Body of Post:
We’re halfway through the school year. Halfway through the essays, assignments and tests. Halfway through the assemblies. Halfway through the fire drills. Halfway through the observations and debriefs. Halfway through the parent phone calls. Halfway through the conferences, conventions and PD (professional development) sessions. Halfway through tardies and absences, detentions, suspensions and expulsions. Halfway through unit plans and lesson plans. Halfway through rubrics and exemplars.
It’s February, and we’re finally, painfully and thankfully (only) halfway through.
IT CAN BE HARD TO ADMIT, BUT I’M TIRED.Scanning the education media landscape, with its pedagogical superheroes and indefatigable warriors, it can be hard to admit, but I’m tired.
I’m tired of arriving in my classroom no later than 6:30 a.m. I’m tired of putting on my armor of positivity and excitement in order to engage more than 100 recalcitrant, hormonal, and understandably distracted teenaged students who have far more going on in their lives than simply my English lesson.
I’m tired of hearing countless stories of trauma and feeling powerless in their wake. I’m tired of having barely enough energy to engage my two little boys at home or enjoy dinner with my wife, who spends her equally stressful days as an intensive care nurse in a trauma one hospital in Camden, New Jersey. I know how important my work is. But I’m tired.
WE’RE TIRED BUT WE LOVE TEACHING
We wouldn’t do this work if we didn’t love it, and to me there is no better way of honoring #LoveTeaching Week than acknowledging how difficult the work is.
Every day, teachers all across the country open their eyes to alarms that surely must have gone off too early, take a breath, and get up for another day of service for their communities. We go to school, prepare our lessons, and engage our students with honor, care, love and respect. We provide spaces of safety and comfort and dependability, spaces where our kids make the mistakes that help them learn to be successful adults.
THIS IS SIMPLY ONE TEACHER’S NOD TO THE SERVICE AND EXHAUSTION FELT BY OUR NATION’S CORPS OF EDUCATORS.This isn’t another piece about the angelic devotion and sacrifice of teachers. This isn’t a piece about the need for higher teacher salaries. This isn’t a piece about building respect for the teaching profession. This is simply one teacher’s nod to the service and exhaustion felt by our nation’s corps of educators.
When the bell rings and I take my stance on the threshold of my classroom, I acknowledge my fellow educators posted up and down the hallway. We can all see it, the tiredness in our countenances, the yearning for just one minute to catch our breaths.
Then the kids arrive, and one-by-one our teacher faces appear, exuding our openness and willingness to connect with our young people. We extend our individualized greetings for our students as they enter our rooms, and as we close the doors behind us, our voices carry with warm welcomes and do now instructions. There is no rest for the weary, teacher and student alike.
Fellow educators, we are halfway through. We are tired. We are drained. September’s impenetrable layer of patience, caring and compassion has begun to show signs of wear. But we are here together. We will count down the days together and push one another to keep putting our best selves in front of our students. And when that merciful June day arrives, we will raise glasses together to a job well done.
Friday, February 23, 2018
**DISCLAIMER*** This post was taken from THIS SITE to be used as a teaching element for Blogger. This work is in no way the property of NYSCATE
TITLE: If You Really #LoveTeaching Then You’ll Admit It’s Hard as Hell
Body of Post:
We’re halfway through the school year. Halfway through the essays, assignments and tests. Halfway through the assemblies. Halfway through the fire drills. Halfway through the observations and debriefs. Halfway through the parent phone calls. Halfway through the conferences, conventions and PD (professional development) sessions. Halfway through tardies and absences, detentions, suspensions and expulsions. Halfway through unit plans and lesson plans. Halfway through rubrics and exemplars.
It’s February, and we’re finally, painfully and thankfully (only) halfway through.
IT CAN BE HARD TO ADMIT, BUT I’M TIRED.Scanning the education media landscape, with its pedagogical superheroes and indefatigable warriors, it can be hard to admit, but I’m tired.
I’m tired of arriving in my classroom no later than 6:30 a.m. I’m tired of putting on my armor of positivity and excitement in order to engage more than 100 recalcitrant, hormonal, and understandably distracted teenaged students who have far more going on in their lives than simply my English lesson.
