Like Sands through the Hourglass...

Seriously.  I am sorry to report that with all the new implementations going on in my district, "Ain't nobody got time for that!"  Blogging, that is.  Geez o'Pete.  It's all I can do to [sort of] keep up with all that's expected of me this year, much less blog about it.  PHEW.  This teacher is exhausted.  Excuse me.  Educator.  Oh yes, one of the many things I'm having to relearn.  I am no longer a teacher.  I am an EDUCATOR.  Get it right, folks.  Also?  The students?  No longer.  They are now to be referred to as LEARNERS.  Get on board!  :)

We've also begun Project-Based Learning (PBL) on our campus, which has been lots of fun, but lots of work.  OY.  The kids are LOVING it, and I am loving the collaborating and critical thinking that's going on, but it is a LOT of work.  Mostly upfront work, but still.  Holy Moses!


PBL on U.S. landmarks, their significance, and how they make places unique:

These photos are from today's mission...they learned about the Golden Gate Bridge, and then they

constructed their own long bridge spanning between 2 desks.

Their bridges were judged and scored based on length (3 points for each inch),

beauty, and teamwork.  Every team received the full 2 points for teamwork today!

Whoo hoo!  I was one happy teacher, er, educator.

This mission came from the book Mind Missions, which is AMAZING for turning boring Social Studies units into ENGAGING, hands-on experiences for learners.  I highly recommend it.  Also, it works GREAT for PBL if you use it--the missions are perfect Scaffolding Experiences.

The teams have a few more landmarks to learn about and missions to complete, and then next week they'll receive a Game Changer.  This is where they'll be issued their main task/challenge.  As a whole group, we will be creating and naming our "class town."  Each team will then become a committee--one team will be the Bridge Committee, one will be the Statue Committee, one the Monument Committee, one the Seal Committee, etc.  The committees will be developing and constructing a model of their landmark to stand on a raised relief map of our "Class Town."  I envision them choosing something like "Cockrellville," haha.  

Eventually, each committee will record a video in which they describe our town, including the significance of the landmark they designed and what U.S. landmark it compares to.  These videos will be linked to QR codes so that visitors to the school can scan them to see what our learners created and what they've learned.  They'll also be taking their Kinder Buddies on a "gallery walk" of our town, explaining the landmarks.  OY.  Serious stuff, y'all.

If your school uses PBL, I'd love to hear any thoughts or tips you may have!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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!

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!  :)

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

iPad Frenzy: Sock Puppets App

It's official.  My student teacher, Mrs. O'Bryan, and I are obsessed with the iPads.  We use them almost every day in Daily 5 (Listen to Reading, Word Work, Read to Self), and we are continually trying to find ways to integrate them into math, science, and social studies.

My new favorite App is Sock Puppets.

Make a 30 second sock puppet show about anything!  (My students would chime in: "as long as it's appropriate for school.")  Yes, I've taught them well.  :D

You can choose your own sock characters, choose your background and props, and you can even change the pitch of the characters' voices to higher or lower!  The students had a blast, and it's actually a great way to assess a recently taught skill or content.

We recently made sock puppet shows explaining the difference between needs and wants during our big economics unit.  Check out a student's example below:





Tips for using the Sock Puppets App:
-Watch the countdown timer at the top to see how much you have left to talk.
-Have students write their "script" first to save time and mistakes.
-Have them sit as far away from one another as possible (as you can hear in the video, it gets very loud if they are all recording at once!)  :)
-To make a new character talk, you have to click on it (an arrow will appear above its head).
-You totally do not have to upload them to YouTube!  I only did that for blog purposes and to share with parents, but it is by no means a must, of course!  (Side note: it was quite easy to upload them if you're into that sort of thing-haha.)