Let's Start at the Beginning

Welcome!

My blog is currently undergoing a face lift so I thought maybe I should start like it's the beginning of my blogging adventure.  Which it sort of is because even though I think about blogging to the point of an obsession, I don't put much on here very often.  I hope that will be changing this year. That will be changing this school year.  Inshallah.  (God willing in Arabic)

The Beginning

I went through a pretty rough year in 2011.  I won't share all the details (I feel embarrassed still about the whole thing and a little ashamed).  Basically I started a new school, a split grade, AND a new department - gifted education - which at the time was my dream job. 

So I thought. 

It was the most stressful position I have ever held in my 16+ years of working - including babysitting jobs at a very early age (in case you're trying to add up how old I might be). My principal did not like the gifted department (little did I know until after I was placed - which my district mentor knew but placed me there anyway - yes, I'm not sore about it at all) and proceeded to "pop by" my classroom on a daily basis to evaluate me.  Daily, folks.  Daily.  Oh, the stress.  I would plan, prep, and stress every night to make sure things were perfect.  I would practice/rehearse my lessons.  I met with the district coaches and my district mentor to go over my terminology.  Did I mention I taught at two different schools?  All this stress was primarily from one school - basically a part time gig.  The other school?  Love!  And the principal loved and supported me.  Even at my most lowest days when I cried in her office (very unprofessionally) and sought advice about the other school.

Long story made shorter...I ended up walking away mid-school year.  I just couldn't take it anymore.  I wasn't enjoying my job.  My eczema (a skin condition I have) flared up uncontrollably from the stress.  I decided no job was better than this job.  I still miss those kids and the staff from the two schools.  If it wasn't for that pesky boss...but it led me to where I am today.

United Arab Emirates - Teaching Abroad

That's right, I teach in the UAE.  If you are not good with geography, that is the same country as Dubai.  It's near Africa and Saudi Arabia.  Even though it is in the Middle East *gasp* it is perfectly safe.  In fact, I feel safer living here than I did in my stateside home of Phoenix, Arizona.  There are definitely ups and downs like any job or any place you call home.  

I ended up teaching abroad because I was at my rock bottom.  I was super broke, finding a teaching job mid-year absolutely impossible.  I was working through a temp agency barely above minimum wage and not able to afford the bills or food for the fridge and my dog.  So I thought "what do I have to lose?" and applied for an overseas teaching job.  The rest is now history.

Join me this year as I share my experiences over the past two years (heading into year number three abroad!) and my new journey moving forward as a new mother of an adorable baby girl at a new school and a new grade level.

I missed Vegas this past summer as I was still in school.  Oh yeah, and eight months pregnant and on the no-fly list but I've been catching up on what I missed through A Burst of First's awesome Vegas linky.  Find it here. One of the things I've read over and over is to find your niche.  Mine has been staring me in the face since last year at the Vegas I Teach K conference when everyone was floored when they heard where I flew from and where I teach.  

So I am updating my blog to reflect this little tidbit about me.  I am an overseas teacher living and working in the Middle East.  And I don't speak the primary language of my students and parents (Arabic).  Just a few words here and there but not enough to string a sentence together.  

What topics and questions do you want to hear about in upcoming blog posts?

A Day Full of Literacy ~ I Teach K Day 2

Today was a day chock full of literacy and the great blog meet up. 

Catching Readers Before They Fall - Katie Keier

Katie is the co-author of the popular summer book study book of the same name.  I was expecting some good information and I feel she did not disappoint.  However, to really get into the meat of the topic the session could have been more than an hour. 

Take Away 1:  Believe you are the one who will teach them to read and write.  In other words, don't look to pass the buck but instead embrace and take ownership of this fact.

Take Away 2:  When teaching directionality, Katie does what she calls "hop on my finger."  Students simply place their finger on top of hers as she points and reads the words.  I'm thinking this would also be a great partner reading activity.

Take Away 3:  What we place the most importance on in the classroom is conveyed to the students as being the most important.  If you are only ever killing and drilling letters students will miss the idea that reading has meaning and involves thinking.

Take Away 4:  When building a name center, students can create their own name bottles by finding their correct beads for their name to place inside.  Give them ownership of this!  Katie also takes it a step further and places name cards with photos at the center so students can figure out whose name is spelled in the bottle they have chosen. 

Assessing Comprehension - Trish Saccomano

Take Away 1:  Pretelling is thinking in a sequential manner.  Practice pretelling by creating anchor charts with the students that identify steps needed to perform a task.

Take Away 2:  Retelling idea with puppets - create a slit in the paper for the backdrop of the puppet show.  Then students can place popsicle stick puppets through the slit and the puppets become mobile.

A-B-C, Come Learn With Me! - Kathleen Pedersen

This session had so many take-aways it will be hard to narrow them down.

Take Away 1:  Make a pull the stick from the tub game cheat proof by covering it with a sock.   Who knew?  Now kids can't see when they reach in to pull one out.  Genius!

Take Away 2:  Always keep in mind that your goal for the alphabet is mastery and automaticity.  Think of this goal when choosing activities for the students.  Will it help them make this goal?

Take Away 3:  Ideas for the ABC arc (which I've been using for years now and just love):
                        1.  Guess the Letter
                        2.  Speedy Alphabet Arc
                        3.  Closest to Z...or Closest to A (partner race)
                        4.  Listen and Find

 Blog Meet Up

Awesome!  Honestly I was feeling seriously jetlagged and very close to not going.  But I peeled myself off the hotel bed and forced myself to go.  It was not a disappointment!  It was great meeting so many wonderful teachers and speaking with them.  DeeDee Wills ~ you are a riot!

