Warming Them Up

So today I asked my 3rd and 4th graders how many knew Mrs. Schaa is going to China for the Flat Classroom Conference......no hands....hmmmm....guess I need to communicate a bit better with the WHOLE school...At any rate, once I showed them MrsSchaa's Adventure in China blog and the 2 videos that I have posted about "how far" and "what" I am flying in, then came the questions...Will you come back? Wouldn't it be closer to fly west rather than east like you show in your video? (great question!) Will you bring us back some octopus to eat? were just a sprinkling of what came at me... after a brief description of Beijing, I asked them if we could make an S is for Stratford- an alphabet book about Stratford for me to take and give to kids that I meet when I'm there. They were agreeable to this. I told them that since we have such a different town than Beijing,  it is so unique that we need to share it with the world! After brainstorming for a bit, we have knocked out all but 3 letters of the alphabet...(Mrs. Schaa and a few other teachers are working on I, Z and Y) All the 3rd and 4th graders will do their artistic part and illustrate it, to give it that perfect child's touch...hoping we can broaden their horizons and maybe educate some other kids about what a wonderful little 'berg we have here in the center of Iowa!!
(photo courtesy of Flickr)

A Tribute to Martha

For 26 years, I have been greeted by "Hey Lis, how's it goin'" in her soft gentle voice. I have laughed at her ridiculous jokes and  the funny faces she made at lunch. I have enjoyed her company at the local pizza place after a rough day at school, and watched with awe as she effortlessly sunk putts on the county golf course. She has calmed me down when we negotiated over salaries with the administration, seeming to know when to "caucus" as she could sense I "was about to blow."  I had to choke back giggles when we had to play the "naughty kids" for Positive Behavior Supports skits, as Martha was REALLY good at playing naughty. We commiserated about how things have changed for us as educators over the 26 years together, and laughed at the fact that WE are now the most "senior" teachers. She and I would catch up on our "students" who are now mothers or rock musicians or Navy Seals. You could say that Martha and I were TOTAL opposites in every way, shape and form. She was a calm, patient, cautious, teacher whose passion was science and the Iowa State Cyclones, me a wild, excitable, adventurous rule breaking University of Iowa art teacher. Yet we got along so well, complimenting each other. Martha did so many things as we are just a small "family" of teachers at our little elementary school.She organized the food drive, the homecoming float, the holiday meal scheduling, the membership for our local union, the spring olympics...there is so much more that she did and gave to us.......This is what I know- I learned  from Martha; to slow down, think it through, not be so impulsive, to be more patient, and wait for others to catch up....what will we do without Martha Simonson at our school? My heart is torn up over this tragedy..I know it will heal...in time.

Get Ready, Get Ready!

So I am trying to figure out how my trip to China for the Flat Classroom Conference can have the biggest impact on ALL 97 students at Stratford Elementary School in little tiny Stratford Iowa. After a visit with fellow cohort Cathy O.,  she gave me the idea of a video blog. Thanks Cathy O! I will leave a little video every night, for all the classes to look at in the morning when they come to school,  they can read my post, then post questions or comments for me. Makes perfect sense!  Since I tend to be "dork" anyway, my kids will love watching Mrs.Schaa try out squid or octopus, laughing at me the whole time, while learning a little bit about a culture they may never get to experience themselves.....hmmm many of these kids have never even been  in an airplane, and unfortunately may NEVER ride in an airplane, so I need to be their eyes and ears EVEN on the plane! So GET READY, I am going to blog about "Mrs. Schaa's Adventures in China"...Teachers are excited, kids are excited, Mrs. Schaa's excited...so Get Ready, Get Ready!

"Web 2.0- It's a No-Brainer"

How could anyone who "poo poo's" Web 2.0 tools look at these Tagxedo's by my 5th and 6th graders, and think they are a waste of time? These kids are studying the civil war, and though they do find slavery and the whole battle thing exciting, this art project was high on their favorite's list. First we brainstormed every word that they could think of that THEY knew about The Civil War. Many words were repeated, but that's was ok because Tagxedo changes the size of the font depending how often the words are repeated. We had 4 students recording the words as they were shouted out, then they emailed them to me in a Word doc and I edited, and condensed them into one doc. We went online and looked at some Tagxedo's, namely the one with Abe Lincoln with the Gettysburg Address inside his portrait, and decided on what "shape" they wanted to depict for their piece. After drawing and Mrs. Schaa uploading them to Tagxedo, they got to work, changing the font, color, layout with the words "they" came up with about The Civil War. Lots of ownership here! It is truly an exciting time to be an educator!

I want to flatten my school!

NO TIME

no time, no time

  I got got got got no time  

 No no no no no no no time  

 I got got got got no time

This is what I heard at ITEC and thought about on my way home from ITEC a few weeks ago. My fellow cohorts were talking about it,and I overheard teachers in the halls while waiting for a session saying, "What would really be nice, is if I got back to school and I could take a whole day to try some of these tools out".... I went back to my school so excited and asked my principal if she was going to give me a half day of PD to present some of what I gleaned to the staff. I'll give you 3 guesses as to what she told me....It seems, that schools and "the powers that be" want us to integrate technology but don't want to dedicate any professional development time for it. So- when will these teachers try it out? 

ON THEIR OWN TIME. Many teachers don't dedicate their nights and weekends to learning about new web 2.0 tools. They have families and other things going on, they have lives! This is what frustrates me the most. Wonderful web 2.0 tools, free, easy to use, and no time to try them out, and no time to show them to teachers.....Maybe we need to mandate some PD for tech integration...

who's for it??

Thoughts after ITEC

I went to ITEC in Iowa City and listened to a lot of tech people. Vicki Davis, Cool Cat Teacher was the keynote, and our cohorts were able to have some face time with her. Most or all of the things she said resonated with me. Like how she showed a picture of the biggest stacked sandwich and said this is most school’s PG& D…..wow, she hit the nail right on the head….we are overwhelmed by so much as teachers, and yet those of us who want to continue to integrate technology, there is EVEN more work to do! It is not a bad thing, except all of what we choose to take on, requires time that we don’t have to begin with! She also talked about how we need 3 big things to try to do this year. We can only do what WE can do…She told us to “be a transformer.” My school is piloting a new project where we are using smartphones. It is an amazing thing to watch these kids when they are told to get out their “pocket pc’s” and watch them fly. The teachers told me the other day that IT has happened: the kids asked to stay in for recess to work on them…We allow for “playing in the sandbox" as Vicki Davis called it, 1 night a month for 4 hours after school. We pay the teachers to try out new Web 2.0 tools or find new Smart Board activities.

If we didn’t do that, I am not sure if the teachers would use the tech tools…this all takes TIME!! This is something all teachers have a shortage of. I came back from ITEC with a list of things I want to show teachers from the MANY excellent and informative sessions I attended in additon to Vicki Davis's session, but first, I must “play in the sandbox” myself with some of these new tools and decide how/which tools would "fit" best with what each class is studying. Below is a list of things I'm going to "play with." ToonDoo, Classtools.net, Wallwisher, BigHugeLabs, Titanpad, to name a few! WOW! An amazing, energizing time at ITEC, but also exausting thinking about all I need to do in order to present these to my teachers!