73/180 Goodbye Room 27... for 2020.

Today I said goodbye to our classroom... again.

Time to work from home until the spread slows down.

It was nice having access to a space where I am most 

comfortable teaching.

A place where I could go back to a routine

of some sort

and not be in my yoga pants daily.

A place with more reliable wifi

and no dog interruptions.

A place where I don't have to monitor

the school activity of a 13 year old

who doesn't learn well online.

Goodbye until next year.

I packed my car.

I have gifts bags that were not quite ready yet.

Next week I will find a way to get

hot chocolate,

classic literature books,

magnetic alphabets, 

and book making supplies

home to my students.

There will be an extra special surprise 

in the bags too. 

The surprise wasn't ready yet.

Quick stop to my weekly scheduled visit,

but I think I can skip a few weeks now

that I will be at home.

For the next week, 

my small living room

will be even more smaller.

72/180 Capes with a Message

Being a part of the Skirball Teacher Advisory Council

has some wonderful perks.

Participating in the Family Sunday Workshops

is definitely one of them.

Family Workshops

Last month, I got to attend one inspired by the work of

Aram Han Sifuentes.

Aram and her lovely daughter were there to lead us.

How cool is that?! Pretty cool!

I didn't have a box of materials

so I scrambled around the house instead to create my slogan...

Of course, 

just like Kinetic Creatures,

I had to take it back to my students.

It was a perfect family activity for our clothing study

and I had FedCo Grant money just sitting there...

So...

24 boxes later...

I created a lesson for my students.

In case you're interested,

I posted the link to the slides I used below.

Capes with a Message Slide Deck

What my students "produced" was even more beautiful than I had imagined!

And of course,

we made capes too!

It's been a long day.

Getting ready to pack up and move tomorrow

back to home classroom.

Should be interesting 

with a teen next door.

But now I have a beautiful bathroom I can retreat to

when needed,

for some peace and quiet...

and a beautiful floor to look at!

#showerdoorcomingsoon

71/180 Times Up...

I thought I had time to get more supplies out to students.

I thought I had time to go shop for gifts for staff.

I thought I had time to clear out more stuff.

I thought I had time to pick up special tees.

I thought I had time to pick up personalized goodies.

I thought I had till December 18th.

I thought wrong.

We're closing up shop Wednesday.

Which means we are moving back to home office.

Which means packing teaching supplies.

Which means figuring out how to pass out gift bags next week.

Which means more added stress on a already jammed packed Monday.

It's okay.

I can teach at home.

It's just different

and sometimes more challenging.

Time to pass out Saturday Intervention materials.

Time to quickly create a book making kit for students

with the wonderful markers and staplers funded by family and friends

I asked the students to send photos of their kinetic animals when they were done.

Each time I get a photo

My heart sings!

Look how amazing they are!

It's not about making it perfect

as much as it is about having fun, 

creating with families,

and feeling a sense of accomplishment.

70/180 Magical Creatures

There is something magical about tapping into a child's imagination.

It's even more special when families

and children work together to create.

Today we turned our animal drawings into 

Kinetic creatures.

The results were one of a kind art pieces

and am amazing and fun time had by all!

How can you not love the sights and sounds of an artist at work.

It never gets old.

Oh be still my heart... #artmatters

69/180 Magical Places

 

One of my favorite field trips for the past 15 years has been the Skirball Cultural Center's Noah's Ark.

I was lucky enough to be one of the first classes to take a field trip into this incredible space when it opened in 2007. I have taken my students there every year (except 1) since then, and so happy that this year we get to go again (virtually), but still amazing I'm sure. 

I also happen to serve on the Teacher Advisory Council this year too. 

A pleasure and honor!

Skirball Teacher Advisory Council 2020

and I'm a member too.

So today we started a 2-day project inspired by Noah's Ark.

I was lucky enough to be able to use FEDCo Grant money

to purchase art boxes for each student to make capes next week.

And with help from DonorsChoose, 

we will be able to make kinetic animals tomorrow!

If you have been to Noah's Ark,

you'd get why kinetic animals.

But first,

we read From Head to Toe,

with movement of course.

Then we planned and created an animal on paper.

After we discussed our animals, how they look, how they move

we watched an introduction to a magical place that we won't be able 

to visit in person, but will still experience.

Welcome to Noah's Ark!  (<- Click here to see for yourself!)

Tomorrow we will take it a step further

and create kinetic creatures!

Can't wait!

68/180 Underwear and Bulldogs

We started our Clothing Study this week.
I'm not going to lie,
it's not my favorite study in our curriculum
BUT...
somehow it's different this year.
Having students learn from home has its advantages... 
like access to closets and dressers!

I read the book Froggy Gets Dressed on Monday.
Froggy is so excited about the snow that he forgets things.
It's a fun book and there are lots of references to clothing.

When I was creating my slide deck for today's lesson
I noticed that our pacing plan didn't include revisiting this story again.
I know we are on a faster pace this year
and very few stories are read or talked about more than once,
but sometimes,
I am not done with the story.
I wasn't done with Froggy Gets Dressed.

The beauty of being a teacher,
is that you should be able to follow your students
not the teachers' guide.
There's no guide to your students.
Each is unique and
has their own pacing plan.
I know it's hard with mandates and pacing plans,
but we are in the business of educating students
and sometimes mandates and pacing plans mean nothing to them.

The skill was retelling.
They are 4.
They are at home.
We retold the story by acting it out
with a clothing scavenger hunt.
We followed the sequence of the story.
We learned to connect vocabulary to concrete items.
We searched,
We found,
We identified,
We laughed.
We made connections.
And we even shared underwear!
(Not wearing it, but showing that we do have some!)
I had as much fun as the kids did.

We are going to the Skirball next week!
Well, virtually.
We will create some amazing art before we go.
So it was materials pick up day,
and materials delivery today.
I was able to fend off an old poodle, (left materials over the fence),

5 children at daycare rushing out to greet me 

(and a Halloween bucket of candy),
5 lazy chihuahua, (walked up to the door), 

and an overweight bulldog (called out pick up).

Worth the "risk" to get amazing materials to students!

I don't recall bulldog encounters in my job description 34 years ago?

67/180 Teacher Mom

It's been a tough day.

There have been a lot of tough days in the past year.

Not tough as a teacher teaching virtually

in a pandemic,

tough as in being a single mom,

raising a teenage boy,

in a pandemic...

or anytime for that matter.

His favorite response for not completing his work,

"I wish you weren't a teacher!"

I had to tell him that even parents that are NOT teachers

expect their children to complete their school work.

It's more won't do, rather than can't do.

I know the difference.

I'm a teacher.

On the other spectrum...

When you are 4,

you like working extra with your teacher.

You stay after zoom class and choose to do extra work.

Then when it's time to say goodbye,

you invite yourself over to her house,

and although she would love to have you visit,

you have to wait until Covid is under control

and it's safe to do so.

And yes P__, Burger can bite if you touch him.

Tough days can end with some good news and generous surprises too!

My project to get staplers to each student got funded.

Now we can all make books!

My project using cars for phonemic awareness 

and food coloring for science also got funded.

Now we can stretch and blend sounds on a track

and make color discoveries too!

Two very generous and unexpected gift cards 

ended my evening on an up note. #thanksSusan #thansBarbara

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day with the teen.

I can still dream and hope,

even in 2020.