July Currently

I'm going to join the couple day early crowd over at Oh Boy Fourth Grade because I have a few minute while I'm hanging out with my husband at the RC plane field. This is his new hobby and it is so cute watching him act like a kid.

Listening: obvious enough since I'm at the RC field. It is a beautiful evening to be out and there are only a couple of planes going.

Loving: My Dad is one of 8 and everyone is spread around the US. It was about 15 years ago that everyone got together and there have been quite a few additions to the family since then. One of my uncles has organized several fun events and one of my aunts had personalized T-shirts made for everyone with our names and number (age) on the back. Pink for the ladies and grey for the gents :-)

Thinking: it has been so nice the summer that I have not way overbooked myself. I like doing PD that I choose when I want and then relaxing and hanging out the rest of the time.

Wanting: ISTE was great and I was so excited to meet some people in personal that I have only known online. Now I have to do some processing so I will be ready to share with others.

Needing: another obvious one

Tips: I have been playing around with a few readers especially since google's announcement. I have definitely settled on feedly. I like the layout options, the ability to tag posts, and organize by some categories. It's also easy to add new blogs and even search for blogs within certain categories.

Now I need to go see what everyone else is up to.

 

June Currently

It's been a while since I've joined in the "Currently" fun (or really done any blogging for that matter). So here's to getting back with it. I'm joining Farley for the monthly tradition.

 

 

Listening: We could really use the rain around here so I'm not complaining

Loving: Teachers finished up on Tuesday although I had to go in on Wednesday to do some final packing up of my room. Our school is changing who hosts our websites and I trained everyone so they kept coming and asking me questions while they tried to get things posted before the summer. Once everyone was gone I knocked the rest of it out pretty quickly.

Thinking: I last presented this training in November so I just need to make sure I review what I'm covering so it has a good flow :-)

Wanting: I bought the material for a stool project last summer and never got it done. I making myself finish it before I can do any other fun ideas.

Needing: I am so excited that my father's side of the family is having a reunion this summer up in Connecticut. I think it has been about 15 years since the last one. My dad is one of 8 and everyone is spread from one side of the country to the other. It's not so easy to get the crowd together. We will also be having a belated 90th birthday celebration for my grandfather.

3 vacay essentials: I love to take pictures on vacation and I'm never satisfied with the ones from my phone. I am totally addicted to my iPad and I barely go anywhere without it. My older Kindle is a must have on summer vacations because the ipad is usually unreadable in the bright sunlight.

Well, I have to say it feels good to get something posted again. Now I have to finish my project so I can post about it tomorrow!

Currently January from Jamaica

It's that time again - Farley's currently craze. Go check out the links and see what everyone is up to.

My sweet hubby and I are relaxing at Sandals in Ocho Rios right now. It is such a fabulous place. I really wish we didn't have to leave I a few days to head back to reality.

Most of these are pretty self explanatory.

I did want to clarify my OLW. My live is very fulfilling so that isn't what I mean. I don't always have the best follow through. My word was going to be completion since that's what I really need to work on. I popped it in the thesaurus on my iPad and it came up with a bunch of more interesting choices. I was torn between fulfillment and fruition - fulfillment won :-)

Have very wonderful new year!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Currently October

I am a little late to the party but...  better late than never :-)

 

Wanting - I am working on my reading endorsement add on to my teaching certificate. I have been enjoying the class and definitely leaving quite a bit. So far all the assignments have been individual work and that works out since we are from many different schools. The final project however is a group on. Most groups have three or four people by mine only has two of us. The first night we were supposed to work together my partner was late for class and we only got 10 minutes to figure out who would do each part. Last week we were supposed to share what we had done so far and she said she hadn't had a chance yet but that she would definitely take care of it and email me during the week. We are supposed to present on Tuesday and I still haven't heard anything from here. Ugh!

Needing - We are having a consultant from the area educational technology center work with our students on Tuesday to create movies using our new cart of ipads. I agreed that I would set up Dropbox on all of them before the session and now I have to go make good on the promise.

Book - I love Cynthia Rylant's writing style and this is a great mentor text for fall.

September already

The students have now been back at school for three weeks. I am really enjoying the new kids and having a student teacher. I do however miss my bestie because she has been out on maternity leave since the fourth day of school. You just gotta love that timing.

As we are cruising long and getting in the groove it hasquickly become September. So of course I wanted to join up with Harley at


for the monthly "currently" event.

Favorite things -I have fallen in LOVE with PhotoKey for doing green screen pictures. I have already done two projects this year. One to go with our ocean theme and one to with Miss Rumphius during Grandparents and Special Friends Day at school. It is soooo much easier than two other products that I've used before. Below you will find one example from each.

Pixie is a favorite open ended software that I use with my kids all the time. It can be used for just about any image or slide show idea you could think of and it is so intuitive.

collage of a few idea (rotations, an invention, and projects inspired by books)

I use flickr to store and share pictures that I take in class. I set up a new collection each year and make sets for different activities. Here is the collection so far for this year. I have parents sign a form that they don't mind me sharing pictures. I also don't include student names.

Animoto is a fun way to make a quick movie of an activity. An educator account gets you extended videos for no cost. This is from International Dot Day last year. We are looking forward to participating again this year. Join up if you're interested. Peter Reynolds is even doing a livestream event with Discovery Education this year.

I guess all these favorites are on my mind because I have been using them lately.

Happy Labor Day

Currently & 100 followers

I just started back to school last week so I have total school on the brain right now.  I'm happy to join up with Farley's Currently for the second time this month. I saw all the action yesterday but I was worn out after returning home from school so I'm getting to it today.

 

B2S clarification

1. I have been making all kinds of banners that I have printed myself as well as items that I have uploaded to Vistaprint. It definitely wouldn't be the same without all my cute ocean clip art and the superhero clip art that I bought for my teammates.

2. I have bought several great files that will help with the transition to common core this year. My current favorites are probably the Common Core ELA Vocabulary Cards for 4th Grade by Ginger Snaps and Common Core Standards Posters for Fourth Grade by Ashleigh. These are both up in my room now. I certainly have other favorites that are more lesson related but I'll stop there.

3. I definitely like to keep organized and I've done some overhaul on my general classroom binder as well as my reading pensieves. 

I'm also excited to have reached 100 followers. I've been hanging on the edge for about a week and I just noticed today that I made it. In honor of the occasion I'm going to do a giveaway.

One lucky winner will get a customized denim clipboard. Below you will see one I made for myself as well as one I personalized for a previous winner. This time the winner will get to pick out your own colors and what kind of theme you might like. I will get scrapbook paper, ribbon, iron-ons and fabric glitter to go with whatever you select.

clipboard from the previous giveaway

after it was personalized

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by

July Currently

I'm finally joining in on Farley's "currently" craze after watching from afar for so long.

Hopefully I followed the rules - I tried to read carefully. I will be sure to go leave some comments once I'm up.

The only ones that might need some commentary are:

loving - I just started this blog (after a very short stint with Planting the Seeds 4 Learning) and I am super excited with the blog design that Honey Bunch Blog Designs put together for me.

reads - 1. I love to read lots of books in class. I run through tons of picture books and quite a few chapter books a year. One of my favorites is Regarding the Fountain: A Tale, in Letters, of Liars and Leaks
by Kate Klise (illustrated by her sister Sarah Klise). It is a very interesting format. I would recommend a document camera for showing pictures or some extra copies for kids to follow along. It has great word play!  There is a whole series of regarding books so it usually starts a reading frenzy.

2. I had a very tough time deciding about this one but I finally went with I can write like that! because I reference it regularly for ideas of mentor texts for different skills or content.