Going Back to School (Gifted and Talented Classes)

Earlier in the school year, I was approached to be on my school's High Ability team. I wasn't too interested at the time, but I'm always looking to add to my resume, so I decided to join. There are 4 of us on the team. In March, I was presented with the opportunity to go back to school and get my license in High Ability education. And it would be completely paid for by my school. Tuition, books, everything. How could I say no to free education?

I was nervous (and still not totally interested) but I said yes, applied to Ball State University, and was accepted into their graduate program. I then found out that my school is restructuring into multi-age classrooms (K-2 and 3-5) and that I would be teaching the High Ability K-2 class. Suddenly, I was so glad I was going to be taking these classes because I was stepping into a whole new territory. 

I'm officially 2 weeks into my classes, and I have to say, Gifted and Talented education is SO interesting! I'm learning that these students are the exact opposite side of the spectrum of Special Education students, in that they need special instruction, and often have social/emotional issues. The bad thing is, that while special education gets a lot of federal and state funding (and they should), gifted students get no federal funding, and very little from the state. Everyone just assumes that these students will be fine, "because they're smart." But that's not always the case. 10% of high school dropout are gifted. 44% of students who had been identified as gifted in 1st grade are no longer gifted by 5th grade. Because we're not doing anything for them. These students have needs that are not being met in their general education classes. If we ignore their needs, they end up underachieving. Think of what we're robbing our world of. These students are the one who become the great doctors, lawyers, business giants, and researchers. If we don't give them what they need in school, we could be denying the world of some great innovators.

Clearly, you can tell I'm becoming passionate about this topic that I didn't give two hoots about a few months ago. Anyway, I'm knee deep in research papers and projects:

But I'm finding this "new normal" of coming home, changing into comfy clothes, and doing school work is sort of fun. I love learning new things, and since this is so relevant to what I'm going to be doing next year, it's really holding my interests. I'm taking two classes this summer and two classes next summer. Then I'll be able to get my license. After that I could see myself wanting to begin work for my Masters. We'll see!

Kinder Caterpillar Update: The Final Chapter

This has been one heck of an experience as far as I'm concerned. Let's recap the last 2 weeks of this fun project.

Once all of the caterpillars had entered the chrysalis, I carefully pinned them all into the butterfly pavilion. They were in there about 7 days before the first two emerged while I was out of town and had a sub.

 I was aware that there might be a little blood, but I was not prepared for just how much. After the weekend, we had about 8 butterflies and a decent amount of blood. My students were concerned, so I explained it to them in terms of a scab. 

Me: What happens when you pick a scab?

Students: We bleed.

Me: But you're okay, right?

Students: Yeah.

Me: Exactly. The chrysalis was like a big scab. When the butterflies came out, it was like picking that big scab off. There was some blood, but they're okay!

I put a sponge soaked in sugar water down at the bottom of the pavilion for them to drink from. A couple days later, I decided to put an orange in there as well. They liked the orange a lot better!

They lived in the pavilion for a week. I kept it on my desk and the students loved coming over to check on them and watch them.  Once I noticed the butterflies beginning to mate, I knew it was time to set them free. So we decided to go outside yesterday afternoon (we had to make sure it was warm enough) and said goodbye.

I wish I could share more pictures and videos. A few of the butterflies landed on the kids and it was so cute! We had talked about how the butterflies may want to stop and say thanks for taking such good care of them before flying off, so the kids did a great job of being calm and not freaking out.

This was by far one of the best experiences of my teaching career so far. If you've never done something like this, I highly suggest it. I plan to do this or something similar again in the future. My students got so much out of this project. Authentic learning experiences like this one are the things that kids remember when they think back on their education. My students will never remember the creative math lessons I taught, but I think they'll always remember raising a caterpillar and watching it turn into a butterfly. I'm so glad I got to share this experience with these amazing sweeties!

Kinder Caterpillar Update #1

I'm happy to announce that ALL of our caterpillars are still alive! (A small miracle in a class of 20 little kids!)

The little guys have been eating constantly and have grown considerably. After the weekend, my students were surprised to see that they'd nearly doubled in size, and that they had pooped all over the place. At first they thought the caterpillars were having babies, but once I educated them as to what those "babies" really were, they were super excited to write about caterpillar poop in their observation journals!

We've been noticing some some big changes in the last 24 hours. Here is what most of our little friends currently look like:

They've been hanging out at the top of their cups, looking for a spot to attach so they can begin to make their chrysalis.

