Connected with Chromebooks!

Hello out there! Yes, it's me! I'm still around... just not as active on the blog as I have been in the past ;)

I'm coming out of blog hibernation to talk about an ongoing project that I'm so excited about...

CHROMEBOOKS

The county I teach in has fully embraced technology. In fact, this year ALL students will have access to devices! At the elementary level, Kindergarten- 3rd grade will receive iPads and 4th and 5th graders will receive Chromebooks. 

I've been able to pilot both iPads and Chromebooks in a 1:1 setting in the classroom over the past two years. I have loved incorporating both devices in my room and found many strengths between both devices. (As well as some limitations...)  For those of you who are eager to jump on the tech bandwagon or who may be a bit more hesitant to use these game changing devices, here my top 5 reasons (with app and program suggestions) why I LOVE using Chromebooks in the Language Arts block. (Math deserves it's own separate post!) 

1. Collaboration: This is probably one of my favorite parts of using devices with students. We get to connect with students in a whole new way! Using Google Docs, I can leave explicit and quick feedback about a student's writing. Google classroom gives us a digital platform for online lessons, activities, and even assessments with direct and "real time" feedback. Students can also collaborate together on tech projects using Google apps or Seesaw. 

2. Creativity: Get those brains thinking about content in a totally new way. I love using the app PicCollage to create visuals for projects. PicCollage can be used to be for graphic organizers, vocabulary, or to create a visual to go with student writing. It's also easy to incorporate with Seesaw. (With both iPads and Chromebooks!)

3. Authenticity. Students take so much more ownership of their writing if they have a clear audience to write to. With technology, students KNOW who is going to read their work. Seesaw? They know their peers will see their work as well as their parents. Google Docs? Great for peer and teacher conferencing. No more "write to your (unknown) reader" with writing... with Chromebooks, students can have a clear audience to write to. 

4. Real Life: How often do you type on a daily basis? It's a life skill! With Chromebooks (this was a limitation with the iPads...) students are learning real typing and computer processing skills! Students also practice online tools that we use regularly- spell check, online dictionary/thesauruses, and the amazing Google search engine. 

5. Citizenship. As teachers, we help mold these little learners into great citizens. We practice please and thank yous, we expect respect and responsibility, and now we need to teach them how to be trustworthy digital citizens. These students are SURROUNDED by technology and many don't know about the risks and dangers of these devices. It's our responsibility to teach students about their digital blueprint, online safety, and the importance of copyright and online plagiarism. As teachers, we have to develop the whole learner.

Need more inspiration? Check out my favorite online resource for all things techy- Erin with Erin with Erintegration is an amazing technology enthusiast and educator. She has great resources for iPads and Chromebooks and has an amazing insta account!  

Monday Made It and Disney Dreams!

Hey there friends! I am back from a whirlwind vacation... Myrtle Beach, then Disney World, a few days with in the in-laws and now back into the swing of summer things!  It's our first full day back and I'm already sucked into the teacher summer stuff.  Walmart, the dollar store, classroom labels, SPRAY PAINT... it's been an adventurous day! (And hubby isn't even home yet!)

Today, I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It.  I remember coming across her blog when I was first hired for 4th grade and her blog became a great resource!  Thanks Tara for your great ideas! :)

My first made it is from Disney!  As most of you know, Frozen is THE movie of the year!  And it's allll over Disney World in EVERY park.  At Hollywood Studios, the cast members were handing out these fun cardboard Olaf's for people to take selfies with (hehe)! The hashtag to use was #OlafSummerVacation- there are some great pics on Instagram!  Anyway, I befriended a few cast members and explained that my 4th graders ADORED Frozen and that I would LOVE to have a few extra for a bulletin board.  Well, I quickly accumulated about 30+ Olaf's- WOOHOO! I plan on printing out "books" to put in his hands and have the kids use them to record their AR goals and current number of points on a bulletin board.  Now to think of a clever title... warm up with a good book, outstanding olaf readers, reading with Olaf.... gotta think of something!

