1st Grade Lima Bean Time Lapse

During 2nd quarter, 1st graders have been learning about plants and their needs. As a part of this, the students all planted their own Lime Bean seeds.  They made observations about their growing plants throughout the last few weeks all while having one plant being recorded on the iPad using the free version of the app LapseIt. 

Next, students summarized what they learned about the needs of plants and we recorded them reading sections aloud about what they learned in front of a green screen.

The final product was put together using iMovie and then shared with the students and their families. 

1st Graders Lima Bean Time Lapse Video

High School Anatomy....in 4D!

The High School Anatomy class has been learning about the heart recently and in preparation for their exam, they used the iPad app Anatomy 4D by Daqri, which is an Augmented Reality app which generates at 4D rendition of the human heart.  Within this app, you can also select and de-select different parts of the heart to show, turn the blood flow off and on, and listen to the cardiac cycle while watching the heart as it pumps.

This 1 minute YouTube video gives you an idea of how the students were using the app. 

Following some time to explore within the app, students were given the task of taking screen shots of the heart from multiple angles in order to show all parts of the heart.  Then, students used the app Skitch to label the different parts of the heart. The students used their screenshots of the labeled heart in a Google Slides Presentation.  They uploaded their screenshots into Google Slides and also described the location of the various parts and their function. 

Here are examples of their completed Google Slides: 

Heart Part Slides         Heart ID Activity

Using the App! 

The Anatomy 4D app also has a human body element where students can examine the different systems within the body such as Circulatory, Skeletal, Muscular, Nervous, etc.  We are looking forward to exploring that when they get to it in class! 

Kindergarten Students Create Digital Animal A-Z Book

The last two weeks, Mrs. Snitker's Kindergarten students have been working to create a digital A-Z book All About Animals.  The students have learned about all the letters of the alphabet and were able to pick one or two letters and color an animal on the iPad using the app iLuv Drawing: Animals. Then, each student colored their letter of the Alphabet and we used the Green Screen app by DoInk to film them telling us what letter and animal they created. 

Mrs. Snitker's Animal A-Z Video

6th Graders Create Music Videos using Video Star App

Mrs. Vagts 6th Grade music classes at Postville have been working hard to create their own music videos to demonstrate their understanding of the mood and theme of popular songs they chose in small groups. They used the lyrics as well as the rhythm and beat of the song to create a music video that illustrates their understanding of the song. The music videos were created using the iPad app Video Star.

Students working on filming their music videos.

Each team worked as cast and crew of their own video.

6th Grade Music Videos

2nd Grade Habitat Videos

2nd Graders in Mrs. Spain, Mrs. Lage, and Ms. Cioccio's classes have been studying about different types of habitats and what plants and animals live in each habitat. As a demonstration of their knowledge, the students worked at home to create their own model of one type of habitat or ecosystem that includes plants and animals that live in that habitat. Each student wrote a short script they read aloud about what habitat they created and the living things within that habitat.  We used the iPads and the app Green Screen by DoInk to put each student "into" their own habitat as they described it.  Each student's video was added to their class movie using iMovie. Each classes video is below.

Ms. Cioccio's Class Habitat Video

Mrs. Lage's Class Habitat Video

Mrs. Spain's Class Habitat Video

Common Sense Media- Digital Citizenship

Today I attended a workshop for teachers so I could learn more about using Common Sense Media to give students opportunities to learn about becoming positive digital citizens.  We have been using resources from Common Sense Media all year in 5th and 6th grade, but after this training at Keystone AEA today we have many more resources to be able to expand this into lower grades and upper grades.  We would also like to share the information with families and parents so they can support their children outside the walls of the school building.  Common Sense Media has some amazing resources to share with Students, Teachers, and Families!

Common Sense Media Parent Resources

Figurative Language in Music Created by 5th Graders

5th Graders worked very hard 3rd Quarter creating some videos to show what they know about Figurative Language.  Go check out our 5th Grader's website to see what they created!
Also, I included the planning sheet they used as well as the grading rubric for the projects!

