Veteran's Day Salute!

I would like to take a moment to extend a sincere thank you to all my veterans.  Many of us do not take the time to realize all we have because of the men and women who have risked their lives for our freedom.  I feel very blessed to be in a country where we have such great opportunities.

I found some really great stuff and I just wanna.....

Share!!!  
One night I decided to look up the best schools in the country and see what we need to do to be more like them.  The top schools have a focus.  The #1 school was a STEM based school.  So.... I searched what needs to be done to make our school efficient in this manner.  This website was a great resource.  It was a blog called .  I love the title don't you?  
It led me to some lessons at a PBS website which gave some great ideas, everything was there that I needed to implement into our day!
I also ran across some interesting information about technology in the classroom, pairing it with the creative writing.
I just want our kiddos to be able to compete in the upcoming industry of whatever they want to be!

Thinking Maps

I was visiting a school website that has a great resource for curriculum maps, for all grade levels and subjects.  We decided at our 3rd grade level meeting that it was a good place to start.  The school website is Higley Unified School District.  Now we would love to see their assessments and resources but they have those available only to username and password "knowers".  However, they did have a link to a web page about Thinking Maps.  This was what I saw when I went to their site:

Thinking Maps are eight specific visual patterns

Visualizing our thinking allows us to have a concrete image of our abstract thoughts. Visual representations enhance the brain's natural ability to detect and construct meaningful patterns. Thinking Maps reduce anxiety by providing familiar visual patterns for thinking and working with complex ideas and situations.

Research: "Although thinking is innate and spontaneous, skillful thinking must be cultivated." -Art Costa, The Thought-Filled Curriculum

It is definitely worth looking into.... I loved their visuals and how they explained the data. Thinking Maps

Working smarter not harder.... how??

Glogster Link

My 3/4 TBT talk about this all the time.  We want to work smarter not harder, yet we do not know what direction to take.  As a group, we know our main focus is our students and helping them grow in their learning.  However, the problem becomes time- I know this is every teacher's nemesis.  My colleagues and I generally do not take a lunch, have meetings every morning, have lunch/recess/bus duties, and if we have a planning period- try to utilize it to the best of our ability.  This is not to complain, we love our jobs and students- yet it is a harsh reality.  We are coming in earlier and leaving later but still feel like we are not just treading water, but drowning.  I stumbled upon this link, hoping it might help us find our way.  For the tutorial, click the link below the picture.  Most of us know how to use Google drive, so why not use it to make our lives more efficient, less complicated... I will let you know how it works out.

I am still working on my game plan... Erase, erase, erase- run a different play.

First day of school...What is YOUR game plan?

Wow!  What a wonderful day!  I woke up, took my oldest son and dropped him off for his first day of high school. :-( Then I made my way to the best school to work in the world, Conesville Elementary!  I met my student teacher in the parking lot a little before 8.  There were so many things I wanted to get done before the kids got in the building, yet nothing seemed to come together the way I envisioned.  I guess that is what I need to let go.  Nothing ever happens the way I think it should, but everything happens for a reason.  My game plan for this year is to make sure I make an impact on every person I come into contact with- from sharing a smile to helping a student learn to read.  My colleagues and I have such a passion for our students!  Seeing all the students' faces today just made me realize, we are part of their game plan and are essential in choices they make in the future.
I made sure to ask my kids what they felt was the best part of their first day of school .  Jake said he couldn't decide but Ms. Hartsock was pretty cool.  Gabriella said she really liked that she didn't have to stand on the fence at recess.  Hudson said the fact that I was in his class!  How great is that!
I am looking forward to tomorrow!

And now it's July.... Really

My family and I have been so busy this summer.  Not vacationing, but Dr.'s appointments and sports.  Jake traveled with his AAU and high school basketball team, then with his season and all-star baseball team.  He tore his meniscus, so that has been an experience.  Hudson continues to play baseball and travels some with that.  Luckily, he is staying healthy.  Gabriella continues to do gymnastics and loves going to the swimming pool, I swear she is part fish.  Rorey is coaching Hudson's travel team and he is getting back into the music scene.  I just took my praxis for the reading endorsement and have been trying to get our (Ms. Wright, Mrs. Woodmansee and myself) room ready....  Still so much to do and school starts in less than a month.  I miss the structure, but do not know how I have a full time job with everything else my family and I do!

Summer Time....

I cannot believe summer is already here.  The kids have learned so much and are growing so quickly!  Please be sure to read, read, read this summer and practice those math facts!  Don't forget to play outside a bunch and enjoy the beautiful weather.  I will see you out and about I am sure.