My second made it involves discarded furniture and spray paint in my favorite color!  These are some pieces that I found that needed some TLC.  With new walls in my room, I knew I needed more bulletin boards to put up stuff.  One will be for our AR goals (with the Olaf's) and one will be for the new "Assess Yourself" board. The bookshelf will hold all of the kids data collection folders.  I haven't figured it all out yet, but I want the kids to each track their own growth over the year.  I'm thinking about having them take a mini 4 question pretest before each unit and then rate themselves with the "Assess Yourself" board. After  the unit, they answer the same questions and re-rate themselves.  We may even graph the results along the way and "reflect" about growth. (Lookey there Bridgewater, teaching PDP reflection skills!) The Assess Yourself posters are further down :) (Thanks Mom for letting spray paint your yard!)

Before...

...AFTER! Love the color!

Assess Yourself Posters for one of the bulletin boards for Data Collection. This idea came from Pinterest but I couldn't find the exact location.  If it's yours and I missed it, please let me know! I would love to give credit where credit is due! :)

You can get a copy of my posters in my store here. :)

The last Made It for today is actually from my husband! He let me work on school stuff (my assess yourself posters) while he put our new furniture together last night! My grandma blessed us with her old furniture when I moved into my own apartment but it wasn't serving much purpose.  With my husband going to law school in the fall, and with my endless amount of projects in our small apartment, we desperately needed more space!  So we went to Ikea and bought two pieces.  Both replaced our current furniture but provided more storage.  The sofa table is perfect for Joel's books and supplies while the coffee table/my desk has a bottom shelf perfect for my laptop and other things. I plan on getting a few baskets for both.  Please ignore the messiness :)

And oh yeah, I would LOVE to Ikea hack theses pieces to look like this:










Well friends, that's all for today! I've got to bring in the sprayed stuff before our next storm hits!  Happy days to you all! Here are some photos from Disney! :)

farren

My handsome husband and I on my birthday at Belle's Cottage- she's' my FAVORITE princess! 

Do you want to build snowman?  Hollywood Studios had snow you could play with!

Meet my in-laws! My mother in-law and I share a birthday :)

Anna and Elsa! 

Classroom Colors and Sweet Summer Time!

Hello friends! The past week I was in Myrtle Beach with my mom, sister, and husband.  It was GREAT! I absolutely LOVE the beach... the ocean, pool, food, krispy kreme donuts (with the red light on...) and of course, the shopping! Outlets, little boutiques, the mall.... but the best store of all was the TEACHER STORE!  We don't have one of these around us where I'm from so I've been waiting patently to go to this store for literally months. When I walked in, I almost fainted. I mean, LOOK AT ALL THESE BORDER OPTIONS!  We left my sister and husband at the condo so my mom and I ventured out.  She walked in, saw a rocking chair, popped a squat and let me fill up a basket with brand new borders!

Here are my colors, or inspiration for my new room with real walls!  Paisley, chevron, and bright colors! I'm going to stick with teal because it's my favorite color and I LOVE paisley. This year, I'm going to add in some poppy red and orange- two colors I NEVER thought I would ever LOVE.  I also bought some matching letters, (in both paisley and chevron), some fun giraffe paper, a frog eraser, some sand timers, matching pockets, and two 12 sided dice. I love using dice!  While sitting on the floor with all the borders, my mom came by and asked what I was thinking.  I told her, "Mom, I can't get these beautiful borders because they won't match my crate seats and I have mostly teal, bright green, and pink things in the room!" She looked at me very confused and goes "It's okay Farren, we can take care of all of that..." I Love my mom, she knows me so well and is a huge supporter! :) She's a crafter too so I love having her on board to help me out!

Check out my aweomse family- that's my husband Joel who is going to law school in the Fall. My fun loving sister, Ashlynn, who just graduated high school (she's a huge reason why I wanted to teach!) and my lovely momma. It was a great vacation!

