The Bucket of Awesome

Our Public Library has an Awesome Bear on the Second Floor that allows children and teens to tweet the awesome things that are happening in their lives.  You can read more about Awesome Bear here: http://justinthelibrarian.com/tag/the-awesome-bear/. Follow Awesome Bear on Twitter @AwesomeBearCha.

Inspired by the Awesome Bear, I decided to bring the Bucket of Awesome to Clifton Hills Elementary School.  I posted a sign on an up cycled clear plastic container with a handle inviting students and staff to share their awesome with me.

I set the bucket on my desk. It was such a busy week in the library, full of stories and teaching procedures, that I failed to say anything about the bucket. On Wednesday, one of my students asked me about the Awesome Bucket. I told her she could share anything awesome that she saw or experienced.  She asked for a slip of paper and then she came back for another slip for her friend. After her class left, I opened the Awesome Bucket and read the slips. Her slip said she had a great day.  I knew that for her, having a great day was a big deal.  I took the slips to the principal and shared them.  We decided to create the Bucket of Awesome shout out during our morning announcements.  It's a positive way to let students share the good that's happening in their lives.  Her teacher told me the next day that she was beaming to have her awesome news shared with the school during the morning announcements.  

Our Awesome Bucket needed some awesome paper, so Jocelyn Delk created Share Your Awesome cards for us.  She has lots of great resources on her Teachers Pay Teachers Store. I can't wait to put them in a basket next to the Bucket of Awesome.

I'll be telling all of my students about the Awesome Bucket this week. Here's to bringing more Awesome to Clifton Hills!

Teacherpreneur Incubator

This summer has been full of opportunities for me to grow as a teacher leader in my school and my district.  It all started in March when I participated in 48 Hour Launch. 48 Hour Launch is a weekend long business start up experience that culminates when the team pitches their idea for judges.  I showed up for the initial pitches and then chose to work with the 36 University Team.  Eight people came together to bring this idea to life.  We collaborated and worked together on to bring the ACT Test Prep App to life.  It was a very rewarding experience.  After the pitches were finished I asked our team mentor about similar opportunities to participate in the start up community. He introduced me to Keri Randolph saying that she was planning a similar experience for teachers this summer. It is probably the best professional connection that I have ever made.

A few weeks later, teachers received an invitation to participate in the first of several meetups for the Teacherpreneur Incubator,  That first meetup only a few teachers gathered to share their ideas.  Keri encouraged us to dream big dreams for our students, schools, and districts.  There were some amazing ideas shared at that first meet up from an internet cafe for students who lack access to internet at home to finding a way to build cross cultural community in our district. The teachers that gathered were quick to offer support and to help each other bring life to each others ideas.  Over the next few weeks there would be more meetups at various inspiring locations all across town.  At the end of May, 60 teachers submitted brief proposals to the incubator.  In June, 28 proposals were selected to move forward to the 48 Hour Launch weekend.   PEF hosted meetups during July for the selected teachers to network and share ideas.

This weekend is the 48 Hour Launch weekend!  Using the Company Lab's 48 Hour Launch Model we will gather with a team to help us prepare our pitches for Pitch Night on Sunday at the Church On Main.  We'll have 4 minutes to convince a panel of judges to fund our ideas. I can't wait to work with my team to bring my Makerspace idea to life. 

It started with a dream...

Last year, I was asked several times if I would be willing to have the library open in the summer for students to borrow books. Of course, I would want the library to be open in the summer. I know that the number one way to stop the summer slide is to read. I also know that many of my students need access to books.  So I started dreaming about what a summer library program would look like for my students.  I shared my idea with my principal. Mrs. Delk, a 3rd grade teacher, said that she would be willing to partner with me.  She wanted to start a school garden.  The summer reading program had life! We decided to name our summer program Reads and Seeds.  Each week we offer students (and parents) a variety of opportunities to Make. Play. Read. Learn. Students also work in our new school garden.

Make. Play. Read. Learn is the summer reading program sponsored by The Chattanooga Public Library.  I asked the Library if we could serve as a satellite site for the summer reading program and they said, YES!  Students are able to register and complete The Public Library's Summer Reading program at Clifton Hills Elementary School Library. Lee Hope, Youth Services Coordinator is even providing us with plenty of rewards for our summer readers. It's the beginning of a great partnership with the Chattanooga Public Library.

