Super Teacher?!

Who has 2 thumbs and was named a Super Teacher in her district???
THIS GIRL!  :)

Funny story.  We were in the middle of the week with the 3 days of state testing, in which every student has to be like SILENT all day long, and of course, the kids are about going berSERK by the 3rd day.  So we teachers decided that the kids deserved to watch a movie.  I know, I know.  It was only April.  Plenty of learning left, but dang.  They had worked so hard being SUPER QUIET.  So anyway (I'm long-winded), I'm the techy person on my team, and I headed down to the library to work on getting the Streaming DVD working.  (Don't get me started on this piece of junk, lol.)  So I called my teammate and said, "Hey, go down to my room and see if it's playing."  I waited a few minutes, and called my room, and my PRINCIPAL ANSWERED.  Um.  Yeah.  I about had a heart attack.  Times 3.  She said that I needed to come down to my room right now.  I was FREAKING OUT, Y'ALL.

THEN, when I turned into my classroom, not only was my boss standing there, but so was our SUPERINTENDENT.  HO-LEE.  COW.  I had no idea what was happening, and I'm sure I looked like a dadgum deer in headlights.

Come to find out, he was there to give me an AWARD!  I had been named a Super Teacher for the district!  They gave me a t-shirt, a magnet, and a notepad!  (My students thought I was super cool.)  Hehe.  Then on Friday our Superintendent took all the "Super Teachers" to lunch and gave us plaques. :)

So, our G/T Specialist nominated me--how sweet of her!  Super Teachers are recognized for creating 21st century, innovative, student-led lessons.  Here is her nomination letter:

Gayla Cockrell is a second grade teacher at Lakeside. She consistently creates her own projects and activities, rather than use pre-made ones. Gayla builds in authentic extensions for the higher-level learners, while still preserving the "fun factor" and student-choice for her below-level learners. This makes differentiation appear seamless within her classroom, and protects the student’s feelings about their abilities among their peers, which is paramount for all learners. For their February research project, she created a Famous African American unit using the Super 3 research method, and student choice. First, she selected age appropriate websites and then developed QR codes to ensure that her learners are successful in accessing these sites with ease for research. Then she created a high-interest, kid-inspired activity for her students to use when taking notes, as well as embedded a vocabulary study for her students to collect new words and locate definitions on their own. Each quadrant of the research activity has a guiding question to focus their research from facts about their birth and death, the important achievements, and the relevance to the present. For the student product of this unit, she provides a list of technology products, art based products, and I Pad product apps, as well as allows her students to propose their own product. Each list has 6 choices, and all have been introduced to her students through prior lessons/units. Perhaps most importantly, the kids conclude their unit with a self-evaluation which asks them to consider their own feelings about their work, and allows them to make their own suggestions for improvement. This initiates the important task of independent reflection of effort at a young age.  Gayla is truly a super teacher at Lakeside!

This really made my year (it was a really rough year for me) and made me feel so appreciated.  You know, as hard as we work, it just feels good for someone to say thank you sometimes.  :)

I hope you all are enjoying your summer as much as I am!  (Assuming you are on summer vacation...)

Thanks for reading!

Fractured Fairy Tales--LOVE.

OK, guys, this may just be my favorite unit I've ever taught.

We talked about what we were going to do for Open House this year and decided to ixnay the Texas Unit, as it is really not in our TEKS (state standards), and 1st grade already does a lot of the same things for their Texas-themed Open House.  So back to the drawing board it was.

Part of our Texas Unit had included Texas Fairy Tales, so we finally came up with the idea to get going on one of our genre studies that are part of our new TEKS.  Hence, a FUN unit was born!

I plan Language Arts for our team, so I was the lucky winner to put all this together.

We started off by brainstorming what we already know about fairy tales/what things we often read about in the stories, etc. and ended the unit with the students following the writing process to develop their very own FRACTURED fairy tale based on a traditional one.  IT.  WAS.  AWESOME.  At least the kids thought so.  LOL.

Here are some of my favorite fractured fairy tales that we read and discussed the story elements of:

 

Three Cool Kids

by Rebecca Emberley

First, we read a traditional version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff and discussed the story elements, and then, before reading this fractured tale, I asked, "What if we rewrote the story but made the characters different?  What could they be instead of goats?"  We brainstormed, and we decided that our new story would have 3 dogs--a chihuahua, a beagle, and a bulldog.  Too funny!  They were super into rewriting the story (this was all done out loud, not written down).  The next day we read this book, which takes place in the big city, and it is too cute!  I loved that the main characters were still goats, but they were "citified" and each was interested in different things, style-wise, and had different talents.  Super cute story.