This week Joel and I are off to DISNEY WORLD with his parents for the week! Joel's mom and I share a birthday so we're going to spend it in the happiest place on Earth! This Princess is super excited! And when we get back, we're going to Ikea to get some furniture for our place. I bet we'll even see some classroom deals I'll have to snag up!

Happy days!

farren

PS: We LOVE America and the Red, White, and Blue. God Bless America!

I'm BACCKKK! (& What I'm Loving Wednesday!)

Hellooooo, can everyone hear me?! How embarrassing- I've been MIA for a few weeks  months now.... oops! I know there are no excuses...and I had all these intentions to write and took pictures throughout the year to blog but long story short, I never got around to it! Anyone feel like once they miss out on something that it's nearly impossible to get caught up?! (Sometimes I feel this way about working out too- haha!!)

So anyway- I'm hoping this time I'll stick it out in cyber world to be able to keep up with this blog pretty regularly! So I figured there's no better way to just get back into the swing of things like a good ole' linky party! So I'm linking up with Covered in Glitter and Glue to let y'all know about What I'm Loving Wednesday!

 It's Summer time! Who isn't loving summer right now?!  I know that my brain and my mental to-do list will. not. keep. quiet.  It's been so hard to focus on relaxing at the pool when my brain is like: do this, do that, call them, go here, go there, eat this, now that, no don't eat that, vacation, books, new storage, dollar store, TJ MAXX.  Whew... it's been nuts. But regardless, I am LOVING summer and am so excited about my classroom renovation! WOOHOO! If you read any of my previous posts, you might notice that I've been blessed to teach with green walls. Now, I'm so very thankful to have a classroom.  I have two giant windows and a smart board and great coworkers but the walls were a challenge... after pestering voicing my concerns about the "walls" to my principal, he managed to get REAL walls this summer!  No more keeping my kiddos quiet when doing whole brain lessons or singing aloud to Frozen! Now what's on my mind about the new walls? Can I move my smart board?  What will I do with all this real wall space? The green "walls" were cork board or magnetic... now how I display stuff? And the most important questions... WHEN can I go in to organize and decorate?

 

Bu-bye green walls!

Since I can't get into my room to work, I've been spending my days googling, pinning, and stalking reading other blogs for ideas for next year.  It's been a great use of my time, ;) I went out to town and found some great steals for my room! I don't have a whole lot of storage so I'm always on the hunt for good finds.  TA-DA! I LOVE these rolling carts!  I found the white one at Michael's.  It was 40% off and then I used my teacher ID on top of it.  I plan on using this one to organize all my task cards (I LOVE task cards!) The second one is from Big Lots... and let's all take a moment to appreciate the PRICE on this beautiful/not primary drawer thing.  HELLO, those are AWESOME colors!  I plan on using this one to organize my week, and the following week (if I can keep up! Haha!) It's perfect since it has 10 drawers!

 

I've had my TPT store since January and it's been quite an adventure!  As a new(er) teacher, I've created a lot of my own resources to use for my kids.  I LOVE to create and design stuff! Creating has become my creative outlet since we don't have a whole lot of room to craft in our teeny-tiny apartment.  I took a few days to go through all of my resources to update cover pages, add clip art, and make answer sheets for all my task cards.  My stuff has come a LONG way since January! Oh, and I even created a store banner- woo! Check out my store if you're interested.

Well friends, that's all I've got for now.  Thanks for stopping by! I'm hoping as this new year starts, that I'll be more motivated to keep my page updated! What are your secrets for staying motivated?  How do you get involved with so many other bloggers?  I would LOVE to hear from you all! 

The Book Fair, fractions, TPT and the weather man?!

