Project HOPE

Excited to share a wonderful experience that my third graders are setting in place. After the tragedy of Newtown, Connecticut, my students were solefully sadden and shocked. We discussed how sad and frightened the students and families must have been. I wanted to help my students find hope and spread hope to others.  After watching a TED talk from Candy Chang: Before I die I want to... I waned to create an opportunity for my student to share their thoughts and hopes.  During November, on a biking, hiking, running trail in Fullerton, CA, residents hung a jar with tags and a prompt "I'm thankful for ..." Visitors that rode, ran, or walked by could pick up a tag write their comments and hang them on the tree. It was stunning to see on Thanksgiving day this wonderful tree FILLED with thankful tags.  Comments such as, "I'm thankful to be cancer free for 6 years.", "I'm thankful for my family and their health." "I'm thankful to have such a wonderful family." The tree brought such happiness to anyone passing by.  It stayed up for weeks and many people were able to enjoy and share their thankful posts.

I wanted such a place for my students and our school.  We needed something that would help us understand and find hope in the world.  The idea combined and Project H.O.P.E. was created.  Happiness, Opens, People's, Eyes! My students composed simple sentences that started with, "I hope someday I will...." The beautiful lines were typed into an amazing iPad app called Haiku Deck.  My students created these stunning simple projects that spoke of such hope and joy.

I have the Haiku Deck presentation I created as an example here:

Haiku Deck- Project H.O.P.E.

Please come back and watch some of their work that I will be posted soon.  I hope you find a way to spread happiness as well.  It has lightened the hearts of my students and I sincerely hope it lightens yours as well.

Preparing for our Third Grade Production

In a week, our third graders will be performing the Bad Wolf Press play, Pirates of Grammar Island.  We are so excited!  The students have been working for a month on the script and this week we will be starting the staging process.  I took the time last year to record the set and costumes for each scene in a notebook.  I couldn't find the book until last Friday.  I thought I lost it, but I packed it with the costumes and set pieces.  We have been adding lines to the script so more students would have speaking parts.  Our songs have been memorized, but now we have to make sure all of the students remember the motions.  We also need to have the dancers and background performers learn their parts.  We are running out of time and I'm going to be out 3 days due to helping to write the Blue Ribbon application and 1:1 Mobile Technology district training.

My grade level team is going to be disappointed with me, unfortunately, I have spread myself too thin again. Sub plans for 3 different days, Blue Ribbon application, behavior assemblies, disaster drill and play practice will fill this week.  I hope I am able to prepare for my OCCUE presentation as well. Add to that, I'm training for my 4th half marathon.  I try to meet with my running crew during the week so we can keep in shape before our big run.  After school will be just as crazy, but that is nothing new! Here is to a busy week full of promise.  I'll share some pictures of our show next week, the kids look great already! Can't wait for the show!  Good luck Fisler third graders, you will rock this performance!

Getting Back into Routine, Maybe

It was great getting back to school today. I had one student return from Korea where it was snowing and unbelievably cold.  Except after the past week or so, our students have a better idea of colder temperatures.  We are still trying to get back into our routines and prepare for our third grade play, "Pirates of Grammar Island".  We are so excited to have try-outs and find our who are leading actors and actresses will be.  Our grade level has many talented students and it will be a challenge to decide who will be the Captain and who will be the Queen of Pronouns. Hopefully by Friday we will be able to post our lead positions. Good luck to everyone!

We have also started our collaboration research on biomes.  I decide to put the class into 9 groups and each group has a GoogleDoc template with questions they must answer and show their resources.  Then students will start to write their chapters for their iBook.  

Lucky me, I was awarded a DonorsChoose.org grant!!! I asked for 8 Wacom Bambo drawing tablets and they have arrived already.  My students are going to be amazed at how incredible their art work will look when they use this exciting tool.  Our iBook is going to be fabulous and I can't wait to share our results.  Stayed tune to find out more of our writing journey!

The New iPad Mini

I received the iPad mini over Christmas break.  It is so small compared to the iPad 2.  I love to slide it in my purse and take it with me where ever I go.  I have been reading from iBooks, using the web browser, playing games and just getting used to it's functionality.  I have to set it up for my classroom use.  Not hard to do, but when my iPads are already to go, they tend to be my go to tool in class.  The iPad mini feels more personal like my iPhone.  The iPad 2 is more product based where I feel like I can build a project, compose a letter, and take pictures.  I'm going to need to spend more time on the iPad mini before I have to give it back. Then I'll be able to decide if I want one for myself or not.  Right now, I'm undecided.