5th Grader Blog Post about Figurative Language Videos

Level 1 Google Certified Educator

I have been talking about doing this for more than a year, so finally over winter break this year I got around to doing it.  I set this goal for myself and just kept pushing it off now for months, but now it's complete and it feels great!
I took went through the thirteen online training modules to become a Level 1 Google Certified Educator.  It really was a great experience.  Many of the things they went over I was already familiar with, but I learned more than I expected to from the process. I considered myself pretty Google-savvy, but my eyes were opened to even more that Google can do.  I highly recommend the course to anyone looking to implement more free and useful tools into their classroom instruction!  You can sign up for the course here: Google Educator Training Courses Once your training is completed there is a $10 fee to take the final exam.  It takes quite awhile to finish but you get your results almost immediately followed by an email with your certificate and badge.

Now my next goal is to tackle Level 2 in the near future!

ScribbleMaps in 5th Grade

ScribbleMaps

5th Grade Tech and Social Studies Project

The thing I like most about my job as a Technology teacher is doing cross-curricular projects.  I haven't gotten to much of these types of projects yet this year because we have spent a lot of time in both 5th and 6th grade talking about Digital Citizenship and for 5th grade especially, learning the ins and outs of their laptops.  This is the first year that 5th grade is 1:1 with their own MacBook Airs here at Postville and after we got the basics down we have been able to move into really using our computers to learn, as opposed to learning to use our computers.

For the first cross-curricular project in 5th grade this year, I connected with our 5th/6th grade Social Studies teacher to see what they were learning in 1st quarter and to figure out a way that I could take that topic and extend their learning in a techie/fun/creative project.  As it turns out, they were learning about Native American regions in the United States.  I thought this would be a great way to get some map and geography skills in as well as becoming experts on a particular Native American region from North America.

After doing some research online about different websites and apps we could use, I discovered ScribbleMaps.  It is a free tool (paid upgrade is available, but we didn't need it!).  I chose this because it allowed us to add text, pictures, and videos right to the map.  Here is the EXAMPLE that I created to show them.

Here are a few pictures of the kids working on their ScribbleMaps.

Before we started working on the maps, I created a folder in Google Classroom so they could all have access to the same documents to take collaborative notes.  In my classroom I have a range of student abilities from TAG students to Level 1 and 2 ESL students so the collaborative notes were very helpful to the students that needed some extra support. It really helped the ones that have a hard time finding information that is relevant in their online searches.

I am very excited to see their end results.  They will be turning them in tomorrow and I will have them each post it on their 5th Grade Blog.  Be sure to check back and see how they turned out.  They would love some comments and feedback as well.  I always comment on them, but it seems to mean so much more when it comes from someone else. 

Full STEAM Ahead! with 5th and 6th Graders!

On Friday this past week, I took an amazing group of 5th and 6th graders to Keystone AEA's Full STEAM Ahead workshop.  I could not have enjoyed the day with these students more!  They were so engaged in the learning in each of their sessions, it was so great to watch them try new things and meet new people all day!

Getting six 5th/6th graders to all look for a picture
at one time is like trying to herd cats! 

The students participated in four unique sessions during the day.  They were split up into different groups so not only were they trying things they have never done before, they were working with people they have never met before!  I know when adults are put in that type of situation, there is usually some whining involved, but these students jumped right in and I didn't hear any complaining.  They had some great conversations with other students from schools in our area.

One session was an engineering based experience.  The students were given the task of building the tallest tower they could out of only straws and masking tape.  The challenging part of this task was their tower had to support a tennis ball as well.  There were so many unique and innovative designs out there!  It was interesting listening to them discuss and problem solve their design! 

Beginning of Tower Challenge!

Another session explored the science behind sound.  Students discussed what they knew about sound and how it was made and represented visually.  Then, the fun began.  They were given the opportunity to make their own instruments.  First, they made a wind instrument out of straw.  By changing the amount and placement of the holes in their straws they discussed the change in pitch and volume of their creation.  They also were able to use a peg board and different weights of fishing line to make a string instrument.  They experimented with the tension on the lines, the different weights, and the length of the strings. 