Woohoo! Teachers Pay Teachers is celebrating 3 million sellers tomorrow and Friday- WOW!! As a new seller, I'm super excited to join the fun, post my new things for sale, and stock up on some great things too!  Here is an update on some super fun things I've created just in time for the sale! :)

 The first thing I created is something I'm super excited about!  I've had an ongoing list of skills my kids need to practice before their Reading SOL that our comprehension activities don't always cover.  I love to incorporate seasonal things into my lessons to make our day more fun and upbeat!  So, I created this GIANT St. Patrick's Day themed LA bundle.  Included activities are... St. Patrick's Day letter mash up, a vocabulary dictionary activity, a vocabulary word search, a cross word puzzle, shamrock synonyms and antonyms, a madlibs story, shamrock prefixes and suffixes, identifying vowels and vowel sounds, and ABC order.  It's quite a bundle that I plan on using during Reading rotations for the week of.  Hopefully my kiddos will enjoy the fun theme :)

With all of our snow days, we're a little behind in our curriculum! (Insert scared, stressed out face
here.)  My kids have been troopers though with getting caught up and are demolishing fractions- who knew that was totally possible?!  We're moving right along but I'll be sure we take a break to have a fun scoot filled day for these understanding fractions task cards- that are totally decked out in green, gold, and all things St. Patrick's Day!  These cards cover all the skills the kids need to have mastered before the ever dreaded... adding and subtracting fractions.  This bundle includes cards for: regions and sets, fractions and division, estimating fractional amounts, equivalent fractions, simplest form, mixed to improper, improper to mix, comparisons, and ordering fractions- whew! I'm looking forward to using these through out the month as well for other activities!  Oh, and how adorable is this clip art from Krista Wallden?!

Today the kids were totally rocking it out with simplifying fractions but like them, I am sick and tired of using our boring work book and notebook paper to solve fractions... so I whipped up these fun robot cards to use for tomorrow.  Instead of playing scoot like the kids and I are used to, I'll have the cards "hidden" throughout out the room for the kids to work on. This way they can go at their own pace and won't get stressed out from the timer during scoot.  I also have more cards than kids so hopefully they'll work independently ;)


In other news, a LOT of exciting things have been going on in 4th grade! The first exciting event took place last week.  We finished our weather unit a few weeks ago (check out the weather stuff in my store!) and invited one of our area's popular meteorologists, George Hirschmann to our school to give a "weather talk" to our kids.  I was pleasantly surprised that the kids remembered so much from our unit and asked Mr. Hirschmann some great questions!  A lot were tornado and lightening related, but he answered them all with some comical comments and delivered some great info.  The kids even got a shout out that evening on the local news which was awesome!


Since we're working on fractions right now, I've been incorporating Cuisenaire Rods to introduce topics and skills.  The kids were excited to get their hands on something tangible and enjoyed discovered how fractions work.  We used them to introduce equivalent fractions and I plan on using them throughout the rest of our skills.  Sometime in the future, I plan on writing a post about how I use the rods in my lessons.  For now, try to decipher the equivalent fractions the kids discovered :)

Last but not least, it's Book Fair week at my school! I remember the excitement, curiosity, and toy filled goodies the book fair always brought... I miss those adorable, half naked baby, Anne Geddes book marks and posters!  So anyway, my kids know that I'm a Disney freak and love the new movie, Frozen.  One of my girls found my "wish list" in the library and snagged this book as a gift! :) She caught on to the connection between Frozen and this book's snowman and realized that the he was like Olof, hehe!  So we read the book at the end of the day and then I let the kids watch the video that was pretty similar to parts of the book!

Also, as a newlyed, I just HAD to purchase this book.... just to totally support the book fair though! ;)  I'm making cookies tonight (from the book) to use for an inference lesson and author's purpose writing activity for tomorrow. The kids know I love, LOVE cookies!








Oh, and now that the Olympics are over, check out our finished graph!  We didn't have the time to fill out the medals like I hoped, but it was still fun! (Not always straight and neat, but fun!)

Enjoy the sales on TPT my friends! Looks like our county will have our first FULL week of school since December- woohoo! :D

Magic never grows up

As a small child, I would introduce myself to others as "Belle," as in the Disney Princess.  Now, I don't necessarily remember this, but my grandma and others distinctively do.  I was also the small child who was couldn't sit still when music was playing and had to be dancing in the spotlight.  (Again, according to my grandma, but let's face it, she's probably right.) I wore bows in my hair, matched my American Girl Doll, and loved to play dress up- my favorite was in fact, my Belle dress.  My mom's best friend referred to me, and still does, as "Princess Farren."  My birthday parties were themed after one of the many Disney Princesses and yes, I had plenty of those long, silky, satiny, Disney Princess night gowns.  So maybe I did grow up convinced that I was royal, special, and highly favored just like any other princess.  But so what?

