Sunday, March 14, 2010

3.14.10

I hope you all know that today is a special day!! March 14! (Ringing any bells yet?!?) If not, it's Pi Day! (3-14) Hopefully math classes will be celebrating Monday with circles, cylinders, and of course, pie!
There are all kinds of interesting things you can do like:
Find your birthday in pi! (Mine (08-12-83) occurs at digit 808,934) Exciting right!?!?
Even more fun, you could spend 5 minutes and 59 seconds of your math class listening to someone recite the first 1000 digits of that special number.
For more fun facts and interesting ideas check out this invigorating article!
Bring on the pie! I mean, PI!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Free Advertising!!

Websites I use religiously:

Scholastic Printables - (paid site) Great worksheets (NOT THAT WORD!?!?). Easy to use on the SMART Board. Pull up the PDF and write all over it. I'm horrible at thinking up examples on the spot so this is my go-to site!

SMART Exchange - (free site) The SMART website where you can download (and upload) fabulous notebook files. I have a few in here all listed under CMS Content Creation Seminar (CCS) along with my name.

Discovery Education - (paid site) Anything by Discovery is going to be great! Although you have to pay to use the website, there are some great *free* resources in the middle of this page. Homework help and such. Almost anything Discovery Channel has released is on here (from Planet Earth to Kenny the Shark (my kids favorite indoor recess show). I use this for building backgound since so many of my students have limited experiences.

Discovery Ed School - (free site) Lots more resources from Discovery!

More to come!

Friday, March 5, 2010

Scholar Ladies - You will be singing this!

A teacher I work with shared this a few weeks ago! I know these kids loved creating this! My class has been inspired! Hopefully we'll have a video of our own to share before too long!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Bio

A little about me:
  • I currently teach 4th grade but spent my first three years teaching second. I was "promoted" to 4th against my will but now love 4th and wouldn't want to go back down. The school where I work utilizes block scheduling so I currently teach two literacy blocks that include reading, writing, and social studies, which I love! I do not want to teach math again!
  • I graduated in 2009 with a Master's Degree in Reading Education so I am certified Elementary Education (K-6) and Reading Education (K-12).
  • I've always loved technology and computers. I was the first of my friend to get a cell phone in 10th grade, first to have an AOL email address, and the dorky one to get and understand all the new "toys".
  • I did and 3-day SMART Content Creation Seminar in Spring 2009 and became a SMART Exemplary Teacher. I'm in the middle of a 4-day Discovery Education seminar and hope to become a Star Discovery Educator.
  • I love kids lit! I am a huge Harry Potter dork and am going to be really disappointed if the Wizarding World of HP isn't open at Universal by the time I visit FL on Spring Break in April. My favorite author is Roald Dahl. I think the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are hysterical (kind of where I got the name of this blog from...). I read kids books as often if not more often that adult books.
  • I'm hoping to get into a doctoral program soon where I will focus on reading education with a strong emphasis towards classroom technology.
  • My current dream job would be writing Notebook lessons for SMART. However, it's a bit cold in Canada for me right now.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

I remember...

I wanted to start a blog a while back but just wasn't sure which direction I should take it. I originally wanted to write a "day-in-the-life" blog, but to be quite honest, I'm not that exciting (not that any teacher's life is dull...) and I don't think I would keep up with it. I love learning and sharing, so a "teacher resource" blog just makes sense! I saw this commercial yesterday and it inspired me to start blogging today!