My favorite session of the day was when the students were asked to create their own Weather Report using a DoInk Green Screen app on the iPad.  The students were asked to work in groups with new people and they were able to create some pretty awesome weather forecasting videos.  I have some 6th graders that already have plans to use this app to create their Ancient Egypt project and I can't wait to see how it turns out! 

The last session was a favorite of almost all the students! I knew they would enjoy it and I can't wait until next quarter when we really start to get into our programming and coding lessons so we can bring these awesome resources to our school for all the 5th/6th graders!  Using the Tickle App the students were able to do some programming within the animations of the app on the iPad, and of course, their favorite part, using their programming to control the various robots they had access to.  It was a fun session for the kids, and it was entertaining for me walking around during it because you always had to be alert or you could run into by many different types of robots as they cruised around the room and hallways.  This was perfect for the 6th grade students because it was a continuation of what they had worked on with the Hour of Code and www.code.org last year.  It was also a great introduction for the 5th graders as we will be starting those things soon with them.

It was a great day for the students and for me as well.  I want to thank the Keystone AEA for all the work they put into making a great day for so many students and teachers!  Here is a video I made to share with the teachers and students back at Postville to share what amazing things these students were able to do and will sharing with everyone soon.  We have already been planning the STEAM Night for our school and the students had some great ideas about what we could add to what has already been a successful event at our school the past few years.

Always Learning, Sharing Ideas, Can't Wait

I was lucky enough to be able to attend ITEC (Iowa Technology Education Connection) Conference for the second time.   Currently I'm in the middle of Day 2 of this amazing conference and as excited as I am to be here, I can't wait to get back to my Postville 5th and 6th graders to get them excited and going on all the new things I have learned.

  mrs.salinas.postville

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mrs.salinas.postville

At my most recent session, I finally got the push and time to set up a class Instagram account.  Follow us!

I have yet to use this as I am not at school to start adding the pictures, but I know that so many of my students are on Instagram, I can't wait for them to start following our feed so they can see themselves and their classmates doing great things! I also hope that I have some parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and family friends that will join in on the Instagram fun!

www.facebook.com/mrssalinaspostville

CC Non-Comercial

Since the beginning of the school year, I have had a class Facebook page set up as well.  It started out pretty small, but over the course of the year as I have added more and more photos of students hard at work on projects, describing projects students are working on, and even linking to student-created assignments to their finished products can be shown publicly, outside of our classroom walls! I have had lots of success with Facebook so far, I am hoping to improve it, and to continue it with Instagram as well.




I spent the very first session in ITEC learning more about Copyright and to be a better digital role model for students.  6th graders recently developed presentations about Copyright Law, Consequences, and Examples which they shared with our 5th grade students.  After my very first session of ITEC, I knew I had to go back and tell them more.  6th grade focused on music, videos and illegal downloads, but I now see how we also need to address images and even projects they are assigned to do for classes.

In another session I learned some new and great ways to get kids blogs to be more public and have yet another outlet for parents to connect to what their students are doing in the classroom.  I originally thought that Blogger was too much for my 5th/6th graders, but after being shown some great ways they can share posts to Blogger just through email, it's just one more way to break down our classroom walls and get students to see the importance of their work outside of school.

ITEC was a success for me this year, and I am only part-way through the 2nd day.  I can't wait to see what else I learn from this conference and come back to share this with my students.  The best part of that is, then they will be able to share what they can do with their parents, and other teachers at our school and other schools.

New Year, New Adventure!

We are partially through our week of teacher meetings and classroom preparations!  Even though I have been in and out of my classroom working on things all summer, now it seems like it is a mad rush to get finishing touches put on everything and work out all those last minute details.  Rooms are being decorated and arranged, schedules are worked out, and classrooms are almost ready for students to step into in less than a week!

One thing that always seems to take more time that I anticipate when it comes to getting my classroom ready for the year is putting together my bulletin boards.  I have a few tweaks to make still, but I am excited about the one I spent part of my day on today!

Here it is, with my daughter in the middle (she will be starting Kindergarten next week).