Childhood wasn't always easy either, but who's is?  Like many of the princesses, I had trouble with peers, hated school at times, went through awkward phases, and grew up in a less than "happily ever after" like household. Thankfully, I did grow up with both parents. Some of my favorite memories include spending the weekends with my grandma, watching the latest Disney movies while eating corn dogs and macaroni.  I grew up happy, knowing I was loved, and still, convinced that I was royal, special, and highly favored.

When I was ten, we became members of a great church in a small part of our county.  I quickly learned how to love the Lord and became aware of my love for others and those around me.  I learned that I truly was a princess- a daughter of the King of Kings and the He loved me and scarified his Son so that I really could consider myself as royal, special, and highly favored.  Christ provided my happily ever after and became my eternal knight in shining armor... but that's not the Disney story we all know about.

Disney now has 12 Disney Princess.  Each one different and special with specific, relatable character traits that continue to inspire millions of little girls to fall in love with them and their stories.  Now, I could write hours about each princess in detail but let's be real, I still have papers to grade and the Olympics are on.  So anyway, there's Snow White, the beautiful, highly pitched, but selfless princess.  Aurora, patient and respectful. (She likes to sleep, I like to sleep...) Belle, (the best of them all) who is smart, motivated, and can see past other's flaws to discover their true beauty.  Ariel is independent, creative, but does struggle with her own wants compared to her fathers... but hey, we love the music. (I did a baton routine to under the sea, it was epic.) Cinderella- the dreamer.  She's patient, optimistic and continues to love through her actions, regardless of the life style around her.  Jasmine loves outside of her own world and fights for others.  And then of course there's Mulan, who you know, saves China and fights despite being a woman and putting her entire family in jeopardy.  Pocohantas fights for peace and also finds traits to respect in those who destroy her home.  (This is one is tricky for me since I teach VA history and she's part of the curriculum...) Tiana is motivated and money savvy in order to save for her own restaurant.  Repunzel, my new favorite, is curious and a risk-taker.  She loves someone (her "mother") who only uses her, but is motivated to find answers about herself.  Merida, perhaps one of the most highly favored role models, fights for her own fate and forgiveness.  And then we have the two Frozen girls- Queen Elsa and Princess Anna, the sisters, (do you wanna build a snowman?!) who proves to everyone that an act of love doesn't always involve men and that perseverance and a warm heart and can truly win.

Now, it's so easy to look into these stories and find negative qualities, but overall, what's so wrong with looking up to these princesses as role models?  They're all beautiful (obviously) but they aren't vain.  They're features are actually more plain or quirky than their foes. They're not selfish (don't look into Ariel too much....) and truly bring out the best in others.  (Again, Belle!) In a world where young girls are not looking up to Miley's, models, and once innocent, now CrAzY childhood stars, these princesses haven't changed.  They're qualities maintain consistent and relatable to the world around us in the 90's and the world around us now.  (I can't vouch for life before the 90's... sorry 'bout that.)

So now I'm 23 and I still love princess.  I'm still the Lord's daughter and am royal, special, and highly favored.  My husband dances with in our living room and took me to Disney World for our honeymoon. I proudly wear a princess crown given to me by father-in-law and use a Disney Princess blanket to keep warm during outside recess.  But remember, I'm still an adult.  I am married, pay bills, work a full time job, talk to strangers on the phone, gradated from college, and am responsible for myself and actions.  But, I'm proud of the childlike features I possess.  I relate well to my students and like all of those princess, I fight to find the best in others.  I'm independent but I'm considerate.  I forgive and love.  I'm a dreamer.  I bring out the best in my students and love my husband despite his scruffy days. (Hehe!)  I clean like Cinderella and bake like Tiana. I read like Belle and imagine like Ariel.  I love others like Jasmine and love a goofball like Repunzel loves Flynn.  I'm 23 but I still love Disney.  I love the stories of truth and beauty within the cartoons enjoyed by young kids.  I'm friends with Peter Pan and believe in magic, pixie dust, and am convinced that magic never grows up and that parts of me don't have to either.

