On the move

I began this blog to chronicle my experience with our school program. I did this because I believe that the story of public education needs to be told by those of us who live it. Too often the story is told by outsiders, the media, researchers, bystanders. Their reporting does not tell the complete story and often times is negative. I am committing this space to telling the story of public education in a Title I school from my perspective and that of my students. The summer program was an amazing experience and I hope it inspires others to try to think outside the "inbox" when it comes to extending the school year. My plan for this blog is to continue to tell the story of our school. I am in a unique role this year of serving a class of Kindergarten students as their teacher and the rest of the school as an Instructional Coach. This blog will share the story of the entire school. I will create a separate blog for sharing my journey as a Kindergarten teacher. They deserve the

We celebrated our last day with popsicles, loteria and game time. We had a lot to celebrate. The Young Scholars of the Summer Program completed 24, 241 math problems. Over the 8 weeks over 60 students came to the summer program, with an average of over 30 students a day. We launched rockets, built tables, floated canoes, tested bridge designs and visited a virtual  farm. We read news articles and listened to stories in English and Spanish. I was fortunate to work with 3 wonderful professionals who supported and encouraged the students to work hard all summer. This program was an experiment in extending the school year for our students. I believe it was a success and I look forward to planning another summer program and expanding access to summer learning. Loteria with Jovanna

I challenged the students to invent something using an ordinary item, a paper cup. This idea came from the activity,  What can you make of it?  from the Chicago Children's Museum. I put the paper cup in a bag and told them I had a mystery item that we needed to investigate. I think some of them were a little disappointed when it was only a cup. We talked about which direction the cup should go and why. I have to say it was more difficult than I realized to push the students to think of other ways to use the cup. We passed out scissors for them to change the cup's structure and give it a new purpose. Once we allowed them to use tape, aluminium foil and straws their were able to think of new ideas. It could have also been just allowing more time for thinking and collaborating as well. I have to remind myself that there needs to be discomfort for new learning to happen. Ultimately the time was successful, students used their creativity to form the cup into other items. List of

A group of students and I learned how to use iMovie today. Of course the students were able to figure it out faster than I could. I was impressed that even though I could not lead them through the steps, they persevered. One of my students had asked to use stop motion to create her video trailer.  Here is the result. She did an excellent job capturing her ideas and working with another student. We had five fully finished trailers and a few movies projects started by the end of our work session. This project allowed some of my normally quiet students to show their creativity and talent. It definitely fulfilled the promise of technology being an engaging tool for students to demonstrate their learning.

It's hard to believe that we have reached the final week of our summer program. The beginning of school is just around the corner. Teachers have been coming into the building to prepare their classrooms. Our office staff returned today. I have been spending time in my classroom setting up and anticipating what my new class of kindergartners will be like. All of these signs of a new school year make me both excited and nervous. I am looking forward to seeing the results of the extra learning from the summer program. I will be comparing their math placement results and their Lexile level at the beginning of the year with their end of the year score. I asked the students to interview each other about the summer program. We brainstormed some questions to ask in the interviews. I modeled how to ask follow up questions based on what a person replied to the original question. We used the iPads to record the interviews. I explained that the purpose for videoing the interviews was to creat

Here are a few samples of student writing from their virtual field trips to different farms. This writing lesson offered the opportunity to compare and contrast two farms and get some typing practice. These paragraphs written in response to assignment given through MobyMax. I visited  the horse and wheat and farms. One thing that was the same about the two farms was they both have animals.  Another similarity about the two farms was they both have tractors.  There were some things that were different about the two farms also.  One of the differences was that one didn't have wheat.  Another difference was that some had grass and some didn't.  I learned a lot visiting these farms. The Two Farms are similar the animals live on a farms. People take care of the animals. In Virginia the have dairy farms.Wheat is on many kinds of bread,cookies,tortillas and they grow Wheat in Virginia the two farms i visit where really helpful so i got to learn many new things on these two farms.

Today the students went on a virtual field to visit a farm. They made this trip via the website  4-H Virtual Farm . The students could choose from 6 different types of farms to visit. Their task after visiting the farms was to compare and contrast two of the farms in a writing assignment on  MobyMax .  The students have until tomorrow to complete their writing assignments. I am looking forward to reading about their visits in their own words.

The students created 3-dimensional shapes from 2-dimensional paper. We used an activity from Exploratorium called  Cut-Fold-Staple . I modeled the template and first round of cutting with the students. We made predictions about what the shape would look like when it was unfolded. From the student responses I could discern that most of the students could conceptualize what the shape would look like unfolded. It was more challenging for them to choose their own shape to create. There were lots of tiny shapes and a few without a straight edge.  I introduced the concept of rotational symmetry and reflections. The students then used Educreations to label the line of symmetry on their shape. I was excited to see one of the quietest students share her labeled photo with the whole group. She often declines to work on group projects or share her ideas so it was a big step to speak in front of others.

In our program we have students in grades ranging from 1st to 8th. We are fortunate to have 4 adults working with the students so our student to adult ratio is low. This has allowed us to provide support one on one or in small groups. For example I read a story with the 1st and 2nd graders today and there were 8 students. I was able to ask comprehension questions and solicit responses from all of the students. A group of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders were able to work on an informational text and comprehension questions with another teacher. We were able to check in with all the students to set their math goal for the week. We were also able to use technology for individualized math practice and support as needed. We have worked to create a balance between the relaxed, informal atmosphere and still working hard to learn and practice skills. The hands-on projects have generated excitement and authentic learning opportunities. It is my hope to continue project-based learning in my classroom