My role is a little different this year again, now I am solely the Technology Teacher for 5th and 6th grade.  I have handed over the writing portion to a new teacher to our district and I can't wait to see how she is able to really push them and advance them in their writing since she is able to focus strictly on writing.

It is going to be an excited and interesting year, as always!  I can't wait to see what is in store for this year with our newest group of students!

Genius Hour with a Twist of Humanity

Today was the day my 5th and 6th graders have been IMpatiently waiting for since we came back to school the first week in January.  We started our second semester Genius Hour projects.  Well, we didn't actually start the projects yet, but we did start some brainstorming.  Some of them tried to start their projects already and I really had to rein them back in to remind them that first they needed to make a solid plan, give their Proposal Presentation, then they could get to work on the actual project.

For this being the first year that I have ever done Genius Hour, I really am impressed with how well my students did with it.  We had a few kinks to work out on their end as well as mine, but I feel like we are more ready than ever to get things rolling again.  Some of my students were already asking me about when we were starting Genius Hour again the SAME DAY we gave our Final Presentations back in December.  They already had ideas rolling around for what they thought they wanted to do before the ink had even dried on their rubrics from the first one!  Now, I didn't give them much to go off of except I told them we would indeed be doing a Genius Hour project for the 2nd semester and that it would be "slightly" different this time.  I loved that the suspense was killing them all over winter break!

So, what surprises did I spring on them today?  First, I said they had the option of working in a group of 2-3 students for the project.  That was almost enough to put them over the edge with excitement on its own.

After they took a minute or two to exchange glances around the classroom and give each other "the look" that meant they wanted to work together on this project, I hit them with change number two.  This was the big one!  I told them all I still wanted to make sure they picked a project they were passionate about, something they were interested in and cared about, BUT it had to be Service Learning based.  From there I got a bunch of blank stares....

I did anticipate having to explain what service learning is to most of them, and I think by the time I had explained it and given a few examples, they really did understand what I was asking of them.  I think. We work on Genius Hour one day each week.  It is always the day (usually Wednesday) that we get out early which makes our class periods just under an hour long.  That in itself doesn't sound like too much, but when I do this with two sections of 6th grade and two sections of 5th grade, it gets to be a longer "short" day than a regular day is.  

My biggest take-away from our day today was the fact that after they understood, my students really did get right down to business and started making plans.  Here are some of the project ideas we have floating around in our classes right now:

• Volunteer at the animal shelter.
• Make bracelets with charms to sell to raise money for Autism (student has a cousin who is autistic).
• Make blankets to donate to the children's hospital.
• Create a video game to help students learn multiplication facts.
• Have a bake sale to raise money for Ebola research.
• Spend one class period a week going to read books with the preschoolers.
• Help teach the first graders how to code. (We use code.org)
• Create our school's own "Play it Again Sports" type store to share sporting equipment or gear.
• Plant trees and other landscaping around our campus.
• Go to play cards and games with residents at the nursing home.
• Volunteer to play games with a small group of kindergarten students once a week at the after school program.
• Be a "Lunch Buddy" with a child from the Day Care.

Over the course of the day it seemed like their ideas just kept getting bigger and better.  I can't wait to see what they have come up with by the time their decision needs to be made next week on Wednesday.  I will for sure be coming back with more posts about where our Genius Hour with a twist of Humanity takes us over the course of the next couple of months.  It's sure to be a great one!

Playing Catch-Up.... Presentations, Coding, an Award, and more to come!

Where to begin??  It's been over a month since I have wrote a blog post, but that doesn't mean I don't have many blog-worthy things going on, it just means that I have been too busy and/or too tired to take the time to sit down and write!  I started this blog partially because I wanted a way to document things I have done with my classes that went well so I could modify and improve them to use again in the future, but now that I have started this, I also want to use it as a way to showcase some of the AMAZING things my students have accomplished.

