Five For Friday: July 31, 2015

Time for another Five For Friday post with Doodle Bugs Teaching. Let the randomness begin...

One of my coworkers sent me this picture  today! WOW!!! A framed picture hanging on the wall at the board office honoring my district teacher of the year (secondary) accomplishment. I had no idea this picture was there. I'm really excited about the opportunities I'll have this school year with this accomplishment. 

The share a Coke Tour stopped in our city this week, and after searching for two summers, I finally have a coke can with my name (and my last name) on it!!! And it didn't cost me a dime. Thank you Coke!  I'm now a happy Coke drinker! 

I enrolled my 3 year old in preschool this week (tear)! He was born at 25 weeks and has come a long way; I can honestly say he is ready for preschool! Three years ago I could not even imagine being here, now he's getting ready to start his school journey, such a bittersweet milestone. 

Only one more Friday left of my summer vacation, so it's time to start thinking, seriously, about back to school. The first task is getting my house in order. For over a year, or more, I've been saying I want to do some MAJOR cleaning. Well I can say that I spent this week doing just that! I've gone through each room (except mine) and done a deep cleaning! I can now lounge around with less guilt about what I should be doing. The plan this weekend is to give my room a good cleaning...so much has got to go!!! 

Finally, I have thought about school a bit. Being in a one-to-one school I have to think about how I'm going to implement the iPad's from day one. We're going to start with using the video camera to create paperslide videos, but from there I've thought about the first app I want them using...a QR code reader is the best way to begin. There are a ton of QR code readers out there, but I like Redlaser. It's simple for students to use. They can scan and create QR codes using this app. I'll have a QR code for them to scan to watch a video all about me. I will them teach them how to create and save a video all about themselves and turn it into a QR code. The QR codes will be hung so students can scan and get to know their classmates. What apps or features do you teach your students to use the first few days of school? 

There you have it my randomness from the week. You can check out more Five for Friday post over at Doodle Bugs teaching. Have a great week! 

Five for Friday: 7-24-15

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week! It's been a good week for me!!! I'm linking up with Doodles Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky...here we go: 

Nineteen days until I return to work! Such a bittersweet thought. I'm slowly but surely getting into the back to school mood. I'm slowing down my summer... I've had a busy summer and have been on the go a lot. So I'm gong to use these next couple of weeks to slow down... I've started thinking about my classroom and ideas galore! Below are some of my thoughts. 

#I❤️hashtags: I love exploring hashtags, I've come across some really great people and ideas by simply clicking on a hashtag. This week I found a new hashtag on Twitter that I think will go over well in my classroom. I just need to work out a plan on how the use it,  #emojigrading. Using emojis in grading. Has anyone done this? I actually think my students would love the emojis more than letter or percentages. I don't have a plan on what assignments or the best use for them yet, but I'm working on it. 

Ryan Reed (@Ryan7Reed) on Twitter has posted several resources for #emojigrading. He also tweeted the emoji grading translation below. If you're interested in finding out more about #emojigrading I suggest following Ryan and Jon Smith, he began #emojigrading, on Twitter @Ryan7Reed  @theipodteacher  

Movies, I've seen a ton of them this summer! Knowing that movies are a great way to connect with students, I've been thinking about ways to incorporate some of this summer's blockbusters into my classroom. Pixels is one of the movies I anticipate my sixth graders to select as their favorites of the summer. I attended a prescreening earlier this week with my 12 year old nephew and he thought the movie was funny and AWESOME!!! If you're familiar with this age group there isn't a lot they find awesome!  I asked him what made it awesome and his response was the video games were life like and the actors were playing the games. I would have to agree! I also like the use of "old school" games. I was a pretty good gamer back in the 80s:) I just don't get these video games the kids play today, including my nephew. However, I do know it's a great way to connect with students, so I picked up some Pixel posters and plan to use them in my classrom...possibly having a gaming reading section. 

Another movie that I plan on bringing into my classroom this year is the Minions! I personally did not like this movie, but it's appealing to kids especially with all of the merchandise available. While cleaning out some files this summer I found 5 sheets of these stickers...

I'm going to use them to motivate students to read. I plan on selecting a variety of books, from my classroom library, and  placing one of these stickers inside the book. Students will then be encouraged to read the books, write a review and they will earn a minion reward...I've already started collecting the rewards thanks to Target's dollar spot.

This year I'm planning on using paperslide videos. If you aren't familiar with a paperslide videos take a look at this video created by Lodge McCammon. He was our convocation speaker last year and introduced us to paperslide videos. I didn't use them last year, honestly I'd forgotten about them until I saw another presentation on them last week at Podstock, an edtech conference. On the first day of school students will create an "All About Me" paperslide video. Take a look at my example: 

There you have it my Five for Friday! Have a great weekend and an even better week! See you next Friday. 

Five for Friday: Birthday Week 2015

Hello! I'm taking some time today to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching, for her Five for Friday linky. Trying to get my blogging groove back.

Our summer theme this year is "Summer of the Parks!" I've taken a step back from the traditional 'Summer Bucket List ' and we're visiting a new (different) park in the city each week. This week we found a park with a rocking school bus and all he wanted to do was drive the bus.

