Cruise Time

Right after school got out and Dereck completed his Middle School Mathematics test, we headed out of town to Los Angeles, in particular Long Beach, and boarded the Carnival cruise lines for a cruise down the Mexican coast. Great time to relax, spending time with Dereck, catch up on reading I've missed out during the school year, and explore.

[**Update as of June 18th, Dereck passed his Middle School math test. He is now officially certified to teach middle school math in addition to elementary. It appears that he is on track to teach 7th or 8th grade math.]



This was Dereck's first cruise ever (unless you count working on a Naval Amphibious Carrier).

Sunday - Prior to boarding the ship, we had about 2 hours to kill time so we decided to head to the beach in Long Beach. We couldn't figure out why it was so difficult to find a parking spot or why the major street was blocked off until we saw so many gay and lesbian couples walking around. Once we found parking to walk to the beach, we came across Long Beach's Gay Pride Parade. After exploring the beach for 2 hours, we headed to the boat. Waiting in lines for about 2 1/2 hours for various processes IS NOT FUN. Ship sailed. We explored the boat. Met some wonderful people who worked hard to serve us dinner every evening.

 The awesome window nook was perfect for reading with a couple of pillows.

Monday - Sailing on the sea, spent most of the afternoon laying on a comfortable lounge chair reading a good book on my iPad (great traveling device for books)

Tuesday - Cabo San Lucas - we went zip-lining and I screamed to my hearts content

Dereck forgot to tip his head back and smile!

They called this hold the Mexican Butterfly.

Wednesday - another day at Cabo San Lucas exploring the town and BEACH (coming from a native Seattlite who only sees the beach now once or twice a year)

Thursday - Puerto Vallarta, took a taxi to the "romantic" beach and enjoyed a lovely stroll on the boardwalk

Friday, Saturday - Sailing on the sea - enjoyed the numerous on board shows

Sunday - returned to LA, drove down to San Diego and walked around downtown San Diego exploring the shops, local dog park, enjoying the cool weather

Monday - spent our honeymoon in San Diego watching a movie at the theater, walking around town, enjoying the company of my husband

Tuesday - laid on the beach reading my book in San Diego. Oh, I got sunburnt on the back of my thighs below my swimming shorts after laying in the sun for only 30 minutes. Ouch it hurt!

Overall, a fun and relaxing trip. Now we're ready to work!

STEM Club

100 points given if you can tell me what STEM stands for without Googling or looking it up. (Just kidding)

This summer I get to teach the STEM club through our school's 21st Century grant. Although, I don't feel like I'm "teaching" because the students are learning through hands-on projects. Okay, if you didn't figure out STEM by now: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. (Recently, I happened to see a teacher's blog that explained at her school they do STEAM because they add the A for art. Which I think is a perfect idea).

Here's what we've been working on:

Music videos

I have NO pictures of this but the kids LOVED taking a song, using pictures gathered from the Internet to compile a "music video." The principle loves the videos so much that he wants them put onto a CD to present for the parents at our school's Meet the Teacher night in August.

Bottle Rockets

Back in April, Dereck built this super easy bottle rocket launcher from http://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus/abe/soda-bottle-rocket.pdf . We used this launcher to blast off our 2 liter rockets. I would highly recommend to do this in the summer time if you have bored kids at home. Materials and supplies to build the launcher was only about $10 with about 30 minutes of time to make the launcher. Instead of using a bike pump, Dereck and I would just hook up our car jump starter that has a pump included (great investment for car emergencies). http://www.homedepot.com/BLACK-DECKER/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ2og/R-202072374/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of us outside using the rocket launcher to launch the bottle rockets. They had impressive launches.

Learned about the history of Solar Power and how it works using SRP's eJourney (interactive virtual field trip)

Using the School iPads

This is what you get when a student was in Dereck's classroom and had AMPLE of opportunities to learn on the iPad. I learned about an app I was unfamiliar with. This picture is the cover page of a book the student created. I see a future journalist or published author!

Our most recent venture....

Creating a Marble Track from a specific list of allowed materials

I'm quite surprised! The neatest and orderly track was NOT built by the girls. It was the boys. The girls were STRUGGLING and yet the boys one hour less to work on their track, due to attending Soccer Club for the first two hours and join us for the last two hours of STEM Club.

Here's a video of one of the girls team track:

Tomorrow's adventure includes paper airplanes, learning about volcanoes so we can eventually build one, and designing a roller coaster using Discovery Kids.

