Parent/Teacher Life

To wrap up the year in my fifth grade gifted classroom we are talking about all thing Civil Rights. I created two “tournaments” for them to participate in. One for Civil Right events, and the other for People of the Civil Right Movement. This is a great way to tap into their critical thinking skills. Lastly, I have included the brackets that I used. Civil Right Events Tournament The first part of the critical thinking project is a whole class tournament. This means I use only one bracket for the whole class. We are trying to determine which events made the greatest impact on its cause. Bracket Schedule: People of the Civil Rights Movement Tournament For the second part of the critical thinking project my students each worked on their own bracket so everyone results may be different. During each round they have to research the people involved and choose a winner. The winner should be the person they felt made the greatest impact in Civil Rights. Next, I will give them a separate paper to fill out along the way where they write the winner of that round and why they were chosen. It was fun to see them debate these people amongst themselves, and to see them learn about some of the new people they had never heard of. This project is a great way to end any study of the civil rights movement, and helped put my student’s new knowledge to good use. Additionally, there are also so many extensions that could go along with this! Extension ideas: I hope this helps bring life to your civil right unit or any History topic you may choose to use it with!

Why your students need to create their own math games I teach in a gifted education pull out room, however, this project can be adapted perfectly into any classroom. Creating games is a fun and easy way to reinforce/assess students knowledge of a taught skill. I used these projects at the culmination of learning about time and money in 1st and 2nd grade, but it can be used for everything and everyone. Your students will have a blast creating these games while you are able to cover a wide array of check ups. On top of assessing knowledge of the topic you will also reinforce the following skills: -Team collaboration -Listening to other’s opinions and ideas -Critical and creating thinking -Writing skills How to get started… Students are going to create a game from scratch. They will create the board, pieces, objective, other materials (dice/spinners), and directions packet. Game Invention Template Finishing and playing games When students are finished make sure they play their game several time to work out any kinks. Have them read through their rules to each other and play as they read to make sure there are no gaps. Next, they can rotate and play each others games. I did this in many different ways over several class periods. Review and Grading I chose to have the students assess themselves. For this I used the following review sheet… Peer/self review

Spring has officially begun.  We made it through all of the winter holidays while working full-time, coaching a varsity sport, and having 2 children playing basketball.  Winter is a bit rough, especially when you throw in all of those holiday expectations… holiday decorating, school parties, buying gifts, making memories at home, baking, and the list goes on.  After 10 years of coaching a winter sport I have learned to do what I can and look forward to the spring when things open up a bit for us. just when i think life is going to slow down Well, now it’s Spring, and while we have a little more time, I still feel the unending expectation to keep up.  First comes St Patrick’s day (my girls attend St Pat’s school, so this is a big deal), then Easter, and Mother’s Day, and spring break (which isn’t ever really a break), and the list continues.  I feel like I spend a good part of my life trying to “keep up”. But why? Please know that I am not writing this because I have anything figured out.  In fact, I am writing this because I have had an incredibly hard week and I need to remind myself what is truly important.  Oftentimes I get myself into survival mode, and I need to remind myself how to keep living real life. Survival mode is a real life, real hard situation to get out of (more on that another time). BALANCE It’s mostly about balance right? everything in this life is balance. I recently attended a webinar for coaches, and the keynote speaker talked a bit about this topic.  He mentioned that many people think of balance as 50/50, but really balance is about figuring out when to give and take.  This has made me start looking at balance in a whole new way. Balance is making the commitment that no matter how many things we have going on we make time for what matters most. Balance is about allowing myself grace to not get everything done, and to allow one ball to drop because Something else was more important. We don’t have to always keep up with everything. It is ok to set something down in order to prioritize. The things I choose to prioritize over all else are my family, my sanity, and my students. Everything else will survive without me if I cannot keep up this time. STOP THE COMPARISON GAME I don’t like to admit it, but this is probably the one thing I struggle most with. Especially with social media! It is so hard not to compare ourselves to other moms, professionals, wives, etc.  I see someone on Instagram going on a hike, or making special Easter cookies for their kids’ class, and I instantly feel like I’m not keeping up. If we compare ourselves to those around us, we begin to feel inadequate, and this makes us feel the need to keep up. What can we do about this? STOP APOLOGIZING no one is perfect, and I certainly don’t claim to be. So why am I constantly apologizing to everyone around me. Don’t get me wrong, if I need to apologize for something then I should, but I am talking about the little things I have guilted myself into feeling bad about. I am a people pleaser at heart and have a strong passion to make others feel better (even if that is at the expense of my own feelings). Therefore, I am committing to try and make a conscious decision of not apologizing if I did not directly…