Once they attach, they hang upside down in a "J shape." When I arrived at school this morning, my caterpillar and one of my girls' had assumed the position!

I checked on mine right before recess and it was still hanging out in that "J shape." But 25 minutes later when we came back in...

My caterpillar, Pookie, had made himself a chrysalis! 

I quickly pulled all my students over to my desk and showed them. I wish I could have captured the looks on their faces! Immediately followed by, "Why did he do it when we were gone?" 

Teacher confession: I told them that he chose to do it during recess because it was silent in the room. I said that the quieter they are, the quicker their caterpillars will change, because they need peace and quiet to be able to think. It's nearing the end of the year...I need all the help I can get, ok? 

I'm hopeful that we'll get to catch one in action in the next couple days, because I'd love for them to be able to see it happen. In case it doesn't, I found this great video on YouTube of a young boy narrating the life cycle of his caterpillars, which happen to be from the same company. I'll link the video below. My kids LOVED it yesterday, and even asked to watch it again today. I highly suggest showing it to students. After seeing it, they know exactly what to be on the lookout for!

Butterfly Life Cycle Video

Stay tuned for the next update!

Caterpillars in Kindergarten

If there's one thing I've learned in the last year or so in my school, it's that if you want something, you have to make it known. The worst your principal can say is "no." In my case, the answer is normally yes.

I've learned that if you want something, you have to do these three things:

1. Do your research beforehand. Know what you want and have a plan for how you will use it.
2. If you're given what you asked for, USE it! My school has a very limited budget. If I were to get what I asked for and then not use it, I'd never get anything again. When administrators come into your room, they should be able to see the what you received in action. No one will want to purchase you something that you aren't actually going to utilize. That money would be better used toward something else.
3. Write thank you letters. Thank your principal for allowing the purchase of your materials. Include pictures of your kiddos using them and a snippet about what you and your kids learned.

Because I've followed those 3 steps in the past, my principal gladly said yes when I approached her about getting caterpillars for our classroom. We're getting ready to start a butterfly unit, and while reading books and watching videos are great, I really wanted to give my students a more authentic approach. The population that I teach don't typically get authentic experiences, so I really want to lean more in that direction from now on. I was able to persuade my school to purchase butterfly kits for all the K-1 classes, so we can all do this project together.

Today I introduced the caterpillars to my students. Each kid has their own caterpillar.

The little guys are living on our tables. My students can get some better observations throughout the day and take a little more ownership of the project if the caterpillars become part of our classroom, rather than just sitting on a shelf and me pulling them out once a day.

The stuff on the bottom of the cup is food. They'll eat the food and get bigger. Then they'll climb up to the lid, attach to the tissue paper, and spin their cocoon. Once they've been in the cocoons for a couple days, I'll transfer them into a netted pavilion, where they'll stay until they hatch. The butterflies can fly around in the pavilion for a couple days, and then we'll release them outside.

My students were so excited while we were getting the caterpillars into the cups this morning. We haven't officially started our unit yet, so the only thing they know about caterpillars is that they make cocoons and turn into butterflies. There was all kinds of great inquiry this morning, and the kids were asking some really great questions that we'll research next week.

The timeline for this project is about 3 or 4 weeks. It will overlap with some of our other units, but that's totally okay with me. I'm so thankful that we've been given this opportunity, and I'd love to get the chance to do this again in the future.

I'll keep you updated as the buggies grow and change!

Flexibility and Improvising

As teachers, we all know that things rarely go according to plan. In my personal life, I used to HATE to be flexible. However, my job forces me to. So in the last few years, I've learned to "go with the flow" both in my personal and professional life. I always have to think on my feet, change what I had planned, and come up with something on the fly.

Today was one of those days.

Since it's Earth Day, I had planned to get my kiddos outside and moving! We were going to do a Nature Walk outside, make observations about what we could see, hear, smell, and feel, and then pick up trash around the school. My students were super excited, and got their papers and clipboards ready. We put on jackets and headed out to the back door of the school...only to find out that it was sleeting! (We have no windows in our classroom, so I had no idea.) I took one look at their disappointed faces, and knew I had to improvise.

So I had all the kids sit down on the floor right by the door. We completed the "I See" part of the observation. Then we got ready for the "I Feel" part. I asked if they were ready...and then I opened the door. They got blasted in the face with cold wind and sleet! (Good thing we had jackets, huh?) We did the same thing for "I Hear" and "I Smell."

