Amazing, Awesome, Astonishing Adjectives!

We are starting out this year learning about parts of speech so we can become incredible writers! My favorite part of speech is the adjective because it tends to make writing so much more interesting and fun to read. We learned about what an adjective is, why it is important and how to use one properly in a sentence. Then we brainstormed adjective lists in small groups.

Later students each created a "mini-me" me  and decorated their creation with adjectives that describe themselves! A few interesting adjectives that students used on their mini-me project: brilliant, sarcastic, hilarious, athletic, hardy, multilingual, gentle, lovely and spectacular.

Getting to Know You Bags

Every student remember to do the Thursday night homework and brought in a colorfully decorated "Getting to Know You" bag Friday morning. 

Students were eager to show everyone what prized possessions they had brought in to share with the class. 

Some students used the document camera and projector to display the contents of their bag...

...while others presented to the rest of the class sitting at their feet. 

We did not have time to get through all twenty bags on Friday, which concerned a few of the students. But I promised them everyone would get a turn and we will continue with the presentations on Monday.

I love this project because it gives everyone a chance to share a piece of themselves and we all get to know each other a little bit better. This student brought in his face on an Angry Bird. Cool! Did you know Angry Birds are actually showing up on high school physics exams? What a fun way to learn! 

Fabulous First Day!

We are off to a great start! We spent some time getting to know each other and also started a discussion regarding the Make Your Day Program. The program will be fully implemented in the classroom by the end of next week.
Students have a "Getting to Know You Bag" for homework tonight. We discussed this project thoroughly in class and I presented my own bag as a sample.

Many forms and notices were sent home today or last night at the "Meet the Teacher" event, so please take a moment to go through your child's folder.

Forms that need to be filled out and returned to school:
Emergency Card - please make sure you sign the bottom line on the back - it's easy to miss.
Infinite Campus - this is regarding our online grade book.
Sonoran Sky Handbook - students also need to sign this.
PVUSD Guarantee - it's on an tan sheet of paper.
Online Communication and Collaboration Form - this is a really important one for my class because technology is a huge part of our curriculum.


We will have a daily snack break. I provided snacks for students today and will provide them again tomorrow, but beginning next week your child is encouraged to bring a healthy snack each day. We do have nut allergies in the classroom, so no nut products please. 


I hope everyone enjoyed today as much as I did! Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns. 

The New Classroom

It was so nice to see such a fabulous turn out at the Meet the Teacher event this afternoon! Almost everyone commented on our wonderful new classroom, so I thought I would post a little pictoral timeline.

What was formerly known as the "Math Science Tech Lab" was gutted with the plan to create two new classrooms for the rapidly growing Sonoran Sky! Along with splitting the 1-2 self-contained class this year, a fifth 3rd grade class was also added. 

The floors were stripped, the oven was removed, and the room was rewired. 

I coordinated the summer program at Sonoran Sky so I was at the school every day, peeking into what was to be my new classroom. 

The crew worked hard and spent a lot of time creating an appropriate environment for 1st and 2nd grade students. Since I was around so frequently, they often asked my opinion. It was nice to be able to give advice and suggest ideas regarding my new classroom. 

I was pretty excited the day they started painting a wall blue! You can catch a glimpse of Mrs. Woodard's red wall through the doorway in this photo. Lots of people have referred to our rooms as "the red room and the blue room."

After what seemed like an eternity (although it really wasn't) the fire marshall inspected both rooms and deemed them safe. Mrs. Woodard and I started moving all of our supplies in that day, which was no easy task. Other teachers had moved into both of our previous classrooms right away so we stashed all of our boxes in various classrooms, offices and labs all around the school. It was kind of like a scavenger hunt unearthing it all.

We spent every possibly minute we could unpacking and organizing our classrooms. It was a huge project, but we were both very excited for the new school year. This photo is from yesterday and there are actually quite a few improvements from today, but I neglected to take a photo before I left tonight. I'll snap a few before the bell rings tomorrow.

I am really excited to kick off the 2011-2012 school year tomorrow morning and thrilled to have a beautiful new classroom. See you bright and early! :)

Dream Out Loud (GTA Part 1)

It's hard to sum up the GTA in a blog post. The day is long, fast paced and jam packed with information. I heard several people describe the curriculum as a fire hose and that's a pretty accurate comparison. The agenda for the day can be viewed here and I keep referring back to refresh my memory and access resources. 

A Group Of Us In The Super-Hero Themed Google Earth Break-Out Session

Meeting and collaborating with 49 other like-minded educators was pretty incredible. The enthusiasm and energy throughout the day was contagious and everyone was eager to share ideas. 

Fifty Brand New Google Certified Teachers (Plus a Few Lead Learners). 
We worked really hard all day and learned, and had discussions and presented and learned some more. We participated in a Google + hang-out with GCTs located all over the country. We shared documents, watched and edited YouTube videos and collaborated on a Google map. The lead learners (formerly certified Google educators) stayed with us all day - answering questions, giving us ideas and one of the highlights of the day presenting Google Demo SLAMS! 
The learning was constant - fast and furious. 