I’m tired of hearing countless stories of trauma and feeling powerless in their wake. I’m tired of having barely enough energy to engage my two little boys at home or enjoy dinner with my wife, who spends her equally stressful days as an intensive care nurse in a trauma one hospital in Camden, New Jersey. I know how important my work is. But I’m tired.
WE’RE TIRED BUT WE LOVE TEACHING
We wouldn’t do this work if we didn’t love it, and to me there is no better way of honoring #LoveTeaching Week than acknowledging how difficult the work is.
Every day, teachers all across the country open their eyes to alarms that surely must have gone off too early, take a breath, and get up for another day of service for their communities. We go to school, prepare our lessons, and engage our students with honor, care, love and respect. We provide spaces of safety and comfort and dependability, spaces where our kids make the mistakes that help them learn to be successful adults.
THIS IS SIMPLY ONE TEACHER’S NOD TO THE SERVICE AND EXHAUSTION FELT BY OUR NATION’S CORPS OF EDUCATORS.This isn’t another piece about the angelic devotion and sacrifice of teachers. This isn’t a piece about the need for higher teacher salaries. This isn’t a piece about building respect for the teaching profession. This is simply one teacher’s nod to the service and exhaustion felt by our nation’s corps of educators.
When the bell rings and I take my stance on the threshold of my classroom, I acknowledge my fellow educators posted up and down the hallway. We can all see it, the tiredness in our countenances, the yearning for just one minute to catch our breaths.
Then the kids arrive, and one-by-one our teacher faces appear, exuding our openness and willingness to connect with our young people. We extend our individualized greetings for our students as they enter our rooms, and as we close the doors behind us, our voices carry with warm welcomes and do now instructions. There is no rest for the weary, teacher and student alike.
Fellow educators, we are halfway through. We are tired. We are drained. September’s impenetrable layer of patience, caring and compassion has begun to show signs of wear. But we are here together. We will count down the days together and push one another to keep putting our best selves in front of our students. And when that merciful June day arrives, we will raise glasses together to a job well done.
Body of Post:
We’re halfway through the school year. Halfway through the essays, assignments and tests. Halfway through the assemblies. Halfway through the fire drills. Halfway through the observations and debriefs. Halfway through the parent phone calls. Halfway through the conferences, conventions and PD (professional development) sessions. Halfway through tardies and absences, detentions, suspensions and expulsions. Halfway through unit plans and lesson plans. Halfway through rubrics and exemplars.
It’s February, and we’re finally, painfully and thankfully (only) halfway through.
IT CAN BE HARD TO ADMIT, BUT I’M TIRED.Scanning the education media landscape, with its pedagogical superheroes and indefatigable warriors, it can be hard to admit, but I’m tired.
I’m tired of arriving in my classroom no later than 6:30 a.m. I’m tired of putting on my armor of positivity and excitement in order to engage more than 100 recalcitrant, hormonal, and understandably distracted teenaged students who have far more going on in their lives than simply my English lesson.
I’m tired of hearing countless stories of trauma and feeling powerless in their wake. I’m tired of having barely enough energy to engage my two little boys at home or enjoy dinner with my wife, who spends her equally stressful days as an intensive care nurse in a trauma one hospital in Camden, New Jersey. I know how important my work is. But I’m tired.
WE’RE TIRED BUT WE LOVE TEACHING
We wouldn’t do this work if we didn’t love it, and to me there is no better way of honoring #LoveTeaching Week than acknowledging how difficult the work is.
Every day, teachers all across the country open their eyes to alarms that surely must have gone off too early, take a breath, and get up for another day of service for their communities. We go to school, prepare our lessons, and engage our students with honor, care, love and respect. We provide spaces of safety and comfort and dependability, spaces where our kids make the mistakes that help them learn to be successful adults.
THIS IS SIMPLY ONE TEACHER’S NOD TO THE SERVICE AND EXHAUSTION FELT BY OUR NATION’S CORPS OF EDUCATORS.This isn’t another piece about the angelic devotion and sacrifice of teachers. This isn’t a piece about the need for higher teacher salaries. This isn’t a piece about building respect for the teaching profession. This is simply one teacher’s nod to the service and exhaustion felt by our nation’s corps of educators.