 

The Dinner Crew plus Cara

 

DeeDee and I

 

Don't forget to link up and share your own take-aways from the conference!  Please link back to my blog when you do. :)

 

Vegas Baby!

I was traveling to the USA for the summer anyway when I discovered there was going to be a national teacher's conference in Vegas at the same time.  Why not? I thought and immediately registered.



Today was day one of the conference and it was, to quote Guiliana Rancic "amaze-balls."  Truly.  Here are just some snippets of my take-aways.

Marvelous Math Journals - Cyndi Giorgis, Ph.D.

Take Away 1:  Start off slowly and build towards using math journals.  Don't start on Day 1 and expect success.  It is a long process of increasing print awareness before students will be successful with journals.  Of course this all depends on your class.

Take Away 2:  Writing begins with reading.  (You're probably thinking "Well, duh"...but it's such an important concept I thought it deserved credit in print).

Take Away 3: 
Find the book Windblown by Edouard Manceau.  This adorable book has a TON of great uses and shows these windblown shapes that turn themselves into multiple animals.  Great math book (shapes, transformations, sequence) but also good for retell and science (hello, weather!).

 



Alphabet Activities in Kindergarten - Shari Sloane

Take Away 1:  Have a large easel alphabet chart for yourself and individual, matching alphabet charts for each of your students when reviewing daily letter names and sounds.  Later, progress to digraph/blends charts the same way.  Send them home to your parents as well!

 

Take Away 2:  Friday homework shares (or in my case Thursdays).  Have students partner share their homework once a week to two partners.  Then do a museum walk in the circle so all students have  a chance to see everybody's homework.  They then earn a sticker on their homework chart.  I think this will really help to get more participation with homework - kids would hate feeling left out if their was a weekly sort of celebration.

 

Take Away 3:  Get in the habit of having students share with partners for accountability.  Especially useful in completion of center activities.  "Tell a friend what letter you found and show them where it was."  Great for my ELL's for speaking. :)

 

Celebrate & Appreciate: Lyrics to Literacy - Debbie Clement

Take Away 1:  Be engaging!  She had such a high energy and had me laughing a lot.  The kids will eat it up.  I know this one is also obvious but sometimes it is so hard to bring in that high engagement when all you want is 5 espresso shots and/or 12 hours of sleep.

 

 

Take Away 2:  Sign language can be the common thread to bring multi-nationalities in a diverse ELL classroom together.  Some signs will also be helpful to communicate meanings like dream, book, read, sing.  Love the idea of the active participation sign language brings to stories and songs as well.

 

Super Sight Words -Lauren McCann

Take Away 1:  The Sight Word Song Recipe - commonly known songs that can be used specifically to sing with any 2, 3, or 4 letter word (depending on the song).  However she did caution to keep the song tune specific with one sight word so it would cue auditory learners to that specific word.  One thing I did not agree with:  she kept spelling "me" as "M and E".  My ELL's would get seriously confused if I used "and" to spell the word - they might think there were 3 letters!

 

Take Away 2:  Pair words with actions that make sense.  For example, when spelling eat make eating motions and/or munching sounds to go with the word.

 

Take Away 3:  Discovering letter formations can be done through many tactile ways including using pipe cleaners for round area of letters and attaching them to popsicle sticks for straight areas.

 

 

Ron Clark

Take Away 1:  What you exert in the classroom will return to you.  If you are only giving 10 percent, expect 10 percent from your students.  High energy will create enormous buy in with your students.

 

 

 Take Away 2:  It's important to foster a close community among parents, educators, and students.  Make sure your students are seeing you engaged in fun ways with your colleagues.  Make jokes together, hug, laugh.  Tell them you are family and have each other's back when someone says something negative.  Which brings me to...

 

Take Away 3:  You cannot "fuss" at a child until you have built a connection with them that shows them you truly care, love and respect them.  Otherwise the fussing will show as belittling and do nothing to help their self-esteem.  Besides, it will make you feel as low as dog poo afterwards (that's from me, not Ron Clark).

 

Take Away 4:  Even Ron Clark has days when he wants to quit and not get out of bed for the day.  Even Ron Clark has had days where parents complain about unfairness or other teachers complain about how he is teaching in their classroom and showing them up.  But sometimes, he said, you just have to close your door and do what you know is best for the children.

 

Take Away 5:  Not every child needs (or deserves) awards.  This one I whole-heartedly agree with.  Too many times I've seen co-workers who at the end of each semester want to give every child a certificate.  But we are not fostering the desire for high achievement and earning awards/rewards if we are coddling children and just handing them something for doing nothing.  Not every child on the little league team needs a trophy.  Not every child in your class should get the reward for doing the work - it is not based on effort.  It is based on their result.  I grew up not always getting a certificate or award and it made me work harder to try to get it for next time.

 

Take Away 6:  Always set the bar high and the children will reach to achieve it.  But do not set the bar on the top level and say "good luck" while you stand back and hope the mat will break their fall.  Give them the tools for success to reach the top.  This is what teaching is all about.

 

*  *   *

 

I think I could go on and on but it is now quite late.  There is another full day tomorrow plus...

Super excited!  Hope I can get some sleep.