress.com/ to read the scripts and listen to the songs. I recommend the American Symbols one for first grade, Life Cycles for second, and Vacation on Mars for 3rd grade. There are some cute ones for littler kids, too. 

December 2nd-6th

Food for thought...

I read somewhere once that you should do something that scares you once in awhile... So, with this in mind I set my alarm clock Saturday night for 5:50 am. Hope had asked me to go for a hike in the morning to see the sunrise at the top of the mountain near my parent's house in Truckee. That sounded like a fabulous idea.. at first. Laying in bed, I thought more about this. At six in the morning it's DARK. And there are bears in Truckee! My parents have seen quite a few in their yard over the years. What was I thinking? Hiking? In the dark? With bears?
Maybe Hope would oversleep. No such luck- she walked in my room at 5:47... before my alarm even went off. I couldn't let her go alone, not when there might be bears! I put on two jackets, gloves, and my shoes. We grabbed a flashlight and headed out into the darkness. It was 18 degrees outside.

As we headed off the road onto the dirt trail, I took my hood off. I needed to be able to listen for bears! The stars provided more light than my dad's flashlight. From time to time, snow in scattered patches crunched under our feet. I kept moving forward in the darkness and up the hill as the sun began to peek over the mountain. Once, I spotted a dark shape off the trail. I held my breath, and was relieved to find that it was only a stump in the distance.

Light slowly replaced the darkness as we neared the top of the trail almost an hour later. Warm pinks and oranges painted the cold morning sky. We'd made it in the frozen darkness. All the way to the top-- without seeing a single bear. Rewarded with a beautiful sunrise on the first day of December.

Dates and Details

December 3rd-6th Project GLAD demo- in Petra's class (Petra, Hope, Saryn & Tammy)

December 6th- early release day. Grade level planning or GLAD planning (if you're part of demo) / Staff potluck

December 9th- CPR training at Star- let me know if you are interested or visit http://www.axiompros.com/  only $30 (only 12 spots available)

December 10th- Dental presentations by grade level- schedule TBA

December 13th- Phil Tulga assemblies (9:30 and 10:30-- grade levels TBA)

December 18th- Ballet and Music performance in gym at Star 6:30 PM (after school enrichment only)

December 20- end of semester

December winter break- December 23rd-January 3rd

January 6- NCS staff development day

January 17 report cards sent home

January 27th - ALA Awards broadcast! December and January: Mock Caldecott at Star Academy! Click here for the link to the live broadcast of the awards ceremony!

Tech Tip: Animoto for Educators

Are you looking for another cool way to add pictures or video to your class website or blog? Animoto is easy and FREE! For educators, you get unlimited length and images just by signing up here at Animoto's Education site. Here are two videos I made over the break - one from Erin Dealey's assembly and one from our Fallen Leaf Lake hike. There is music included on the site, or you can upload your own. Have fun!

November 18th-22nd

Food for thought... Pirate booty!

This past Saturday I woke up at 5 am to go to see Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like a Pirate, in Moraga at Saint Mary's College. I love, love meeting authors! He was amazing, and I highly recommend his book. I'm going to use his "teaser" hook and just share the word cloud and a few pictures from the day... If you want to know more check out my blog post from Lead.Learn.Sparkle or read the book!

The word I wrote the most shows up the biggest. Think he's talking about engagement?

It's all about content.

He had me at secret.

Things I loved...

Word Jam in 2nd grade- which Julie blogged about!

Reading "Deck the Walls" to classes! I loved the kinder version of fa-la-la which sounded a little like la-la-la!

The homemade turkeys outside TK. Big Papi is AWESOME!

The kids' behavior at lunch. They filled my bucket!

Learning about how salt impacts freezing time in 3rd grade.

Hearing all about the Google launches with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders!

Teachers venturing into the world of global publishing, one blog at a time...Awesome

Dates and details:
November 20th- Late start Wednesday- whole staff in lounge (this is a change)
November 21st- Tech time 3:15
November 22nd- Erin Dealey assembly 10:15-11:00 (I can't wait!)
November 25th-29th Thanksgiving break-- Enjoy! 