"Welcome to Christmas Morning..."

Standing Outside the Google Kirkland Offices.

Those were the first words I heard after being formally escorted into a meeting room at the Google offices in Kirkland, Washington at the first ever YouTube Teacher Studio. Displayed at each of the 15 chairs surrounding the table was a YouTube Flip HD video camera, a GorillaPod and a Bamboo tablet. 

YouTube Swag

Throughout this amazing day, our small class of 15 educators from around the world were treated to a several top-notch presentations and workshops. The first session was with history teacher James Sanders. He discussed various ways to incorporate YouTube effectively into a classroom and gave us lots of ideas regarding YouTube playlists, searching techniques and video quizzes.

The next session was with high school chemistry teacher and adjunct professor of education from the University of San Francisco, Ramsey Musallam.  His expertise is in screencasting and the power of capturing direct instruction using an approach known as flip teaching. Ramsey demonstrated how to make screencasts and showed us examples of how he incorporates them into his curriculum. Later we got some hands on experience using our new Bamboo tablets, a product I had not ever tried before, and also practiced screencasting. I really enjoyed the Bamboo tablet and need to practice with it before school starts. It will be an innovative addition to my classroom!

The best presentation of the day (in my opinion) was given by the inspirational and engaging Jim Sill, a TV and movie industry veteran who now works as a high school video production teacher. He exposed us the basics of video production and engaged us in a fascinating discussion about effective videos and digital storytelling. He showed us examples of good and bad videos and discussed their different components. Later we practiced by making and analyzing short videos using our brand new Flip Cams. 

The YouTube Teacher Studio was an incredible experience and it was nice to get a chance to discuss with like-minded educators how we are already using video in our classrooms and brainstorm effective ways we could potentially incorporate YouTube. 
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After this intensive day (plus some follow up a few days later and several things I can't disclose due to the NDA) I am thrilled to be able to call myself by the official title, "YouTube Star Teacher" - one of only fifteen worldwide at this point! 

The Google Teacher Academy

A couple weeks ago I was casually checking my email, only to notice one of the most thrilling and exciting messages ever:

Congratulations!
You have been selected to participate in the Google Teacher Academy - Washington. After reviewing your application, we believe that you have the experience and passion necessary to positively impact education in your region, and we are excited to have you join us at the Google office in Seattle.

Although I'd spent many hours working on my GTA application and creating the required movie, I was truly shocked, stunned and thrilled to actually be accepted into this prestigious program! There were approximately 4,000 applicants and 50 were accepted. In this age of instant communication the 49 other educators from around the globe who had also been accepted, almost immediately started connecting through tweets, emails, wikis and shared documents. Looking through the biographies of these amazing educators is quite humbling. 

There is little information available regarding GTA and they have informed us all that we are not allowed to take any photos inside of Google and must sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement before entering the building. However, I have heard from a few teachers who have attended previous Google Teacher Academies that the experience is life-changing and unlike any other training. Rumor has it that the academy will most likely exceed all of our expectations, and it is invaluable and inspirational. 

I can't wait! 

And believe it or not, it gets even better.

In the original acceptance email was an invitation to apply to the YouTube Teacher Academy:

We're inviting you to apply be part of our inaugural class at the first YouTube Teacher Academy, a 1-day workshop that will give you the basic training and equipment needed to become a part of a star teaching team on YouTube EDU. This workshop will occur the day before the GTA in Seattle. This does require another application (and is limited to 15 participants), but it is ONLY open to those of you who have already been accepted into the GTA. 

I figured I may as well give it a shot although considering they were only accepting 15 out of the 50 of us. I felt pretty intimidated by the 49 I was up against after viewing their websites and reading about their extensive awards and technology experience. I realized the competition was very stiff. 

However, a few days later I received this email:

After reviewing many thoughtful and creative applications for the inaugural session of the YouTube Teacher's Studio you have been selected to participate - congratulations!

We believe that this program has the potential to spark a transformation in the way teachers connect with students, both in the classroom and outside. Your ability to create engaging videos and envision a future classroom that thoroughly integrates YouTube EDU makes you all the ideal teachers to participate and evangelize the YouTube Teacher's Studio.

WOW! I was absolutely blown away and actually went back to the email a few times to make sure I had read it correctly. 

This is the movie I created (with the help of some students, of course) to submit as part of my original application. We shot the footage the last few days of school and I did all the editing the first week of summer break. The movie was limited to a minute (and I didn't dare go even one second over for fear of being disqualified) so it is a little choppier than I would have liked. Since school was out by the time I started the editing process, I couldn't reshoot any of the footage. 

I leave for Google next week. I'll keep blogging about my experience. :)