Edtech Summit~Temecula & a Holiday Meme

Edtech Summit~Temecula~Great Way to Start the Break!

I started my Thanksgiving Break by attending a Google Summit...it was WONDERFUL!!!  I was so inspired by every session & the timing couldn't have been better since when we return next Monday we will begin using the Chromebooks our school just purchased! {my class will have the cart Monday, Tuesday, & every other Wednesday}

I forgot to add the video of Be More Dog!

One of the reasons this weekend was so fantastic is this group of ladies!  I have taught or am teaching 3rd with all of them...one is now an AP for several of our elementary schools and the other two are looping 3/4, so I will have each one as a teammate every other year.  We learned from each other & enjoyed learning, laughing, & eating together!  Speaking of eating...

The first night we ate at a Thai restaurant and the bowl you see in front of me is what I couldn't finish {no fridge in the hotel room} I had wonderful, large Spring Rolls first & was shocked when the soup was brought to the table, it seriously could have fed a family of 5! On the way home we went to PFChang...wow! Shown is my fortune cookie...I have so many projects in my 'For TpT' folder, maybe with the break I will get a few 'Store Ready'

A highlight for me was getting the chance to meet and spend time with Vicky from Teaching and Much Moore!  Once I had looked through her Instagram I felt we would connect...many things in common...she was a delight & I look forward to meeting up with her again in the future!

This is my ADORABLE grandson, & Yes, I am biased!! His mom gave me permission to create & share this Meme! 

Sketchnotes; a Gift From Scholastic; Conferences & Student Goals with a Smile!

My 1st Wow! is about Sketchnotes; more specifically Sylvia Duckworth's Sketchnotes...if you don't follow her on Twitter, I would highly recommend following her!...maybe I should have called this one a WOW! because that is how I feel when I look at her collection of sketch notes!...here are just a FEW of her amazing sketchnotes:

 ~notice this collage does not have my usual TABT logo on it because all I did was put 6 of HER sketchnotes together...if you click on the image above it will take you to her Flickr photo stream...she has so many great ones that make me think, inspire me, and connect with me in a different way than other media...maybe one day I will try to sketchnote as well!...I liked what she had so much that I downloaded around 60 of them!!...I plan to use them to help me to think differently & to inspire my fellow staff members!

 I received a book order this week and I was so excited about the gift they included for me in the order!!!  I love the color, the quotes, & the finger & thumb tips that work on my gadgets!!  So nice to get a little something unexpected, thank you Scholastic!

Yesterday ALL day we had parent conferences & we had a short day today with conferences after the students left...I am pretty wiped out, they went well, but are quite draining...part of our conference is to include going over a parent/teacher/student compact...it has preprinted expectations in each column, and spots for goals for the student...in class we had brainstormed about different goals they could choose; turning in their homework, mastering the multiplication facts, take more AR quizzes, improve on test scores, etc...they were welcome to come up with one of their own if they chose to...then at the conference the parent chooses a goal & I choose a goal for the child to work on.  I was very proud of how self reflective my students were...they chose very appropriate goals for their current challenges...as I was going through them yesterday and saw the one below my mind was trying to figure out what the child could have possibly meant by 'white heater'...I was at a loss...this morning I looked at it, I guess I had my 'teacher glasses' on because I suddenly saw 'write neater'!!! Very appropriate goal!! 

Now, 1/2 day tomorrow, then school Friday, & after school I will be taking off with a few other teachers from my school for an EdTech Summit on GAFE {Google Apps For Education}...I am SUPER excited & I am sure I will be blogging about it! 

Shaved Frozen Yogurt, Super Improver Stars, & Binder Clip LOVE! :D

One of my favorite treats of the last year & a half has been getting frozen yogurt.  We have a locally owned place, EzFreeze just around the block from school {dangerous...they all know me in there!}...they opened a second location in the same small mall for shaved ice...this is pretty common to find, but Joe, the owner, decided to combine these two treats & created SHAVED YOGURT!  We all enjoyed it, the picture shows my daughter's strawberry shaved yogurt.

My second Wow is Wow I finally moved forward with my Super Improver Stars!  For the last few years I have tried to use this strategy from Whole Brain Teaching, but I was never successful with moving forward...I would just get too busy with other things, as well as not having great strategies for tracking & monitoring the students' stars.  I know that some students have earned even more super improver stars that I haven't awarded for growth on the Accelerated Reader STAR test which they took when school began & just retook. As the students move up, the backing color for their names will change.

Wow, do I love Binder Clips!  I use them all the time!  I love that I can store them on a ring & have them at my fingertips any time I need; they can be dressed up with washi/decorative tape; place hooks behind my desk & hang important papers, forms, & book orders & not loose them in a pile on my desk; they can be used to hold papers that need to be returned to students & hung on a hook attached to the cubbies, large clips were the ones I used to label those cubbies when stickers just wouldn't stick!

Be back next Wednesday!

CMC Math Conference! {Wows! on Wednesday back this Wednesday!}

I was very blessed to attend the CMC {California Mathematics Council} Southern California Conference in Palm Springs Friday & Saturday.  I have been to the conference many times in the past, but it has been at least 6 years since I have been able to go. 