December 3rd-6th Project GLAD demo- in Petra's class (Petra, Hope, Saryn & Tammy) be sure to arrange your subs)
December 6th- early release day. Grade level planning or GLAD planning (if you're part of demo) Staff potluck?
December 9th- CPR training at Star- let me know if you are interested or visit http://www.axiompros.com/  only $30 (only 12 spots available)
December 10th- Dental presentations by grade level- schedule TBA
December 13th- Phil Tulga assemblies (9:30 and 10:30-- grade levels TBA)
December 18th- Ballet and Music performance in gym at Star 6:30 PM (after school enrichment)
December 20- end of semester
December winter break- December 23rd-January 3rd
January 6- NCS staff development day
January 17 report cards sent home
January 27th - ALA Awards broadcast! More information to come about the Mock Caldecott at Star Academy! Click here for the link to the live broadcast

Tech Tips:

If you want to get rid of the "similar video" suggestions that show up after you insert a YouTube video in your blog, here's some info that might be useful: http://illuminea.com/remove-related-videos-from-end-of-embedded-youtube-video/ 

Removing the "next blog" nav bar in Blogger:

November 11th-15th

Food for thought...
 
This past weekend I loved having time to read and was very excited to finally start reading Donalyn Miller's new book! I had preordered my copy last May and it was finally delivered! I was also excited to read John Schu's blog post about the book where he premiered her book trailer. You can read the post here. On that blog, he also had an opportunity to win one copy of the book-- and I won! This is the second time I have won a book from Mr. Schu-- either I am very lucky or no one else enters! Either way, he asks winners to pay it forward and so I am giving away a copy of the book as well. You'll find the entry form below. Entries will be accepted through November 15th :) If you're thinking about inspiring wild and independent readers you'll want to read this book.

Things I loved this week...

Dates and Details

November 13th- Coordinator Coffee- parents can chat with me from 8:30-9:00 am
November 13th- Late start Wednesday- Cadres meet

November 14th- Tech Time 3:15
November 20th- Late start Wednesday- planning
November 21st- Tech time 3:15
November 22nd- Erin Dealey assembly 10:15-11:00
November 25th-29th Thanksgiving break 

December 3rd-6th Project GLAD demo- in Petra's class (Petra, Hope, Saryn & Tammy) be sure to arrange your subs)

Here's the link to our staff room sign up sheet. Thanks for helping out! 

Tech Tips:

Have you heard about SAMR? Basically, it's a little like Bloom's Taxonomy but for tech. Here's a video to give you a quick overview in 120 seconds!

November 4th-8th

Food for thought...

This is what it felt like around school this week to me. I loved seeing the kids (and teachers) dressed in PJ's, with crazy hair, and even in their costumes on Halloween. Historically, Halloween has not been my favorite day at school and kids can sometimes be crazy! If I had to describe the feeling around campus this week in one word, I would choose happy. The kids were so excited as they hopped out of their cars each morning. I know sometimes that elementary kids don't really understand the meaning of red ribbon week, but I do think being happy is an important part of being healthy. Thank you for being a part of creating a happy school climate this week! 

Things I loved this week...

Awesome "healthy" chains made with our counselor, Caroline Hines!

Crazy Hair Day

Sports Day

Dates and Details

November 4th- We will have visitors from Winters School District- coming to see Common Core in action since you are all so awesome!
November 7th- Tech time with Joe
November 6th- No meeting- planning time 

November 11th- no school - Veteran's Day

November 13th- Coordinator Coffee- parents can chat with me from 8:30-9:00 am
November 13th- Cadres meet

November 15th- Movie night TBA
November 22nd- Erin Dealey assembly- time TBA (shhhh- it's a surprise!)

November 25th-29th Thanksgiving break

Tech Tips

Check out Erin Klein's blog post about accidentally creating a digital writer's workshop in her classroom-- and how it impacted student engagement. Erin is a 2nd grade teacher in Michigan.

Linda Yollis is a 3rd grade teacher in Southern California who blogs with her students. Every November she has Family Blogging Month! Check out her blog about it! Or better yet, watch what her students have to say about blogging in the classroom...

Have an awesome week!