Wolf! Wolf!

by John Rocco

This is a fractured version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which I purposely chose to use for a group lesson because I have some wolf-criers in my class who are just SO SICK at least 3 times a week.  One of whom finally actually DID throw up one day, and of course, no one believed that he was actually sick!  I'm somehow doubtful that the lesson from this story stuck, but you know.  A girl's gotta try.  This was a great book to discuss with the kids, because the author changed the point of view!  The illustrations are beautiful, too.  This may be my favorite "new" book I've read this year.

Kate and the Beanstalk

by Mary Pope Osbourne

Illustrated by Giselle Potter

I'm pretty sure my kids told me that Mary Pope Osbourne writes Magic Tree House.  Is that right?  Her name is definitely familiar.  But anyway, great book!  The kids were ALL about predicting the ending on this one! 

(Not including the credit since the words are so big!)

But dude.  If you haven't read this book, you MUST.  Seriously.  Buy it immediately or check your library.  You won't be sorry.  The kids will LOVE it.  But be forewarned--there will be LOTS of hysterical laughing.  Little hyenas.  You've been warned.  But I absolutely love this book.

 Goldilocks Returns

by Lisa Campbell Ernst

Have you ever read her books?  They're all good.  Just sayin.  But this one is SO CUTE!

Goldilocks comes back to the bears' house many years later!

I could go on and on and list tons more, but I really enjoyed these during our new unit this year and wanted to share!

I don't know that I've ever seen my kiddos so excited about a reading/writing lesson each day!  I wish I had taken pictures of everything and pictures of the kids engaged in their writing!  It was awesome.  But if you ever visited my classroom (this year, not every year), you'd see that there is scarcely time for me to snap photos when I spend most of my "free time" putting out fires and diffusing volatile situations.  Sad to say.  I guess I need to at least snap some of their final stories and artwork hanging in the hallway!

So anyway, since I'd already made most of the handouts for our students, I decided to put it all together with lesson plans, trade book recommendations, and all that jazz and post it on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Click any of the pics to check it out in my TPT store. 

Here it is in all its glory...

 

The unit is actually 30 pages long, so this is just a small sampling of what it includes.

The next 2 pages give more details about the contents.

 

I hope you got some good book recommendations you didn't know about!  What are your favorite fractured fairy tales to read/teach with??  I'd love to hear!

Growing Firsties' 500 Follower Giveaway!

Wow.  First of all, if you don't already follow Lisa Mattes at Growing Firsties, head over there now!

Secondly, you MUST check out her 500 Follower Giveaway!

 

Lisa has some amazing prizes to give away, so be sure to head over and enter to win!

What a compliment to have 500+ fellow teachers be interested in your work and your contributions to education.  I think it's amazing all the teacher bloggers out there who put (no doubt) tons of work into their daily lives in the classroom but then spend all this EXTRA time working on their own lessons and activities and then share them with us.  I'm new to doing this, but some of these bloggers are seriously AMAZING at it, and I truly am baffled at how and when they get all this amazingness done!  Congrats, Lisa, and thanks for the giveaway!  :)

On a side note, I stayed up WAY TOO LATE last night finishing up my Fractured Fairy Tales Unit (which we finished up before Spring Break, but putting it together to sell is quite another thing!).  I was SO SAD, as you can imagine, when I finally finished the darn unit and it wouldn't upload to TPT!  Tho thad.  Theriously.  So yeah.  I've tried probably 20 times since last night, and I'm still not able to upload it.  I contacted Support.  

Well, here's a sneak preview so that you can be waiting with bated breath.  HA!  :D

I'm sad to report that my Spring Break is officially OVER tomorrow!  :(  *tear*  *lots of tears*

Happy Spring!

Sale on Black History Research Pack!

Hey guys, I've been SUPER busy trying to prepare for Open House (this Thursday), so I'm really slacking on the blogging.

However, I wanted to let you know that I've put my Famous African Americans Research Pack on sale now that Black History Month has ended.

If you'd be interested in purchasing it for next year or for just anytime, I guess, then it will be 15% starting tomorrow, March 5th, through Friday, March 8th.

Here is the direct link to the product on my TpT store:
Black History Research Project with QR Codes

My students are all (but 2 who never finish anything) finished with the research part of their project and are totally taking off with their products to share their learning.  It is amazing to watch them be so self-driven about their learning!!  I wish every assignment were this engaging for them.  Sigh.  One lesson, one unit at a time is all we can do, right?

Many of them are making slide shows on Animoto, which is amazeballs and easy if you haven't tried it!