Craft Bug

It's amazing the inspirations I have from Pinterest! Wouldn't you agree with how inspiring Pinterest is (or how addicting it can be)? I consider myself to be a non-crafty person. Let's just say, I would rather use the computer to create something than to create anything by hand or using anything that doesn't entail a computer. Thus, my classroom "decor" has never been "inspiring" for my students.

I felt like sometimes my lack of desire to "design" my classroom is inhibited. There are some annoying limitations lovely district fire code policies to keep us safer that state:

• Nothing can hang from classroom ceilings
• Absolutely nothing can be on the classroom door except for emergency exit map
• All items on classroom walls must lay flat (i.e. only 2D, 3D is NOT allowed such as crinkling paper up to represent tree branches)
• Classroom walls cannot be covered in more than 50% of fire consumable items (i.e. butcher paper, fabric, etc.)
• Items put on classroom walls cannot come within one foot of the ceiling

Due to my non-crafty or non-interior design side, I've NEVER had a "theme" for my classroom. It was too much work and let's just put it, I don't have the natural eye for design and complementary items. (When my husband does a better job shopping for clothes for me than I could ever do by myself, it's obvious I have a fashion problem). A month ago Pinterest showed me a wonderfully, inspiring classroom and I've realized it would be perfect. Our school's colors are red, black, and white.

photos courtesy of http://dandelionsdragonflies.blogspot.com/2011/08/finally-my-classroom-reveal.html 

The way this teacher has set up the teams with their OWN bookshelf to store in-class materials is perfect. The downsides to this: a) This classroom is set up for about 20 students, my classroom will need to be set up for 35-40 students per period, b) my students will have the "big" kid desks instead of these small desks, and c) those bookshelves could get costly trying to buy them. Oh, I almost forgot, how would I be able to fit these "team" shelves in when I'm barely going to have enough classroom space for the students' desks? Oh well, it's a dream and a wish I could have.

Some other pictures from this teacher's amazing classroom that are inspiring for my design:

But my current project I'm working on is based on this image:

I love this idea because I want my markers and eraser up high so I don't have students "stealing" them. Last night, I went to Walmart and found the perfect tins (sorry no picture of them before). They were in the kids birthday section and was a light green and pink with white swirlies. To go with my classroom decor, I used color spray paint and here's what I've got after one layer of spray paint. I intended to do just plain red on the pails but I actually like the white swirlies showing through on this one layer of spray paint. What do you think? Should I spray for a plain red or keep the swirlies?

Something I learned: Take the sticker off the pail BEFORE you spray paints. Oops, I guess I'll be doing that tomorrow and spray painting that area.

I got 4 pails so I could also use another one for chart paper markers and possibly use the fourth one to hold the overhead projector remote.

My next projects are going to be:

http://www.classroomdiy.com/2012/06/diy-decorative-letters.html

Since I'm teaching only math this year, I was going to do this project with "math" but Walmart didn't have all the letters. Due to a reasonable price and good size letters, I'll be creating this for "Mrs. D." 

http://www.lessonswithlaughter.com/2012/06/colorful-toolbox-organizer.html

This is actually just a tool box organizer from Lowes/Home Depot to organize nails, screws, etc. With some spray paint, scrapbook paper, tape, and labels, I intend on creating this for my class.

http://adayinthelifeofmisskranz.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-08-03T23:07:00-05:00&max-results=7&start=13&by-date=false

I LOVE these as they are perfect for space savers and seats. These would work great at my intervention table.

I'm beginning to get the craft bug.

"Outside the Box" Teacher

Needless to say, as a 4th year teacher, I've come to realize quickly that I'm not a "normal" teacher. I'm quite unusual and.....unique. Especially when it comes to discipline or management within my classroom. When it comes to discipline, I usually prefer that the consequence aligns with what choice they made.

For example, I have this amazing boy who loves to sing and dance but has occasional major behavior issues. One day, he decided he didn't want to walk in line with the rest of the class. Our principal is specific (and I already agreed with him about this) if a student/class can't walk in line, then they do it all over again. Even if that means we're late for PE, Lunch, or class. On that day, this boy, we'll call him Jack, stayed out of line on purpose even when his classmates signaled to him to get back in line. Since it was just this one student and the classmates did their job of signaling, I sent Jack back to do it all over again. He went back but defiantly ignored the line and decided to shout "I'm Mexican" in front of many other kids even though he is not of Mexican heritage (just his way of trying to get attention in a negative form). So, instead of wasting our class' precious time, I had him come in and we called Mom to inform her that her son would be practicing walking in line after-school because he apparently doesn't want to do what he's supposed to. I know this seems ridiculous but I knew  if he got away with it this time, it would escalate into more immature behavior and could potentially lead to suspention from other bad choices. I think his mom was weirded out with the consequence but she went with it trusting my decision. When after-school arrived, Mr. D (my husband) so kindly had Jack walk on a line for about 10 minutes. Ever since then, Jack has done much better in line and hasn't given me problems with that.