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I will admit that Area and perimeter is probably one of my favorite math concepts to cover because the possibilities are really endless. I am a gifted intervention specialist, and work with students in grades 1-5 in both reading and math. With this course load I am able to cover these concepts over multiple years, and increase the intensity as they move up. Being in a gifted resource room I am given the ability to really dive into complex project with my students. Here is how I approach Area and Perimeter over the 5 years of elementary… 1st Grade – We start playing around with these concepts by using block manipulatives and creating 2D/3D structures, and counting the cubes. 2nd Grade – Geometrocity Project – the students combined these skills with map skills to collaboratively create a city. 3rd Grade – House project being described in this post 4th Grade – Food Truck Project. – they not only build a complete 3D model of a food truck (inside and out), but also develop a detailed business plan. 5th Grade – Cereal Project – We have now learned about volume and incorporate it with area and perimeter in order to create and construct our own cereal brand. The project I am highlighting here takes place in my 3rd grade gifted math section. 3rd Grade House Project Outline: iNTERIOR pLANNING First, students will brainstorm and answer questions about their dream house by completing the following sheet. I encourage them to think beyond what they know to be a typical house, and imagine all the things that could be in their dream house. House interior design and plan sheet 2D house Layout Students will receive a piece of grid paper and be instructed to map out all of the rooms they want to include in the interior. Some students may find it easier to make the exterior outline first and then add the rooms. Make sure there are not any random empty spaces. I told my students they could, but did not have to, include hallways. Remind them to act as if they are walking through the house as they make it so that is flows and makes sense as a house. Finding the DiMENSIONS OF EACH ROOM After the interior layout is complete the students will find the dimensions of each room in their house, as well as, the total area and perimeter. They will use this form to fill out the information… 3rd grade dream house – room dimensions Mapping and measuring the exterior of your house Once the interior design is complete thy will begin work on the exterior. First, they will create a drawing of what they want the exterior (front view) of their house to look like. For this I instructed them to use a ruler to make straight, even lines. I asked them questions while they were drawing to keep them thinking about how they are going to construct it as a 3D object. For example, how will you put your roof together? Do you want to create a second story? I also had them draw doors and windows. When they were finished wit their drawing they had to measure everything (since this was 3rd grade I had them round to the nearest half inch), and label the measurements on the paper. Creating your 3D model The students start this part with several sheets of grid paper that I printed on to cardstock (I use a lot of this throughout the year). The grid paper helps them count our the measurements, and when they constructed it most…
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One thing I continue to struggle with most in my life is flexibility, changing route, going with the flow… ROLLING WITH THE PUNCHES. Despite my best intentions I am a perfectionist and planner at heart. At times this can bring me to my knees, not to mention, ruin the day. I wanted to share my most recent attempt at trying to move past ruined plans without feeling completely defeated. What is a Full Time Job? Being a full-time working mom can at time become a constant inner battle. I know I am setting a good example for my children by following my dreams and making my own success. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel guilt every day for not constantly volunteering at my child’s school, or being able to go on every field trip, or having to run around like crazy in the morning so that I can get them where they need to be without being late for work. It may seem strange, but I often have to remind myself that I am not a stay-at-home mom. I want to be involved and help out with all the things involving my children, and it all goes fairly well until they plan a meeting at 10 am on a Tuesday morning. It always happens, and I am suddenly snatched back to reality. even worse, is when I am not even asked to help because they “assume” I don’t have time. Like I said, it is a constant inner battle. Last Week… I felt that I needed to explain all of the above because of what happened this past week. Tuesday evening, I found out that my daughter was going to sing a solo during her school mass Thursday morning. This led me to spend the entire morning on Wednesday wondering if I should take off to listen and support her. Part of me was screaming that I miss enough activities involving my children already, but the other part was reminding me how truly hard is to take off as a teacher. This cannot be a game time decision. Once I make the decision I have to immediately put in for a sub (and hope it gets filled), and then I will spend about 2-3 hour writing detailed sub plans and making sure everything is laid out, organized, and easy to understand. After all of that, I will still have the guilt of leaving my students with someone I don’t know and disappointing them by not being there. However, after all of the back and forth, and debates with myself I decided to take off (just the morning). The morning of I made all of my plans, got a half day sub, and woke up Thursday morning to a two-year-old covered in puke. All I thought in that moment is, THIS is real life (and then I proceeded to tell myself to NOT freak out)! After some major deep breaths, and some reassurance from my husband I started to make new plans. Did I mention how hard change is for me? Living in THIS moment “Rolling with the punches” is not something that come naturally to me. Lately the main thing I have been focusing on is THIS moment, right now. When I start to get overwhelmed with things not going the way my mind planned on them going, I try to focus on the current moment. Even if this means telling myself to breathe. I remind myself that this moment in time is the only one that I can control. The past is done and over, and the…
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Days with little ones go so fast, and they are so hard! How do we embrace every moment when sometimes we are just trying to keep our head above water?