Here's one of their Animoto shows...this is his first draft--he has since made many improvements to punctuation, etc., but how awesome is it for an 8 year old??? His next task is adding some more specific details to his facts so we can learn even more about his famous American in history!



Several are writing and performing puppet shows, and others are making Power Point slide shows and using Apps like Educreations or Fotobabble to share their learning.

YAY for getting my 2nd graders excited about research and getting them working on something because they WANT to!  Yay self-motivation!

Hope you are all having a good week and are hanging in there until Spring Break--holla--my 32nd birthday (I told my kids today I was turning 25, LOL) is coming up on Monday, so I'm definitely going to host a big sale for the occasion in case anyone's looking to do some shopping over Spring Break, haha!

Thanks for stopping by my little blog, and I'll try to post something more interesting soon!

Update to Black History Month Research Unit!

Well, I originally wrote this research unit because our Native American research project crashed and burned, so it's only inevitable that I will continually be thinking of ways to keep THIS project from doing the same.

Hence, this new and improved unit!  I added several historical figures AND (my favorite part) QR codes that link to kid-safe websites for research.  I included 3 codes/websites for EACH person in the unit.

I've sold quite a few of these on TpT and am very excited that people think it's worth buying!  YAY!
If this is something you'd like, check it out at my TpT store or clicking on the images:

Famous African Americans-Research Project for Black History Month

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll try to be back soon for a more fun update!  :)

Freebie Friday!

We just started our early morning tutoring this week, or as we call it, "Enrichment" program.  I've really been consumed with getting together some fun math activities to work on with the 2nd grade sweeties that are coming to work with me on Thursdays.  After all, I'm not too bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7:00 am, so I figure if it's fun, maybe it will help perk 'em up a little.  :)

I made this tonight for them to practice separating their coins (quarters with quarters, dimes with dimes, etc.) and then to add them up.  They are quite good at naming the coins and each coin's value, but when it comes to adding them up...not so much.  I'm hoping we can get right to work on this next Thursday.  Counting coins is my #1 nemesis in 2nd grade, closely followed by telling time.  OY!

I had to create it in black line because my printer ink costs are steadily getting OUT OF CONTROL.  There.  I said it.  I'm a printeraholic.  Sigh.

On a fun note: I just bought/downloaded Microsoft Office for Mac on my fab Macbook, and the whole package was only $10.00 through my school district!  HOT DIGGITY DOG.  So this is my first official PowerPoint creation, as I've been creating in Apple's Keynote until now.  PowerPoint for Mac looks WAY different than the Windows version, but hey.  Whatcha gonna do?  Once you go Mac...

Anyway, I hope this might be helpful for someone--click the link below to download it for FREE from my shop on Teachers Pay Teachers!

My Money Mats Freebie

Oh, I'm sorry.  I forgot to tell you something...

HAPPY WEEKEND!!!

Report Cards, Blech.

So I finally finished entering report card data today.  GLORY BE, HALLELUJAH!

Does anyone else #1, have standards-based report cards, and #2, have to enter them into a program like Pentamation?  Because both are a huge beat down and definitely NOT my favorite part of my job.  :)

It's so difficult to keep up with which kid I'm typing data in for WHICH standard, I finally just created some Excel spreadsheets where I type in my grades/ratings first, then I have a guide as I enter the data in Pentamation.  OY!

So, two 9 weeks down, two more to go.  Time is flying, and yay for having tomorrow off for MLK, Jr. Day.  This is the first year my district has had the day off.  It's always been a student holiday, but this is the first year we've not had Staff Development.  Thank the good lord, because I haven't worked so hard in a LONG time as I did this week.  My week was spent #1, playing catch up from being out 3 days last week, #2, busting my butt to get 22 DRA2s completed, 22 sight word assessments completed, 22 math assessments scored, etc. etc., #3, entering report cards, and #4, lots of fun artic/antarctic/penguin goodies for my kiddos.  Hope to snap pics Tuesday to share the cuteness (all ideas from some other fab teachers, of course).  I LOVE penguins, so even though we were supposed to do the arctic/antarctic unit LAST week, I was determined!!  :)

While going through my math assessments, I had WAY too many kiddos who are still struggling with the BIG, BAD 3:  place value, coins, and time.  I created a center activity for place value, and I plan to use the Numbers to 100 set with my tutoring small group and have my whole class use it during Math Workshop (using the Numbers to 500 set).

Each set is in my TpT shop for $1.50, but I'd love to give one set away to the first 3 commenters if you're interested.  I'd love feedback or ideas for upcoming similar sets I make, such as an activity for telling time and counting coins to $1.00.