       

Sweet Synonyms and Olympic Dreams

Hello!  It's a Tuesday and I can't believe we've had two normal days of the week so far!  No schedule changes, no weather delays... it seems like 4th grade is finally experiencing some normalcy!  However, we are scheduled to have some freezing rain tonight and my cheerleaders' game for tonight was postponed until tomorrow due to the threat so I guess things aren't completely back to normal.  Anywho, I'm linking up with another fellow fourth grader teacher: Fourth Grade Flipper for today's Tried it Tuesday linky!

I love the Olympics- specifically the Summer Olympics but I love any excuse to veg out in front of the TV and feel some America pride.  The Olympics are also great motivation for me to get off the couch and get my butt in shape!  I knew I wanted to do something with the Winter Olympics with my kiddos but didn't know what or how.  I feel a bit swamped with covering what's left of our state curriculum since we've had so many snow days and whatnot.  So, after some brainstorming in the car on my way to cheer practice and after bouncing some ideas off a fellow teacher, I came up with a way to try to incorporate the Olympics with my math class and reading class.  We ability group our kids but I wanted them all to feel connected with what was going on out in my hall.  Say hello to my last minute, right before the start of the school day, medal graph!

Not too shabby for being last minute without a bulletin board in the hall! ;)  My idea to try was simple:  look up popular and favorable countries to win medals and have those names on the bottom of the graph.  Looking at it now, I should have organized them in ABC order or something... anyway, each of my math kids drew a country's name to track.  Before math class, in replace of our word problem wake-up, we will look up the current medal tolls.  If any student's country has earned a new medal, they will fill a paper medal out (gold, silver, or bronze, of course) with the event's name and add it our graph.  Throughout the Olympics I'll use this graph for all sorts of graphing type questions. (My brain is already reeling with ideas!)

My reading class will have a different project to complete.  I have 15 kiddos in my reading group and there just so happen to be 15 sports competing this year- and many of them sound so BIZARRE!  I found a great news article from ABC that gave a quick rundown on each of the 15 sports, a few fun facts, and information as to who is predicted to win. (Making predictions, news sources, inferring... SOL skills, check!) Each of my kids drew a different sport to report on.  I gave them each a copy of ABC's report about their sport and two pages to complete as part of their "report."  One has comprehension questions about their article and the other is an illustration page with a few more things to fill out.  I'm also excited to test out our grade's new set of iPad minis tomorrow! My kids will use these during small groups to find additional information and images to add to their reports.  You can check out this whole unit, ready to go, in my TPT store.  At the end of the week, my kids will share their sport with the class, or maybe on the morning news, and then I'll add display them in our hall for others to learn from.

As part of my school's new Writing Committee, we have a goal of increasing writing participation throughout the school. We take turns creating a monthly interactive bulletin board in the cafeteria for all students to participate with. This was my month to create a new board so of course, I choose to try to incorporate some Valentine's fun!  My fourth grades really struggle with using "sparkly" words (other known as adjectives) in their writing and are always using the same. old. boring. words.  I titled the board "Sweet Synonyms" and cut out giant hearts with some pretty scrapbook paper.  The words I chose were pretty, little, big, funny, nice, said, awesome, like, walked, and happy. I typed up a quick blurb about the board with directions and added some markers and ta-da! We have an interactive, themed board for the school to fill in.  After the month is over, I plan on typing up all of the brainstormed words onto a master list to share with the school.  This way, everyone can have a copy of the students' brainstormed ideas!

           

Thanks for joining me for my first Try it Tuesday linky!  I have some grading to do and some brownies to bake- yum yum!

xoxo farren