When the bell rings and I take my stance on the threshold of my classroom, I acknowledge my fellow educators posted up and down the hallway. We can all see it, the tiredness in our countenances, the yearning for just one minute to catch our breaths.
Then the kids arrive, and one-by-one our teacher faces appear, exuding our openness and willingness to connect with our young people. We extend our individualized greetings for our students as they enter our rooms, and as we close the doors behind us, our voices carry with warm welcomes and do now instructions. There is no rest for the weary, teacher and student alike.
Fellow educators, we are halfway through. We are tired. We are drained. September’s impenetrable layer of patience, caring and compassion has begun to show signs of wear. But we are here together. We will count down the days together and push one another to keep putting our best selves in front of our students. And when that merciful June day arrives, we will raise glasses together to a job well done.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Animal Habitats and iPads
There have been many recent changes in districts. My district has started using project based assessments for ELA in the primary grades. This making period students in Kindergarten learned about several animal habitats. While learning about animal habitats students created books to record facts about animals from different habitats. Students will use their knowledge of these facts while acting out a specific animal in a video clip. Below you will find some of the books students created using the Book Creator app and the StorKit app. I will add the movies when they are complete.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Where Should We Start!
Today I started the day by showing the students the first post on our blog! We started a discussion on what to tell the world about our iPads. I made it clear that we can tell everything but asked the children to think back to September when we first handed out ipads and consider where we should start. We decided it would be a good idea to start with our favorite reading apps. !
There are three apps by Lakeshore that were free when I got them. One of them is still free the other two are a minimal cost. I like the skills that are reinforced and the kids go back to the app over and over again! Here is a brief description of each.
Letter of the Day $1.99
When we were introducing letters in the beginning of the year I assigned this app as a task to complete. There are four simple beginning sound identification activities as well as a spot to review and write each letter. My students still use this app during free choice.
Sound Sorting $.99
In this app students select three pictures. These pictures become the beginning sounds that need to be matched for the game. The machine then drops pictures and the child moves the picture to the column that matches the beginning sound. The app tells the name of each picture. If the child moves the picture to the wrong column it disappears and comes back out the top of the machine so that the child can retry.
There are three apps by Lakeshore that were free when I got them. One of them is still free the other two are a minimal cost. I like the skills that are reinforced and the kids go back to the app over and over again! Here is a brief description of each.
Letter of the Day $1.99
 |
| Letter of the Day |
 |
Sound Sorting $.99
In this app students select three pictures. These pictures become the beginning sounds that need to be matched for the game. The machine then drops pictures and the child moves the picture to the column that matches the beginning sound. The app tells the name of each picture. If the child moves the picture to the wrong column it disappears and comes back out the top of the machine so that the child can retry.
 |
| Phonics Tic-Tac-Toe |
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Learning and Sharing Everyday!
We have learned so much this year about iPads in the classroom. Recently we have shared some of our experiences with others. Please read more about that below. My students LOVE to share so if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Thanks to Moms with Apps I met Jody from 2Bme. She and her husband taught us about creating apps and we enjoyed sharing all we know with them. It was a great day for everyone and we can't wait to see what their next app does!!
Read more about our visit from 2Bme Here!
Thanks to Moms with Apps I met Jody from 2Bme. She and her husband taught us about creating apps and we enjoyed sharing all we know with them. It was a great day for everyone and we can't wait to see what their next app does!!
Read more about our visit from 2Bme Here!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Sharing What We Write
All our writing has led to lots of books on our ipads. The kids all love to read each others stories. This week we are trying something a little bit different as a way to share stories with our friends in class as well as other friends in and outside of the school. I have been making up QR Codes that link to the stories on my blog. I am so excited to have this be a center this week. I love that the students can scan a code and it will link to a friends story. Qr codes are very easy to make and fun to use for so many different things. I have used them in the past for Sight Words, Look and Find Pictures, and Links to Websites. I will blog about those things at another time but for today the focus was on QR Codes that link to the books that students have written. Here is a sample of some of the pages that I made for out in the hall to invite people to read our stories.