 Sorry I didn't rotate the pictures!  I create in the Mac version of PowerPoint, so everything is sideways!  :)

I also created a Numbers to 1,500 set for high achievers or older grades.

Be sure to include your email in your comment if you'd like to have one of the sets.  THANKS for reading, as always!

Black History Month research project

Well, Friday, my team and I were discussing what the heck we were going to do for plans next month.  You know--that moment when you're looking through your state standards, your report card standards, and your district's scope and sequence...and you all realize that none of them aligns with the others?  Good times, folks.  Good times.

We used to do a small Famous Black Americans unit when I taught 3rd grade, but we haven't done too much on the subject beyond basics since I moved to 2nd.  BINGO, I thought.  So this weekend I made a unit for a research project.  LOL.  Um...I may have spent a biiiiiiit too much time on it.  But then again, I'm pretty new to creating my own lessons, at least to the point of making them like, cute. 

So anyway, I wanted to share in case anyone else is interested! 

A bit of a backtrack...my team had our kiddos do a research project on different Native American tribes earlier in the year...and it was awful.  Well.  OK.  It would have been better if they had EVER done research before.  Haha.  Well, we did spend some time before-hand teaching them about note-taking, but I think the biggest mistake we made was not providing structure for them to let them know exactly what we expected of them.  Hence, my unit using the Super 3 (Big 6?  Anyone?).  So yeah, apparently Primary teachers have adapted the Big 6 for their younger kiddos (praise glory be to the heavens), and it's called the Super 3.  You're welcome!  (That is, if this is new to you.  If you already knew all about this, then who do you think you are?  Do you want a cupcake or something?  Geez.)  But seriously.

Here's everything that's included in the unit:

 Our librarian media specialist looked over the unit and was excited to tell me that all of the historical figures except two (Zora Neale Hurston & Sidney Poitier) are included on the PebbleGo database.  Just in case any of your schools have a subscription!  We'll probably just not have them research those two so that all the students can use PebbleGo.  Just simpler that way.  :)  I'm also planning to have a few other websites for them to search, if I can find some good ones (ie., ones that don't talk about Sojourner Truth's sexual abuse...)  OY biography.com!

Here are some peeks:

OK, I've tried over and over again to upload another pic right here, but it just isn't happening.  It's the other page for Step 1: Plan It.  It's included in my free preview on TpT, though (see link below).

 I plan to use Martin Luther King, Jr. as an example of what good research notes should look like since we're spending all this week learning about him already.  Get this MLK, Jr. page in my free preview at TpT.  (Link below.)

Get this Step 3 page in my free preview file, as well.

If you think you may be interested, feel free to check out the free preview over at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

YAY Research!  :D

New Year Freebie

Hey there!

I created a simple, black line writing stationary for my students' New Year's Resolutions and wanted to share it in case anyone was interested.

I have seen some fabulous units on other blogs/TPT for New Year activities, but I frankly can't devote that much time to the holiday and must hit the floor running on Monday!  So we will read a New Year book, discuss the word "resolution" (resolve) and what it means to make a resolution for the New Year.

Then I plan to create a whole group Circle Map, just having the kids brainstorm some good goals they might have for the new year.

Finally, I'll have them write.  (And color.)  This will be displayed in the hallway, as it makes them feel special, like they've sort of been "published," and I find it helpful to let parents see their kiddos' writing as compared to their peers!  ;)

Please click the preview image to download from Teachers Pay Teachers, and Happy New Year!

I Did It!

I sold my first product on Teachers Pay Teachers!  Seriously, folks--that totally made my day, and it was a RUFF day.  (and yes, I spelled rough wrong on purpose, thanks for noticing.)  (And yes, I just started a sentence with the word 'and.')

But anyway, here's the product I sold if you're interested:

It's my Engineering Station.  I got the idea from a Sally Ride science workshop I attended back in September.  I asked parents to send in broken electronics, and we got things like old vcrs, dvd players, cd players, electric pencil sharpeners, remote controls, calculators, cell phones, etc.

My students use tools to take apart the electronics and record their observations of the parts and/or how the machines work.  Then their task is to use some of the parts they found to design their own machine or invention.  FUN.  Seriously, though--my kids are IN LOVE with this activity.  Kids that I've never seen get excited about anything have been running to me as soon as they finish an assignment to see if they can work in the Engineering Station.  GREAT critical thinking skills and creativity, people!  Not to mention it's funny when 7 year-olds say "engineering."

Here are some previews for you visual folks.  Click on any of the photos to check it out in my TpT store and to read more about it.  Thanks for stopping by!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Engineering-Station-Pack