Your students will be on Channel 8 this Saturday, Feb. 18 at 6:00.Local weatherman, Steve McCauley, was here visiting with our students on Thursday. Check it out and maybe you’ll see your baby on TV!!!
under: Uncategorized
Technology – Seems it should make my life easier and many times it does. But…it also takes time. Blogs, internet searchings, information at your fingertips – read it, hear it, watch it, apps, games, Facebook, and now Pinterest! You can easily spend hours googling and searching and playing.
So, in an effort to get my techno world back in orbit, I’ll be spending more time on the web.
My goal is to provide an interactive format that involves parents, students,and teacher as well as showcases work the students have done. I have way more ideas than we will be able to bring to fruition, but here’s to a new year and a new focus.
under: Uncategorized
Okay, for real this time….the posting begins!
Early this year, a group of people from a local church were going to Africa. Mrs. Rich’s (one of our aides here at MP) husband was going on the trip and she got our class involved.
The people going on the trip were taking a group into the schools of a small Tanzanian village. Our class gathered silly bands to send to the students there and chose two books to send as well: The Giving Tree and You Are Special. Our final gift was a book we wrote ourselves about our school and all the great things we get to do here.
To see a copy of the book, click the links below!
under: Uncategorized
Okay, I’m just going to have to get going on this thing. The year is half over and I haven’t posted anything!!! So today was the 100th day of school. We began exploring the concept with discussing exactly how much $100 is and what things we could and could not buy with it. Here’s our list of ideas on things we could buy with $100: 1,000 sheets of paper, a bed, 2 DS or Wii games, and ipod shuffle, a touch screen phone, 100 ice creams, 100 necklaces (cheap ones I might add 
, a puppy, 100 Hershey bars, new shoes, an outfit, 2 pairs of Twinkle Toes, 20 $5.00 Webkins, a painting, 100 earrings, a bike, 10 pizzas, a camera, 100 chocolate hearts, and my two favorites…a little generator and some dental work. LOL! I love the way kids think. For the most part, they had a really good grasp of what $100 is worth. Then we switched gears and thought about how we’d each spend $100 to help someone else. These will come home with your child in a week or two so you’ll see them then. They all wanted to help those in need, those sick, as well as schools, hospitals, and people in other countries. Food is always a great way to finish up a concept, so we made a 100 Day snack. We used ten different snack items, counted out ten of each of them, and made a snack with exactly 100 pieces.
It was a great 100th day of school! Ask your child about it tonight.
under: Uncategorized
I have been MIA for about a year now! It’s amazing how wonderful having a baby is and yet how absolutely draining it is as well. That’s my excuse, be it good or bad. I had a bouncing baby boy on January 27, 2010 and am still trying to get in some sort of groove.
Excuses behind me now, I’m ready to get back in the game. I have some weird thing about sequential order though and can’t make myself move forward until I get my last year kid’s project posted. That’s my first priority. Then I can get going with this year.
Look out, here we come…soon!
under: Uncategorized
In preparing a poster for the Homecoming Poster Contest, we explored the concept of school spirit. I had my students write about what it means to have school spirit and ways people show school spirit. I was thrilled with their ideas. These kids have great things to say!
Click the link below to read.
under: Uncategorized
Over the past years, I’ve had parents ask about the fact that I am an ESL teacher. I’d like to take a few minutes to briefly explain a few things…
1. I am an ESL teacher. I do not teach an ESL class. That simply means that I have a certification that gives me the tools I need to help students who qualify for ESL help.
2. An ESL student is a student who speaks English as a Second Language. That means that they are learning English. It is not the language they acquired from birth.
3. If I were teaching an ESL class, it would be taught in English…ALL English. Only a bilingual class would be taught in two different languages. In a bilingual class, students are taught for part of the day in their native language and the other part in English. *Okay, I said only a bilingual class. That’s not entirely accurrate. Some districts have dual language classes where they intentionally teach students in two different languages with the goal that the students will become bilingual. The students must begin at the primary level (preferably Kinder) in order for this type of system to be successful.
4. The strategies used to teach people who are learning English are the same strategies used to teach beginning and emergent readers. Lots of pictures, graphic organizers, and vocabulary enrichment activities are done to enhance understanding of language. Both ESL classrooms and primary level classrooms (Pre-K – 2nd grades) use these same strategies.
As mentioned earlier, I am an ESL teacher. I am also a GT teacher. I am also a 1st-8th grade teacher. I have certifications to teach all of those. I have tools to reach the students who fall in those categories. That’s everyone. If a student who is learning English as their second language begins to struggle, I use the knowledge I’ve learned to meet that student’s needs. That’s what an ESL teacher does in any classroom. I do the same for all of students. It is my job as an educator to meet the needs of all my students. The more knowledge I have, the better I am able to do that.
Please don’t let titles and certifications worry you about your child’s education. It seems to me, that the more a person has learned about their profession, the more capable they would be of doing that profession well.
under: The Chalkboard
Two members of a group called Team Impact visited all the campuses in our district during the school year last year. When they came to Monday Primary, they bent steel bars, crushed cans full of soda with their bare hands, broke baseball bats, and lifted kids over their heads. It was fun and exciting to watch and the kids really got into it. They spoke with our kids about staying in school, staying away from drugs, and making good choices with their lives. I love the way they phrased it…”Kids,” they said, “Be dream makers not dream takers.” They explained how different decisions in their lives could be dream makers or dream takers and that if they wanted their dreams to come true they had to make decisions that helped make those dreams not take them away.