I also put QR Codes on paper plate cookies that we made to encourage people to read our If you Give A Mouse A Cookie Books. In the classroom this week students will have the opportunity to use their iPads to scan codes in the book area and read books that their friends have made. Lastly, I am planning to send QR Codes home with students so that they can share their stories with their families. Happy Reading!!!
If you Give A Mouse A Cookie...
We are writing up a storm in Kindergarten right now and I love sharing what we are doing. We are talking about adventures! We have talked about the real adventure we are having with our iPads and other adventures that are in our imagination! Both are so much fun! Recently we read the Book...
After reading the book we talked about what would happen if we gave the mouse a cookie and he followed us to school. We talked about what kinds of things we like to do at school that the mouse might like to do. Here are some of the stories that have been completed. As the children complete their stories I will post them, so check back often!
Friday, March 9, 2012
Happy Birthday Dr.Seuss!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR.SEUSS
Today is the perfect day to celebrate and we LOVE to throw a party!
Before starting our center rotation today we read the book The Cat In The Hat. This story fit in perfectly with our overall theme of adventure as we read about the rainy day adventure the Cat in The Hat brought to the children. During our center rotation one of the independent centers gave the students an opportunity to build their own house for the Cat in the Hat. Each child used blocks to build their house. Once complete the students added The Cat in The Hat to their house and took a picture using their iPads.
(We will use these in writing activity later)
Students took pictures of their house and then had a friend take a picture of them with their house.
There were four to six students at this center at a time and students were engaged in the activity.
Writing with
The Cat In The Hat
by Dr. Seuss
We use our iPads in writing lessons often. There are several apps that we have used and one that is easy to use and FREE is the iPhone app StoryKit.
For our Dr.Seuss writing we went back on an adventure with The Cat In The Hat, The children and I brainstormed all of the things that The Cat In The Hat might do if he came to our house.
The class discussion included things such as:
-fishing in the fish bowl
-wearing Mom's makeup
-knocking over items
Students took all of these ideas and began to create a story. We started with the house that had been built earlier. Students put that picture in StoryKit and described their house to the reader. From there, students illustrated and used pictures off their iPad to create a story about the visit The Cat In The Hat made to their house. Most students started with the photography of their house and a description of the house. On pages that students included illustrations we discussed what was more appealing to the reader, a picture that is colorful or one that is one color. Students were encouraged to use inventive spelling and used their knowledge of sentence structure to create sentences that started with upper case letters and ended with some kind of punctuation. We also talked about organization and how important it is to create a story that makes sense to the reader.
Here are some of the links to the stories:
Nico's Story
Maxwell's Story
Nikolai's Story
Donovan's Story
Norah's Story
Hayden's Story
Mia's Story
Emily's Story
Kendall's Story
Maxwell's Story
Nico's Story
Caila's Story
Dylan's Story
Nicholas' Story
Karaline's Story
Ciara's Story
Brianna's Story
Nico's Story
Maxwell's Story
Nikolai's Story
Donovan's Story
Norah's Story
Hayden's Story
Mia's Story
Emily's Story
Kendall's Story
Maxwell's Story
Nico's Story
Caila's Story
Dylan's Story
Nicholas' Story
Karaline's Story
Ciara's Story
Brianna's Story
Thoughts...
I have noticed that when students write on the iPad many barriers are removed.
-It is easy to make changes to colors, words and page order.
- Students can move pages around , read the book and go back and move the pages again with the touch of a button.
-I think students add more detail to illustrations because color selection is easy.
- What students love most is the record feature!
-When you are five and six years old there is nothing better than hearing your own voice.
I believe that this is the first step to being able to be successful in speaking to groups.
At another center we explored two iPad apps that were created by Oceanhouse Media. This was an independent center and the children were given the opportunity to explore both apps at their own pace. Here is a brief description of each app.
Dr.Seuss's ABC is an app that teaches the alphabet using funny words and pictures. It is reasonably priced and the children enjoyed reading the story.
Dr. Seuss Band is a free app that was a hit in the classroom. You can use the app to hear notes and play your own tune or follow a pattern that is given to you.
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