Tuesday was my birthday! I had a painting party...these places are popping up all around town. It was everyone's first time and we had a GREAT time!!! Our paintings turned out pretty cute as well, and I'm no artist. It was a real "Royal" celebration!!!

Also on my birthday I visited a new vintage arcade in our area and recevied some free tokens, sixty  tokens to be exact. All games are just 1 token...I'm telling you I felt like a kid at Chuck E. Cheese! Super Mario Brothers, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac Man were just a few of the games I played before heading to my painting party. Since I didn't use very many of the tokens, I'm going back tomorrow night to wrap up my birthday week. What's your favorite video game? 

I LOVE summer because you get to do absolutely nothing and don't have to feel guilty about it. Wednesday we just hung out on the couch and watched Netflix. My little one didn't even want to go any where, and I was totally OK with that! 

As I continue to celebrate my birthday week,  I had a chance to attend a prescreening of Magic Mike XXL. It was AWESOME!!! I loved watching Channing Tatum! Great girls night out movie! 

Check out more "Five for Friday" post here or link up your own. 

Five for Friday & December Currently

It seems as if the time in between my blog post is getting longer and longer. Thankfully there's Five for Friday and Currently that keep me blogging at least once a month. 

I'm going to begin with my five for Friday! 

1. COLD-I am not a fan of cold weather, and this week the temperature  has tumbled! As I write this it is currently 10 degrees-brrrr!  We even had a dusting of snow this week, and their predicting more (with accumulations) on Sunday! I need to move somewhere warm all year round. What's the temperture like where you are? 

2. Wreath-STUCO sponsored it's second annual class wreath decorating contest. This is a lot of fun! Each classroom is provided materials (of their choice) to decorate a wreath. The wreath is given to another school in our district. The theme of the wreath this year was College and Career ready! Unlike last year, my goal was to have everyone contribute to our wreath. I did find the perfect wreath to help with this on Pinterest. It was very simple too! Here are some pictures. 

I created the wreath. 

Students provided the cards. Only about half of my students have finished their cards. 

How does this support the college a nd career ready theme? Take a look inside a few of the cards. 

This wreath turned out really well. 

3. Mesopotamia- We have finished up our Mesopotamia unit, YEAH! Here are some of the Ziggurat projects students created. 

Next up is Ancient Egypt. Students are already asking to build pyramids. If you have any neat project or lesson ideas for ancient Egypt I would love to hear about them. 

4. Blogging- I haven't blogged much, but that is because I have over 50 student blogs I'm managing. It's a lot of work managing student blogs. If you ever have a minute or two stop by and visit my class blog. Please leave a comment. There is no better motivation for student writing than a comment from someone outside of our school. 

5. Currently- it is currently December, so that means it's time to link up with Oh Boy 4th Grade for her December currently. 

Sorry if my currently is difficult to read. 

I'm loving our new Elf! Here are some pictures: 

Many teachers are using the elf in their classroom, I'm not, are you? Follow me on Instagram @rolandteach to see our elf daily:) 

I guess, I should end this incredibly long post. Until next time...visit more five for Fridays and/or December Currentlys. 

Five for Friday!

Hello, it's been a while since I've linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky. Just because I haven't linked up doesn't mean I haven't thought about it. In fact, I've introduced my students to Five for Friday. They've gotten accustomed to writing a Five for Friday on their blogs. I even wrote one with them today. So, my Five for Friday can be found here. 

I also want to ask, you to stop by and read one (or more) of my student's Five for Friday post, and leave them a comment. It would mean so much to them. Thank you in advance. 

Five For Friday

Hello! It has been a while since my last blog post, sorry. I've been totally exhausted! Now that I have a little bit of energy, I'm taking the time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday. 

1. Sports have been super exciting in our town. After playing last night the KC Chiefs, are off to a 3-0 start! Whoop, Whoop. Our baseball team, Kansas City Royals, are trying  really hard to get into the playoffs. I can't remember the last time we had this much sports excitement around. Fun times out here in the Midwest. It's especially fun hearing my students talk sports. 

2. Mustache day is today at school! Student council is sponsoring their first spirit day of the year, and what better way to kick off the year than with mustache day! I have lots of mustache stuff around, my son is having a mustache bash in a week, however I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to wear. I better decide soon. You can check out pictures in my blog post tomorrow, or you can follow me on Instagram (Roland Teach) to see some later today. 

3. Besides today being mustache day, my class earned a pizza party. We had the most participates in our Papa John's Pizza fundraising event. We will be having Papa John's pizza this afternoon. Our team also earned a reward for their bus bucks. Students earn bus bucks for behaving well on the bus, once a team reaches 75 they earn a reward. We decided we would give the students a recess today. They don't normally get recess, and I wish I could of recoded their responses when I told them we were going to have recess today. They were super excited! 

4. We are just beginning map skills in social studies, and yesterday we mapped the world on an orange. I was a bit nervous about doing this activity, but it turned out GREAT! The kids loved it, and did a nice job, take a look: 

5. My best teaching buddy and I are co-sponsoring a Writing Club this year, and we had our first meeting this week. As an ice breaker we used the app StoryLines for Schools and created our first story, take a look: 

There you have it, My Five for Friday. Be sure to stop by Doodle Bugs Teaching to  see more. Have a great day!