Upcoming Posts

Been at District Staff Development today, and I've learned what programs people are struggling with and I'll be putting out some new posts soon.

Twitter
Remind/Class Dojo because they have similar functions

I just have to make sure I don't fall asleep when I get home from work in order to make sure these posts get out LOL.

Happy learning,
Casey

My Year in 6th Grade

Gonna start off complaining like every good teacher does, because it has been almost a year since I've posted... oops...

If you remember I had a year of changes. I moved from Math to Science (which I'd been trying to do since I started teaching) and then I moved from 8th grade down to 6th grade. Since I got to stay at the same school I already knew most of the Science team, but I did have to meet the other 6th grade teachers. As expected, we got along swimmingly!

Of course anytime you have changes, you also get the challenges. As much as I complained about my 8th graders in the past, I missed them so much this year. As weird as it might sound, they had a level of maturity that my 6th graders have not mastered: my 8th graders just like my sense of humor more... I guess I'm just an 8th grader at heart.

But enough complaining! Just so I remember when August rolls around, here's all the ups and downs I experienced this year, and what I learned from them:

Dancing- I'm sure many teachers had to deal with Fortnite dancing this year. My babies had lots of extra energy to get rid of and Flossing was how they chose to use it. Everyone I asked for advice told me you have to keep them moving. We did lots of Scavenger Hunt activities this year to keep them up and moving. My skill specialist also suggested that we channel that movement into writing. When they're filling out their notebooks put them on a timer and stick to it.

Quiver- cool app that I learned about that uses augmented reality to make 3D images from a 2D sheet of paper. We used it to look at cells and to see the different organelles (even though we only looked at the nucleus).

The Euk has a Nuc, but the Pro says No! 

I got nominated for Teacher of the Year!- no I didn't win, Mr. Tienor, our band director, won. I'm totally fine with him winning, because he does so much for out kids (and he sometimes reads my blog), and it was an honor to lose to him.

Conductivity- this one wasn't actually something that I did, but I think everyone could benefit from hearing it. When you are trying to show your kids that gold or silver jewelry conducts electricity, make sure you take off the jewelry before hooking it up to the 9-volt and Christmas tree lights.

I got to go to CAST (Conference for Advancement of Science Teaching) this year. It was super awesome and I learned a lot, and I should have written a post specifically about it, but I did not... Bad Casey, bad! Still might do a post about it, who knows...

Practice what you preach- if you expect the kids to wear goggles, take notes, keep up with things, then you need to wear goggles, take notes, and keep up with things. And they're only going to get as excited as you do.

Always have a Plan B- if you're doing a lab outside and the weather is not cooperating you have to do something else. YouTube is a great way to show the kids what you were trying to do if things go wrong, or have your own videos pre-made. *Cooking show voice* "If you don't have your own videos, YouTube is fine"

Speaking of voices, one of our teachers was on The Voice this year. Shawn Sounds (Mr. Taylor) gave it his all, but unfortunately he wasn't able to capture a win. 

Remember that children have different life experiences than you did- this story is actually a spin off of Plan B. When we were teaching Conduction, Convection, and Radiation we were going to make solar ovens. The kids were super excited to make s'mores in their ovens, unfortunately the clouds had different plans. I promised the kids s'mores, and they were gonna get s'mores. So we run inside and I grab candles and skewers and we're gonna roast the marshmallows instead. My thought was that everyone had roasted marshmallows before, either outside or on the gas powered stove in the kitchen. I was wrong. Turns out that most of my kids don't have gas stoves at home, or have not been camping. One girl sets her marshmallow on fire and then she starts to panic and I feel like Mr. Wilson from Denis the Menace. Luckily I get her calmed down and no one (me) got burned or lost an eye. I had to change up the safety procedures after that, but I'm glad I got to share that first roasting experience with many of my students. 

As usual I passed around my book so my kids could write down their memories from class and leave me a little note. 

Finding the Motivation

So yesterday I updated you guys about where I'm going to be this year and about my amazing principal. I did start to talk about the new superintendent and seeing Ron Clark at Convocation. I'm not going to talk about that a lot here, because if you wanna know what it was like seeing Ron Clark I'm sure he's all over YouTube and Instagram, and seeing him do his thing will leave a better impact that anything I would be able to put into words. I know I said this was going to be like a part 2, but this is really more of it's own separate post (sorry Uncle Paul it's not going to resolve the cliff hanger lol).

After we left Convocation I was so pumped up! I was ready to take on the world, I was #AllIn4Aldine. But that was over a week ago, and I haven't had to deal with students yet. I know that when the students get to my room tomorrow it's going to start the slow decline on my motivation to get out of the bed every morning. So that's why I'm writing this post, because I know that at some point that you'll need help to keep going.

You've got to find something to hang on to. It could be as simple as wanting the achieve perfect attendance, or as deep as your students are counting on you to be there(honestly I'm somewhere between the two). Here's a list of some of the things that keep me going, and some that I borrowed from other teachers.