Afterwards the two guys from Team Impact came back to our classroom and visited with us. The students had thought of questions they wanted to ask the guys and so we held two interview sessions – one with Mark and the other with Chris. While Mark’s interview went off without a hitch, Chris’ did not record. So as you click on the links to hear the interviews, know that the one with Big Chris is done in two parts. The first part is where the kids are reasking their questions and then giving the answers they remembered Chris giving and the second part is me interviewing Chris at a later time.
The kids really enjoyed meeting the men from Team Impact. They’re message was clear and hopefully will remain with our kids as they are faced with life’s many challenges.
under: Uncategorized
Wow!!! Most of you know by now that KISD has closed all schools and cancelled all school activities until May 18th. I know this is hard on all of you working parents, but all these school closings are being pushed down from the state level. The Texas Dept. of Health sets the standards and then makes recommendations according to data they receive about confimed diagnosis in the area. There has been one confirmed case in our district.
Please remember these things, the H1N1 virus (swine flu) is just another strain of the flu. Frequent hand washing, especially before eating is a must in keeping your family healthy anytime, regardless of flu outbreaks. Encourage children (and adults) to keep hands and fingers out of mouths, noses, and eye areas. These are the places where germs are generally spread. There has been only one death from this flu and the little boy who died had underlying health issues as well. There is no need to panic. I think in this situation that the idea of “erring on the side of caution” is the ruling thought.
So, if at all possible, enjoy some of this unexpected time together. Take a day or two off and just spend time being a family. Take this opportunity to build deeper relationships with your kids and be sure to tell them you love them and why. We think it, but it’s important to say it too.
I’ll be waiting to see you all again soon. In the meantime, you can find me on the coast of somewhere beautiful (Crystal Beach, TX is beautiful enough!) soaking up some sun and catching up on a few good books I haven’t been able to finish. See you soon!
Tell my kids I miss them and to READ something interesting while they’re away!!!!!!
under: Uncategorized
My class and I went on possibly the greatest field trip ever today.
It all began like this….Every year for the past 4 years my class has written and published together their own book. This year’s book is going to be called, “This Is Our Town”. I wanted the students to get to know some of the more historical sites in Kaufman so the book wouldn’t just be about all the restaurants and stores they know and see today. I wanted the book to have more of a historical value, so I figured a field trip around Kaufman might be a good thing. It was exactly the thing.
I was given the name of a lady named, Jean Anne Ables-Flat who works with the historical commission and she agreed to help me with the trip. Here’s a brief outline of what we did:
1. Mrs. Ables-Flat dressed in traditional clothing (long dress with hoop skirt and bonnet) took us on a tour of Kaufman.
2. Confederate Statue at the courthouse
3. visited an empty courtroom in the courthouse
4. walked around the courthouse and saw the actual cornerstone of the original building and students learned about what a historical marker was and why they were around.
(I wanted the students to be able to recognize and be on the look out for them as they are driving all around this summer with their families. I think they are now “officials” at finding them, because they can spot them a mile away now. I will try to upload pics and possibly video soon of them all crowded around one at the Poor Farm reading it aloud together. It was greatness! And parents, be prepared to stop when you come across any historical markers this summer.
5. Pioneer Cemetary – Learned a little of the history of Kaufman and the people who were influential in it’s history, saw old pics. of King’s Fort and some of the indians who hunted in our area, saw very old tombstones and learned about respecting things of historical value, made rubbings of some of the tombstones
6. Library – Here we saw very old pics of Kaufman….students were able to recognize places they see today and how they as well as life was different years ago…also saw Pioneer Wall.
7. Poor Farm – learned, watched, and helped churn butter, tasted as well…yum, ate lunch on hay bales set out for us (under beautiful old oaks), made corn husk dolls and learned of their historical significance, went on a tour of the grounds….saw things like an old drying shed, storm cellar, a silo, a chicken coop, and even toured an old jail.
8. Veteran’s Memorial – stud. learned of it’s importance historically and did rubbings here as well….students looked for familiar names or names the same as their mom’s maiden names or their last names..several found some from their families
The most rewarding parts of this trip is that I saw my students actively engage in the learning process and make connections across all subject areas and life areas as well. After each place we visited, I had the students write in their journels about their thoughts, what they learned, or anything they found interesting. They were begging to take them home to read to their parents. They were reading historical markers, captions on old photographs, signs on old buildings, etc, etc. We connected life years ago with life now and how back then people were better stewards of the land. They used everything….we’ve been learning about recycling, reusing, and reducing our trash. What an obvious connection. We’ve also been learning about 3D shapes and connected that to the silo….the list goes on. Reading, writing, math, social aspects, character building, citizenship, history it was all there. It was free and it was exciting for all of us. The kids loved it and I loved that they were getting their hands, not just their ears and eyes, on history.
I can honestly say this WAS the greatest field trip ever for me as a teacher.
Thank you Mrs. Ables-Flat for a wonderful experience!
under: The Chalkboard