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My first graders have been learning about story elements, and how to put all of the pieces together to create a story.  We have completed exercises to begin stories, end stories, and how to come up with problems and solutions.  We’ve spent a lot of time developing characters and character traits.  We worked with plot, and developed settings with colorful adjectives. This all has led us to beginning to create our very own stories.   This week we created a story together using story dice.   You can purchase some story dice like this… Or you can use this online option… https://davebirss.com/storydice/ We rolled 5 different dice, and the pictures we got were:  The students and I worked together to write a story called, “Racing Out of the Woods” about a racecar driver named Sammy.  Sammy was stuck in traffic and late for a race so he took a shortcut through the woods which got him lost.  He followed a helicopter to a haunted house that was owned by a pirate named Jeff. He entered the house to ask for directions and stumbled upon Jeff’s treasure which he stole and donated to charity before going off to win his race.  The first graders had so much fun writing together, and the story turned out great. I then typed up the story on paper like this, and printed a copy for each student.  They spend the next several days illustrated their stories.  This introduced a whole new story element we had not explored.  They had to read the text on that page and create one picture to go along with it.   In the end we read through our books again together, and then they got to take them home to enjoy with their families.

Over the years I have learned to love baking more and more. That is, of course, when I have the time! Even then it is often rushed. This makes it a little hard when my kids walk in the kitchen and say, “oh you’re baking? Can I help?” If you have ever been in this situation you know the moment I am talking about. At first I want to say, “No, I don’t have time”, but then I try to remind myself that there will come a time when they will no longer want to hang out in the kitchen with mom or possibly help with much at all. So, I say yes. If they want to help, they help. This has always been my feeling when it comes to anything I am doing that they are interested in, and I feel it has helped them become more comfortable in the kitchen. When I was little my mom read a lot, and because of this I would also pick up a book and read. I think about this same thing when the kids are in the kitchen with me. It is where they often see me and they want to be a part of it too. Lately my two year old has taken to pulling up his little step stool literally anytime I walk up to the kitchen counter. I love interacting with him as he becomes more and more independent (even if he is two and drives my crazy at times). learn to let go With all of this being said, it does not make the hustle and bustle of a kitchen task with kids any easier. It has just become one of those times I have to teach myself to let go. Let go of the todo list Let go of the thought of a clean kitchen Let go of a perfectly blended recipe Let go of the fear of spilled ingredients Let go of the idea of being in a hurry The list could go on and on, and to be honest, I am not great at letting go. But I’m trying. As they get older it gets a little easier. For example, when we did our Christmas baking this past year I was pretty much just a facilitator. My job was melting chocolate, getting utensils, and overseeing tasks, but everything else they pretty much took over. embrace their independence Therefore, when we had a muffin exchange amongst some of their friends I thought it would be a great time to practice this scary thought of turning over my kitchen to a 10 and 7 year old. It must also be said that was timing of this party was during a super busy season where free hours were very hard to come by. However, we made it work. I told the girls I would help them find and read a recipe, but they were going to do all the work. It was late in the evening, and I sat at the counter reading the recipe while they prepared their muffins. They were so cute often repeating things I have told them over and over, or remembering things I have taught them like how to scoop and level off ingredients. embrace the lack of time… There is never going to enough time for everything. I am going to say that again so I really hear it… There is never going to be enough time. As a mom of three with two jobs outside of the house I have to come to this realization (and I know I am…
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As an Ohio teacher in the winter, I am used to those mornings where I stare at my phone willing it to ring. The mornings where I know it was supposed to snow, and I’ve already gotten my hopes up. I scan my emails, check the website, and finally there’s a notification! SNOW DAY! But then it sinks in… how will I entertain my own children? I mean I don’t exactly write lesson plans for these days and I try not to let them veg in front of the TV for the entire day. I thought there may be more like me and want to share an activity that had my girls pleasantly occupied for hours. Art Show and Auction They decided to create an art show and auction. This specific day they were at their grandparents with their cousins and were hanging out in the heated garage. They pulled out their art kits and an origami book and got to work. Some drawings were made on their own while some they collaborated on. Once they felt they had enough pieces they chose how to display them. They chose to hang theirs on the garage door and side of the refrigerator. After this, they got to work promptly on creating tickets. Their tickets were handmade but read “under 5 can get in with a hug, and over 5 can get in with a piece of candy.” VIEWING Let me tell you, after being granted entrance with a single M&M I was amazed at the results of their hard work. The ages of the children ranged from 7-10, and their creations were beautiful. I enjoyed hearing their stories about who created what, and how hard they worked. While leaving the art show I was told my ticket would allow me free entrance to the auction later. AUCTION TIME During the auction I was able to purchase any piece I wanted for the price of any food item. I brought two baby carrots in with me, but my two-year-old ate them before I chose my artwork. I had to return to the kitchen and retrieve some bell peppers before “purchasing” two creations (one from each of my daughters.)