The conference was WONDERFUL!!! 

I am a Kim Sutton groupie...I first heard her around 25{?} years ago at the CMC Conference.  I remember going to her session and being blown away!  There was so much great information that I couldn't absorb it all.  Her session was repeated & so I went back.  Since then I have heard her speak at conferences like this and also attended several full day conferences that she had through her company Creative Mathematics.  I ALWAYS learn something new EVERY SINGLE time I hear her speak!  If you EVER have the chance to see her present DO NOT pass it up!  One of my favorite lines of hers is, "Math is NOT like reading/language arts"  My students hear that all the time.  We talk about how the brain is a pattern seeking device & how if they ever listen to a two year old or someone learning English they might hear that person say, "I flied" or "I swinged" because they are trying to apply that pattern of adding -ed for the past tense, but we have exceptions~in math there are patterns, properties, constants~when you know it, you know it...there won't be rule breakers or exceptions.

I went to 2 of Kim's sessions and visited with her for quite a while, it was a delight!

I am now a new groupie too.  I went to Jane Felling's session on Family Math nights & I was so impressed with her, her style, her information, & materials I stayed for her next session Number Line Math for Teaching Place Value {it was not originally on my schedule}, then I attended her husband's session the next day Roll into Conducting Probability & Statistics & I was just as impressed with him!  He talked about brain research and what he shared fit beautifully with what I have learned from Chris Biffle from Whole Brain Teaching {which I have blogged about several times in the past}.  I purchased several materials from their company Box Cars and One Eyed Jacks and look forward to watching my students grow through using them.

I almost stayed with Kim for her last session, but it was for K-2 & I decided to stick with my original plan of going to Orchestrating Confident Problem Solvers in 3 Simple Steps!  I am so glad that I attended that session!  Here is my picture with all of these amazing individuals and more about the last session & these ladies after the picture...

I will talk about the content of that session first...I loved it! They talked about a way to work with students to UNDERSTAND word problems by doing 3 Reads with them.  One of the lines my students hear frequently is "Reading is for Meaning" and this fit beautifully with HOW to do that when problem solving.  Now, about these ladies, the opener they had up as I walked into the room was to discuss with a neighbor WHY you chose this session...I had three reasons, #1 it was in the same hotel as my previous session with Kim {a significant consideration because the conference has sessions in the Convention Center & SIX different hotels!}, #2 I liked the topic since problem solving is so critical for our students and can be a challenge for them to conquer successfully, #3 one presenter was from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo & the other 2 were from the San Luis Coastal School District~I am an alumni of Cal Poly.

After their session I began talking with them and I asked them if they knew Dr. Susan McBride, who had been one of my professors at Cal Poly.  I was surprised when they said they knew her because of how much time has gone by since I graduated.  Dr. McBride had a huge impact on my life.  When I was in college, Cal Poly was the only school that I knew of at the time that an individual majoring in Liberal Studies could graduate with a teaching credential.  There had been a certain GPA that was required to enter the credential program and I had that GPA, but at the beginning of my fourth year the GPA was raised and the students were not informed.  My GPA was now too low and I was being told that it needed to be raised, yet at the same time to graduate non-credential I would need 15 units of a foreign language.  So, while I was trying to raise it, very difficult to do when you have so many credits under your belt, I was also struggling with Spanish.  I have never tried so hard to be successful at something and done so poorly as when I was trying to learn Spanish.  
At this time my advisor was recommending I look at another career and I was feeling so discouraged. I enrolled in Dr. McBride's class, but I was overwhelmed and just didn't feel like I could do my best.  She allowed me to receive an incomplete and told me to return when I was ready.  When I came back to her class I was so inspired & impressed by her.  She made me want to give everything I had to every assignment.  I didn't receive a score below a 93% in her class.  At the time this was a pretty big deal for me!  She had a quiet, encouraging high expectation for her students, and I am so grateful that she believed that I could become a teacher.

I graduated non-credential, which was very challenging for me, but I earned my credential and Master's Degree from Chapman University.  I LOVE being a teacher, and the struggles I went through, I believe help me to relate to, and make me a champion for those who do struggle in school.

Part of my story that I shared with the three ladies involved another friend who was caught in the same situation I was.  We lost touch after graduation.  We would later be reunited. She had also continued with her dream of being an educator & I would soon learn about her journey in education.  Our reunion was related to a Delta Kappa Gamma event. {Delta Kappa Gamma is a professional organization of women educators that I was a part of}  The three ladies looked at each other when I mentioned Delta Kappa Gamma & then told me that was how they knew Dr. McBride and that they would be seeing her Tuesday night!

Thank you Dr. McBride for believing in me and encouraging me to be the best I could be.  You made such a positive impact on my life and I will be forever grateful!

Here are the goodies I got at the conference! :D  Some I purchased; the dice trays, big book & some of the dice.  The rest were given at the sessions or in the vendor area.  I am so excited to share what I learned with my students!

Now, mmmm, I love food! Here is a bit about the FOOD while I was in Palm Springs!

I'll be back on Wednesday with 3 Wows! on Wednesday!