Another example of me teaching "outside the box" is literally making a box, using tape, on the floor to help a certain student visualize his boundaries within the classroom. Each year, there seems to be one or two students that don't understand how to remain near their own desk and they wonder around the room without permission therefore getting other students off task. Often with parent/guardian permission, this tape boundary is placed on the floor and every time this student leaves their boundary he/she gets an extra homework (which usually keeps them in their zone after a few times of getting homework).

Lately I've been doing a lot of researching and educating myself on best practices for teaching. Some awesome resources I've found led me to www.wholebrainteaching.com. I was impressed with the structure and it makes complete sense to me as to why it works. In addition, my research has led me into finding ways to make my classroom more organized and learner friendly. I'm definitely not a decorator or design. I'm not a crafty person. In past school years, my classrooms have always left more to be desired in order to appeal to the eye. I want a classroom that feels and looks welcoming. Thanks to Pinterest and Teacher blogs, the possibilities are endless.

Joy in Teaching

I've realized that being a blogger is not really my cup of tea. Reading others blogs and catching up with family through their blogs is what I enjoy. To give you a glimpse into my classroom and much of my time, this is why I'm bringing you the following post.

As you already know, this school year and change in schools has been a blessing for me. Stress levels have minimized and my ability to attempt creativity for learning has grown. Time I now have because paperwork demands are less at this school. This extra time I use to research ideas and resources to assist with my National Board Certification process but also begins to enhance my level of teaching. If there were to be a picture taken of me at work in just about any moment of the day, you will see me smiling as I work. Okay, so maybe not first thing in the morning but once my door opens to the students, the smile pops on my face.

Since this blog is not public and open only to who I invite, I feel comfortable sharing these images here.

As you'll see through the pictures and video, I'm not necessarily an artsy type of teacher so decorations in my classroom include students' work or simple posters to aid learning. Our classrooms are not pretty with lots of old cabinets and a TV that we don't use anymore (thanks to the Smartboard). Yet, I make the classroom work as best as I can.

Two of my students racing against each other to solve a 2 digit x 2 digit number and checking their work through another strategy (using expanded form for each number & multiplying in a matrix.

The following are pictures of my students playing a multiplication game called, "Salute." They loved it so much that at times the voice levels were overbearing due to their excitement. Students who struggle with multiplication got to go on the computer and play multiplication games for the fact(s) they're working on.

The following are photos from when we were introducing division with remainders. This game called "Leftovers" definitely challenged the students. My higher level students had to write their division problems with the remainders in addition to using the manipulatives.

During Red Ribbon Week (Drug Awareness Week) our school probation officer had coordinated many different guests to speak to the students' during the week. As well as coordinated with the DEA to have their helicopter land on the school field. Since the helicopter had to quickly move onto a drug bust, they landed temporarily and took off. The kids were in awe.

Here are my students' watching the helicopter.

Here is Dereck's classroom standing outside to watch the landing.

My students are working towards their class ice cream sundae party once ALL students have mastered their multiplication facts up to 9. We track using the ice cream scoops on our cupboard. Currently, all but 6 students have mastered their multiplication facts (photo was taken a few weeks ago).

Here are the Boys and Girls Volleyball teams on Game Day. There was no one available to take the Boys' photo except for me. Thus, as Coach, I'm not in the photo.

Boys Team

Girls Team

The following is a video I took on Thursday when the students were learning about equivalent fractions. This is the first time I've really taken video of my students (in preparation for National Board) so I knew not all students would "behave". Some groups did great of ignoring the camera, other groups...not the best. I bet you could probably pinpoint who the "class clown" is and who the "cool kid" is. You even even hear me telling a student to go put his head down (it's not any of the students that were onscreen at the time). Yet, I must say...ALL students were engaged in the activity. Yes, voice levels were a bit loud but I wasn't going to stop the class when they were all engaged and actively participating. (Video quality isn't the greatest but I had to resize it in order for it to load).

Sadly, I don't have any recent photos of Dereck and me readily available to add in this post. The holidays are quickly approaching and my blog post is quickly getting longer. Till next time, Happy Holidays!