You can follow our summer reading adventure on Mrs. Delk's Blog.

STEM Fellows

I am excited to be serving as a 2014-2015 STEM Fellow with the Southeast Tennessee Innovation Hub. STEM Fellows is an amazing opportunity to learn how to implement STEM in my school.  The teachers in my cohort will meet together twice this summer in May and July.  We will also meet 4 times throughout the school year. We will work to create community partnerships with STEM businesses in our area.  As a STEM Fellow, I will be an advocate for STEM education in my community.

2014-2015 STEM Fellows Cohort

National Poetry Month

April is one of my favorite months of the year because we are able to celebrate poetry all month long.   This April each grade level is writing their own poems.  Kindergarten classes are creating I Can Poems.  First Graders are writing I AM poems.  Special thanks to Shannon Miller for the idea. Second Graders are working collaboratively to write a "What's in our Desks" Poem.  Third graders are experimenting with acrostic poems.  4th and 5th graders are writing their own I Spy Riddles.  In order to facilitate some time for me to assist small groups with editing and publishing their work we are trying a variety of Poetry Centers.  These poetry centers are a learning lab that allow students to try out a variety of types of poetry.  Students may choose from 9 different centers:

• Independent Reading-A variety of poetry books are available for students to read.  Students have the opportunity to review a poem or two.  Poem Reviews will be displayed in the library.
• Acrostic Poetry-Students may try to write an acrostic poem.  This center includes a graphic organizer to help students brainstorm a list of adjectives that begin with the letters in their names.
• Found Poetry-A selection of newspapers, glue and scissors are included in this center.  Students are encouraged to find a wide variety of words (different fonts, sizes, colors, etc.). Students cut out the words and then arrange them on construction paper to create a poem.  This center is challenging because students have to come up with an idea and then search the paper for words that will work in their poems.  
• Scavenger Hunt-Students search for Alliteration, Onomatopoeia, Rhyme, etc in a selection of poems
• Poetry Theater-Students work in small groups to prepare a poem to be performed for their class.
• Illustrate a Poem-Students practice visualization and draw a picture to represent the poem.
• Revision and Publishing-Students may bring their poems from the previous week to me for review and suggestions.  Students who have completed their poems may begin typing their poems.
• Spine Poetry-Students arrange book spines so that they create a poem.  This is a fun station as they get to look through all of the recently returned books and find titles that will work together.

Students enjoy the opportunity to choose the poetry activity they would like to complete.  At the end of class, I host a debriefing session where students are given the opportunity to share their work. Students love to read there work or share a poem that they enjoyed from one of our many poetry books. 

For the LOVE of Reading...

Crazy Hair Day

Our school celebrated Read Across America Week a little late this year due to benchmark testing that took place the week of March 3.  It was worth the wait!  This year, each day had a theme to build excitement.  Monday we had numerous Seuss characters pay a visit to our school.  Tuesday, we enjoyed a variety of crazy hair styles. Wednesday, we wore Silly Socks. Thursday, we wore our wackiest hats. Friday, was Read Across America T-Shirt day.   While this week is designed to promote reading, it had the added plus of students and teachers creating something for each day out of what they had available.  It was so neat to see how everyone interpreted each day.  I'll never forget the laughs we shared this week.  In addition to having theme days each week, we hosted a wide variety of guest readers from parents to community members.  We are so thankful for our volunteers. Every day is a great day to read with a child!

Grab your hat and read with the Cat!

A Snapshot of My Reading Life

I just learned about the WRAD (World Read Aloud Day) blogging Challenge.  I have decided to participate even though there are only two weeks left.

The prompt for this week is a snapshot of my reading life.  So here is my reading life.

This is a picture of a portion of the "Easy" Section in the Clifton Hills Elementary School library.  I chose this picture because I love sharing picture books with my students.  The picture book section offers something for everyone. There are books that make us laugh and books that bring us to tears and books that teach us about life. Students shouldn't be rushed out of the picture book section.  They should be invited to linger and stay a while. I tell my older students all the time that they may find their favorite book in the picture book section.  Some of my favorite books are found here such as Make Way for the Ducklings, Library Lion, Flotsam,  Why I was Young in the Mountains and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Maybe this summer, I'll change the name to Everybody Books.