Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Wonderful Speaker

This weekend I had the opportunity to go hear a phenomenal speaker with several schools. It was a Saturday morning - hard to get teachers motivated on a Saturday just before Christmas break. We were all blown away. If you ever get the chance to hear Dr. Adolph Brown - GO!!! You will love it. There are video clips on his website. I bought one of his books to read and can't wait. I know my description will never be close to seeing him in person, but I promise he is worth the time. One thing that stands out is that if you can't picture all your students graduating college, then find a new job.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Our Christmas Wishes


Our school has a door decorating contest. I really don't care for them because it usually is what teacher spends the most time decorating, not showing off the what the students do. I came across this idea for a bulletin board at Caffeinated Teacher and decided to adapt it for our door. I had my K-2 students tell me what they wished they could give or do for someone else for Christmas. We had a discussion about people less fortunate than us, so most of them caught on. We made a small letter to Santa that folded into an envelope from here. Then my 3rd-5th graders wrote a longer wish explaining why they wished that. We put their stories inside a gift box to open and read. I thought it came out cute!
tag to encourage people to read our wishes


inside a letter

a box opened

Friday, December 3, 2010

Field Trip

Yesterday I went with kindergarten on a field trip to see Babes in Toyland. It was a pretty good trip and somehow I ended up with the most talkative kid ever as my seatmate on the bus! I'm not kidding, he talked or sang the entire way there and back! I heard about his dad's truck, his uncle's car, how his sister is white, but his other sister and him are white and black, last year they took food on a field trip, I've been there, I live there, and he sang the green, red, and blue songs for me! He also got very excited about a building and thought that should be our field trip. I turned to see, expecting a fire station or something but it was . . . a uniform cleaning building! Got to love the mind of a 5 year old!