1. "Read in Case of Bad Day" book- this one takes a little planning, but at the end of every school year I pass around a journal for my kids to write a little snippet in. Of course you get the little "have a great summer" ones but then you get to the ones from kids you didn't expect to hear from and it makes you want to cry because it's so beautiful to see how you touched their lives. Reading a few entries from your previous students is enough to keep you going until the end of the year.
2. Keep track of the little extra things that students give you- last year I had a lot of cartoonists in my class, and they doodled things on the back of their assignments, or they gave little pictures that they drew. I kept it all. Some of it I have hanging up in my room, and some of it is just pictures I have saved on my phone. It doesn't seem like much, but it's enough to remind you that your students took some time out of their day and they thought of you.
3. Get you a theme song- athletes have one they listen to before a game to get them pumped up, teaching is the same thing. It's the little things that help.
4. Have a support group- if you're a new teacher usually they assign you a mentor to work with, and they can help you with questions and problems you might have. If you don't have a mentor, then there's always the teacher around the corner (hi Shirley!), or the other young person on your team (hi Alyssa!) or some combination of them all.
5. And to quote a fellow teacher, "Its just one day, once class period. You have a group of kids that love you so you can't give up" Alyssa Barber 2018. You can't come into today's classroom with yesterday's problems. 

I hope one of these things will help you guys out when times get tough. Or if you have one that I didn't talk about then mention it in the comments. 

Happy learning, 

Casey

What's Happened Since Inservice Started

Hey guys! I know I took the summer off from posting, but summer has officially come to a close. It's the end of August, I've been back at work for two week now, and the kids are coming back on Monday. Heck some districts have even had their kids back already.

A little catching up/update about what's be going on since summer, one of my last posts I was talking about all the changes that were going on in my district. I know I mentioned that I was going to be moving campuses, but I have some good news to share! Before I get to my news, I have a little backstory I need to tell you guys, I love my principal; shes an amazing person. My first year teaching I had recently torn my ACL and I was starting the year off on crutches. My principal made sure to check up on me while I was putting my room together, making sure I wasn't doing anything to further injure myself, like getting up on a swivel chair. She even got onto me if she saw me and I wasn't wearing my knee brace! When my grandfather passed away she pulled me aside whenever she would see me in the hall and ask me how I was doing, even made sure to ask about my mom. Ms. Bell is an amazing person, and I love her so much. I was so sad that I was going to have to leave her this year, but yet again, Ms. Bell proved that she's a wonderful person. I had applied for a transfer back to my original school, but it was looking hopeless. Finally, just before the end of school I got an email from HR asking if I would accept a position back at my school. I was so excited! It was even for Science, that subject where I did my student teaching, and where I had been begging Ms. Bell for a job since she hired me. So I get to stay at my school! I didn't have to move to the new school across town and I'm finally getting to teach Science. Of course Ms. Bell still likes to joke whenever she sees me in the hallway that she's going to switch me back to math, but I'll gladly laugh at her joke, because she has done so much for me. Thank you Ms. Bell, you are the greatest boss I could ask for.

That was a bit of a tangent I didn't think I would be taking when I started to write this, but it was something that i needed to say, and I think its something that you guys needed to hear.  This year has also been different because our district has hired a new superintendent, Dr. LaTonya Goffney. I got to hear her life story, and her passion for education when we had convocation this year. I'm not going to lie, I was a little apprehensive when we hired a new superintendent with all the other changes that were going on in with dissolving the intermediate campuses, and opening several new schools, but she erased all doubts from my mind. Dr. Goffney could take over the world if she set her mind to it, and I'd gladly be on her side. Convocation was freaking amazing! We had the performing arts group put on a show for us, I got to see some of my former students, Ron Clark was there. Yeah, THAT Ron Clark! That was just what I needed. I left feeling so pumped, I can only imagine how amped up everyone else felt.

Okay so now that I'm done going over those two things, I feel like I've already talked a lot, and I haven't even really gotten to the point I've wanted to make and I haven't even started talking about all the magic that was Ron Clark! I'm gonna have to make this a two part where tomorrow I make sure I talk about the major important message that's been laid on my heart.

Tl;dr- Thank you Ms. Bell you're amazing and thank you again for bringing me back to Lewis!!!!
Happy Learning,
Casey

We did it!!!

We survived another school year! Hurray! Woohoo! Awesome! I just wanted to congratulate everyone on their successful school year and I hope that you can find something to occupy your mind with this summer.

Here are some ways that I'm going to be using my summer time:

• Netflix- I'm going to binge the last few seasons of Supernatural
• Teachers Pay Teachers- I've got a few things that I'm finishing up on that still need to get uploaded
• Pool- it's only the second official day of summer break and I've already hosted 2 pool parties
• Read- I've got a stack of books that I've been meaning to read for years now, hopefully this is the time to get that done 
• Professional development- because I can't waste my summer time doing only the things I want to do.
• Crocheting- I've been working on my brother's Christmas present for over a year now and I've got to get it finished this year... #oops

So that's what I'm going to be doing this year, feel free to use one of my ideas or comment your own!