It certainly wasn't the picture-perfect Earth Day activity I had pictured.

But it ended up being a teachable moment (which are awesome, by the way!) When we got back to the classroom we sat down and talked about how sometimes things don't work out the way we planned, and "ya gotta do what ya gotta do" to make it work. We talked about other times plans have changed in our lives. It was good for me to be able to model flexibility for them, and for them to deal with their disappointment in appropriate ways.

**I DID promise that we'd do this activity again when the weather isn't nasty!

Rain Experiment

I mentioned that the week before Spring Break was Weather Week in kindergarten. I wanted to stop by and share a really cool demonstration I did to show my kiddos how rain works.

I found this demonstration idea on Pinterest. (What did we ever do without it?!)

You will need: A clear plastic cup filled 3/4 with water, shaving cream, and blue food coloring

I had all my students gather around my table for this demonstration. We'd already spent a few days learning about clouds, so we were ready to learn! I made a "cloud" on top of my water with shaving cream.

My kiddos knew that clouds were made of dust and water, but we talked about how even MORE water collects into clouds. I then started putting drops of blue food coloring in the cloud. We talked about how a cloud needs a LOT of water inside before it will rain. So we used a LOT of food coloring. After the food coloring became too heavy, the shaving cream broke open and the "rain" came down from the "cloud."

The looks on their faces when the rain came down was priceless! It was so much fun that we did the whole thing one more time. This time I had the kids explain what was happening during each step. And you can bet your bottom dollar that when we were finished, every single one of my students was able to tell you that rain occurs when water collects in a cloud until it gets too heavy. Then the cloud breaks open and rain comes out. For kindergarten, that's a pretty darn good understanding! 

Super simple, cheap, low-prep, but FULL of excitement and learning. When we were cleaning up, one of my students said, "Well...that was a fun activity!"

Cloud Study

I wanted to stop by quick to talk about a quick, cheap, and fun activity we did last week to learn about the different types of clouds! We learned about cirrus (thin, feathery clouds), stratus (a layer of clouds), and cumulus (white, puffy clouds). We read an article about the cloud types, looked at pictures, and watched a video. But I wanted to do something that would really help us remember them.

So I mixed together some shaving cream and glue to make Puffy Cloud Paint!

We did one cloud type at a time and were careful to make them just like they were supposed to look based on the type of cloud we were making.

 And here's how they turned out! Since I'd mixed glue with the shaving cream, it dried nice and puffy. They're really neat! At the end of this project, all 20 of my kiddos could tell you the 3 different types of clouds and what they look like.

The best part was when we went outside for recess and I had a bunch of students shouting, "Look at the sky! Cirrus clouds! They're thin and see-through. That means it's going to be nice weather!"

Hands-on learning is the best!

St. Patrick's Day Shenanigans

I know it's Easter and everything, but I figure it's not too late to post about St. Patrick's Day, right?

We spent the week learning about Ireland and Leprechauns. We learned that Leprechauns are sneaky little creatures to like to play tricks on people. My students were paranoid all week that a Leprechaun was going to come into our classroom...so on Thursday night, I stayed a little late and had some fun!

I started by putting everyone on red. No one EVER gets on red this year, so I knew it would be a big deal!

 I turned all their chairs upside down and threw crayons all over the tables.

 Made some leprechaun footprints all over their tables and sprinkled some glitter all around. (It's important to note I have a good rapport with the custodial staff. I normally keep my room spic and span, so I can get away with throwing glitter all over the room every ONCE in awhile!)

 I moved our sticker charts all around.

I hung our beloved Pete the Cat upside down on the word wall. This is what outraged my kiddos the most! ("How DARE that leprechaun touch Pete the Cat! Who does he think he is?!)

Lastly, I left them a little note from the "leprechaun" on the board. I made sure to use my left hand, so they wouldn't recognize my handwriting!

It was so funny watching their faces as they came into the room the next day. They were so offended that a leprechaun would come into our classroom and mess with our things. They couldn't believe that he'd left a room-full of mess for THEM to clean up! It's all they could talk about all day! I even had them write about it during Writer's Workshop: What happened when the leprechaun came into our classroom, and how did you feel about it? The responses were fabulous!

If you have any suggestions for something I can add to the leprechaun's shenanigans for next year, leave a comment below!

sick day.

