Tech Decks

In case you were wondering I was recently informed that there is a new toy that has only just recently come to Canada.... and it's called Tech Decks and no this is definitely not the same skateboard toy we all were familiar with from when I was in elementary (or maybe middle) school.

Or... Just kidding... it definitely is... it's a small skateboard that you can jump from wall to wall with using your fingers as a persons legs on the skateboard. You can also do super cool jumps on your desk with it and you can continue to do them over and over again far after your teacher has asked you to put it away and get ready for music (for like the 3rd time).

So, in case you were wondering... tech decks are still alive and well and considered "brand new to Canada" by a grade 2 student.

French Classroom No More

Can you believe this was the classroom I was teaching in last year?  I was teaching in my old classroom the other week and I got to get a look at the new room.  They actually took down a wall that was where my whiteboard would have been to make one giant classroom (most classrooms in this school are already this size... very lucky!).  So the way I took the picture I would have been standing in the room next to mine last year looking towards my French room (where the blue bulletin board is would have been where I had my desk).  Definitely looks much larger and spacious now!  But anything would look better than how my room was left at the end of the year 

Remember this...

This Week at School

This week at school...

It was a busy week!

Monday I taught grade 2 where we learned what numbers added up to be 10, listened to Charlotte's Web, and wrote about our weekends in our journals (and yes, we did get side tracked with our sharing when I started it by mentioning the word "Christmas").

I noticed they haven't taken down their Halloween decorations yet... unless this spider is just always out and about. And here I am already decorated for Christmas!

One of my students also gave me a picture of a drawing he did during the day... he later asked for it back which is probably for the best since Pittsburgh is apparently the enemy.

 

Tuesday I taught in a grade 5/6 classroom. We watched a bunch of videos on why we shouldn't smoke (and voted on our favourites) you can actually watch (or show the videos to your class) here. Yesterday's class had halloween decorations still out and this class was free of all things Halloween. I actually quite liked the set up in this classroom... lots of windows and plants and I liked the counter they had by the windows with taller chairs so students could do work there.

They also wrote a bunch of "Things that are Awesome" on one of the windows. I didn't get a chance to ask them what that was all about but it seemed like an ongoing thing probably.

Wednesday was a half day outside of the big bad city. For the first couple of periods I had only 6 students! We played Go Fish (in French) and other French games online. After recess I had 16 students in my class for ELA and can i just say this teacher's library bins would look perfect in a future classroom of mine.

I also noticed they had a book tweets bulletin board in their classroom which I thought was kind of cool. Here's the general idea behind it

Thursday and Friday I was at the same school and the same classroom. It was one of the colony schools so you already know I had a delicious lunch provided for me. I had about 12 students in my class so it wasn't too rough of an end of my week.

Storyline

Everyone and their mom knows about Tumble Books already (an online version of a book so that you don't have to actually read your students a book... you can just press play sit back and have a few minutes to yourself) but you need to pay for a subscription to use it (or, I think, you can also use your library card here to access it - but if you're like me it's a quick last minute decision to put on a Tumble Book and you don't have time to find your library card or remember the password that the division you work for has set up for it). 

So for those of us that need an online story now (and don't want to search Youtube for an appropriate one) there is Storyline.  No passwords or subscriptions or library cards required.  I've used it a couple of times in classrooms I've been in.  Also perfect if you have a child/student that requests stories about a million times in the span of an hour.  AND... if you watch closely you might even recognize the reader (the reader changes for the different stories).

Hierarchy

I was subbing a grade 8 classroom a couple of weeks ago and learned about different levels of hierarchy in Mesopotamia.

Isn't it fantastic when you have students that put in their very best effort (well, that's me assuming these are their best effort... they look AMAZING)?

Remembrance Day

I was in a classroom a year ago and they had done these beautiful art pieces for Remembrance Day.

So, I've written this a year ago so that it would be posted at a better time.

The poppies on the ground are made of tissue paper and I'm guessing they just had to make an appropriate scene to go with them.

Nice.