Happy Learning,

Casey

Say Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!

So yesterday I posted about ClassroomScreen.com which is a great website that I use with my interactive whiteboard. I put a link up on twitter, because I need other people's validation and wanted to share my work with them (it's also on Facebook, but that's neither here nor there). Not two minutes after I posted it I hear from one of my old assistant principals. He is now the principal at one of the other schools in our district, and they haven't been given their Promethean Boards yet. He's always been pretty tech savvy, and it saddened me that they were like the last on the list of schools to receive the technology upgrade, since everyone else has had theirs since last year. Aaaaaaanyway he asked me if I would be willing to lead a professional development with his teachers to show them how to use their new Promethean Boards for next school year!

I'm so excited and I'm glad for the opportunity to share with other adults what I've been doing in my classroom (you know the whole reason I started this blog). I am very flattered to be considered for this opportunity, and I hope that I'm able to help them out. I have all of summer to get my presentation together, and since it's about technology it has to be epic. I already know a few of the things I'm going to talk about:

• Hooking up the document camera
• ClassFlow
• ClassroomScreens
• Maybe ClassDojo

If you guys know of anything else that you use with your Promethean/Smart Boards please let me know so I can research it during the summer and share it with them!
Happy Learning,
Casey

ClassroomScreen.com

This year my district joined the many others across the nation by putting in interactive whiteboards in the classrooms. We went with some touch screen Promethean Boards, and so far it's been pretty nice. I do enjoy getting to write on PowerPoints, or having students draw diagrams that go along with word problems, it's really fun! But when you're done with direct instruction and you move to independent practice, then you have to pull up the web page that has the count down timer, you've got to repeat your directions 10 different times, tell the kids to be quiet every 5 minutes, give your behavior expectations, and no matter how many times you've pointed out the location of the clock no student will ever look at it because 'I don't know how to tell time on that clock'.

Instead of worrying about all of that, there's one website that you can go to:

The site comes with 10 built in applications.

Each of the apps serves a unique purpose instead of having to use a bunch of different websites. This has saved me time because I'm not having to answer the same questions 10 times, and it lets me focus on helping the students with their work. I'm going to be honest and tell you that I don't use all of the different apps, but I will explain them to the best of my ability.

1. Random Name Generator- Instead of using the popsicle sticks to call on students this could be a replacement. You paste in a copy of your roster and it gives you a random name from your list. Downside is that if you're like me and you have several classes it doesn't work so great. The Dice roller would be great if I taught probability, I could see this being easier than passing out a die to groups of students and telling them to start rolling. (I don't use this app)
2. Sound Level- if you have a microphone attached to your screen it works. You can set the appropriate noise level you want and the bar turns red when the kids go over that range. (I don't have a microphone on my screen so I can't use this)
3. QR Code- if you are having your kids go to a certain site and you're tired of them typing it in wrong and tiny.url isn't working all you have to do is type in the website you want them to visit and it will create a QR Code for that specific site for the kids to scan. (I don't use this one)
4. Drawing Window- there are two different sizes for the drawing window, but they both work the same way. The kids like using them more than I do. It's a little basic but it gets the job done.
5. Text box- I use this for all of those directions that kids ask for 12 times, like page numbers. Now they know where to look when they have a question about what they're supposed to be doing. Of course you can use it for so much more than that.
6. Work Symbols- these are to set behavior expectations for students. Again so you don't have to repeat yourself a bunch of times. My students told me that these seemed better for Elementary kids and they don't like it when I use them.
7. Traffic Lights- I have no idea how I would use them in the classroom, but I'm sure someone does.
8. Timer/Stopwatch- pretty self explanatory. It's a big display so it's easy to see across the room. I don't like that when its done ticking all you get is a little bell chime. Still works well, although sometimes it's a little glitchy and doesn't work well on touch screen.
9. Clock- I like that the clock has both the digital and analog clock screen. It also has 12 and 24 hour modes if you're in to that kind of thing. It does also have the date on it, but it's small and hard to see sometimes, as one of my coworkers learned the hard way when an administrator took off points from her evaluation for not having the date posted.
10. Background- I like the background changer because there are 35 different ones to choose from. My favorite one is the waterfall that is a GIF and you can relax as you watch the water cascade down (5/5 stars). Or you can go on a journey across the world with scenes from The Outback, Rome, Paris, New York, India and so much more. 

I learned about ClassroomScreen from the technology specialist at my school. He noticed that some of the teachers were hesitant to use their new whiteboards when we still had the old school projectors hooked up. This was a great way for teachers to play around with the new hardware, while also learning about a new resource to use in their classroom. Even if you don't have an interactive screen, this would work great with regular projectors. I suggest taking some time to play around with it, or letting your students run wild with it. Either way it's something that I use in my class almost everyday, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Happy Learning,
Casey