I HATE staying home sick. I don't know about any other teachers out there, but I have a hard time giving up control for a day. 

 I've been a sub before.

And I know it can go one of two ways.

1. The plans can be terrible and the kids can rule the room while you're gone.

or...

2. You can bust your butt leaving incredibly detailed plans so that things can be as consistent as possible.

I choose #2.

Always.

I knew yesterday that there was a strong possibility that I would be staying home today. So I sat down at 3:00pm to write plans. I wasn't done until 4:40. I made sure my plans were written to a tee so that anyone would be able to walk into my room and function for a day. Yes it took over an hour and a half. And I felt like poo while I was working on them. But my sub knows exactly where to go in the room to find things and what to do and say to get things done efficiently. (Side note: in order for a sub to have a smooth day, you must also have strict rules and procedures set in place. This is the first full day of school I've missed this year, but I've made sure that my students know what's expected of them. And I'm confident that those expectations will carry over to when I'm gone as well.)

I like to check my email periodically throughout the day if I'm sick to make sure nothing crazy is going on. I got an email from a member of administration this morning telling me that he looked over my plans and was impressed with how organized and detailed they were. He said he was confident a sub would have no problem implementing them. Which is good, because that's what I was going for.

I was also happy when I logged onto Facebook and found this little gem:

I miss them too.

And I'm really hoping I can get back to them tomorrow. 

Because I've officially watched 4 and a half hours of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" today.

And the marathon continues until 7pm.

Eeek.

**If anyone would like a copy of my sub plans, email me and let me know!  lmiller@xaviersoe.org

Dinosaur Week

This was the most fun week! This is the first year I've ever taught about dinosaurs and we had so much fun!

Monday was our intro to dinosaurs. We talked about what we knew (which was mostly from watching Jurassic Park.) Then we talked about the fact that they are all extinct. One smarty asked, "If they're all dead, then how do we know anything about them? So I was able to bust out this cool visual for them. I found this awesome T-Rex at Walmart for $5! We talked about how the dinosaurs died, and then all that was left was the bones. And that scientists can study those bones to find out things about them. The reaction while I peeled the skin off this guy was priceless. A mix between horror and fascination. Then the same smarty asked, "What happened to the skin? Where did it go?" I was not about to explain decomposition to 5 year olds (I don't want to terrify them about what happens to things when they die!) So I just said, "Well, it just kind of goes away after awhile." They seemed to think that was an acceptable answer.

Tuesday we learned all about carnivores and herbivores. We put food in each dino's belly based on what kind of dinosaur he was. We did some research and learned that carnivores had sharp teeth and walked on two legs. Herbivores had flat teeth and walked on all four legs. So the rest of the day, each time the kiddos saw a dinosaur, they were analyzing it to see whether it was a carnivore or an herbivore! So fun!

Then we did some writing based on our research!

Wednesday was for learning about paleontologists. We learned about the different tools these scientists use to help dig up bones and study them. One tool we learned about was a magnifying glass. So we got to be student-paleontologists and use magnifying glasses to get an up-close look at our dinosaurs! (This was a hit!)

Thursday was all about the T-Rex. Throughout the week, he was clearly the class favorite, so we did some in-depth learning about them.


Friday was time to wrap it all up. We reviewed what fossils are and then we got to make our own! I got this tub of Crayola Air-Dry Clay. I gave each student a scoop of clay and they got to push their dinosaur into it. We're letting them dry over the weekend, and then each student will have their very own fossil to take home! They loved this!

We also examined a life-size dinosaur footprint. We estimated how many of our feet it would take to equal a dinosaur foot. Then we experimented by putting our shoes in it. It took 33 of our shoes!

 They wanted to take a "foot picture," so I obliged. Now I'm looking at it and realizing how many of them are wearing mismatched socks haha!

We ended our dino week with writing. I asked students to write as many facts about dinosaurs as they could.

"Dinosaurs are dead. Carnivores eat any kind of meat. Herbivores eat plants. All kind of dinosaurs lays eggs. Carnivore eats turkey. Herbivore eats flowers."

The major take-away this week is that they're dead. But I'm about to teach you something new:

To be a dinosaur, you have to:

-Lay eggs

-Walk on toes

- Have an s-curved neck

- Have skin or feathers (no fur)

So we learned that chickens are modern-day dinosaurs. The freaked out about this!

And that concludes Dino Week 2015. 

(Congrats if you made it to the end of this long post!)

xoxo, Mrs. Miller