Most recently, that includes seven of my 5th and 6th graders that were brave enough (or too scared to say no since the principal was asking them the question) to present various projects to our Board of Education at a meeting this past week.  I was SO PROUD of them for being able to do it, as a 10-12 year old I'm not sure that is something that I could have done! Not only that, I was blown away by how well they did!  They are my rockstars! A few of them shared the Genius Hour Projects and some others shared some Stop Motion movies they had created.  I will link up some of the projects/presentations in a different post.

Another proud teacher moment for me recently was when my classes were participating in the "Hour of Code".  Not only did almost 110 5th and 6th grade students spend one hour learning to code on December 12th, 2014, but our school was awarded with a $4,000 grant from @IowaStem and @Google to purchase any instructional technology we need for our students!  During that day we have some guests in our classroom from the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa Department of Education STEM offices as well as both of our school principals, our curriculum director, and our superintendent.  It was a busy and exciting day to say the least!  I would have to say that the "Hour of Code" did it's job in getting students excited about coding too.  In my 6th grade classes we have started working in www.code.org and the students are really loving it.  (That's a whole other post which will hopefully come soon!)

Hour of Code: Coming Soon

This is my first year to give students a chance to participate in the Hour of Code.  I think it comes at a great time of the year, a time when it's hard to get students excited about most things school related because they all are focused on the fact that Winter Break is in sight!  When I explained to my classes that I was going to be gone from school one day a few weeks back, they all wanted to know why.  And of course, who my substitute was going to be, but that is an entirely new blog post.  Anyway, when I told them I was going to a training for code.org, they immediately wanted to know what that was all about and what it meant for them.  As I explained it the best I could and had them all sign up for their accounts so I would be able to fully participate in the training, I had no idea they would be as excited about it as they were. **

Generally, students get excited when their teacher is going to be gone for day, because let's face it, days where there is a substitute, significantly less work gets accomplished....depending on the sub.  However, this was more than that, they were already asking me when they were going to be able to "Code" and could they log in and use their accounts without me.  There aren't many things that kids want to do like this in school very often, so for me just mentioning this, I had a feeling this was going to be something that I was excited about doing as soon as possible!  Now that Hour of Code is coming next week, I am even more excited to see what they think of it.  All of my 5th and 6th graders will be participating in Hour of Code on Friday, December 12.

I love that code.org has tons of resources on their website to promote Hour of Code, like posters, videos, and banners, however, I feel like it's pretty unnecessary when it comes to getting my classes excited about coding.  They are PUMPED and I haven't even mentioned that we are going to be doing this on Friday yet because they have big presentations to give for their Genius Hour projects on Wednesday and I don't want them to lose focus on that.  I'll still show the intro videos and all of that, but just the idea that they are going to be able "Create" and be producers of content online is enough to hook them that I probably wouldn't even need to!  I think Friday will be one of the best teaching days I have had all year, and that's saying something because I have had some pretty great days with these students so far!

After Winter Break, we will spend some time each week following the full code.org curriculum as well, and I also have some plans to introduce some of them who really take off with it to Scratch as well.  

I have a feeling that I will have another blog post all ready to go next weekend after our code.org session next week with the Hour of Code!

**On a side note, the training that I attended was great.  It was lots of fun, we learned a lot and we had some time to go through some of the code.org curriculum ourselves.  I have to admit, it was hard for me to stop and focus on the trainer when he told us to stop working, which is something that I will have to keep in mind if I try to stop the kids from working to do something else. 

Genius Hour x100ish = Holy Guacamole!

I'm a year-round teacher.  Not that my school runs year-round*, we have summer break during June, July, and a bit of August like most schools around our area, however, even in the summer I am thinking about my classes for next year, what my plans are, hopes and dreams, all of that.

*We do have quite a good summer school program so if you count that we really do sort of run our school year-round.  I opted out of teaching summer school last year to spend some much needed time at home with my own two kids.

So, while I was supposedly enjoying my 2 months off of school with not a care in the world about my next school year <sarcasm is high>, I spent a lot of time doing my own professional development.  We all know that means Pinterest and Twitter  because let's be real, that's where all the best ideas come from.  My biggest take-away from my personal summertime PD was Genius Hour.  I came across it at some point and it peaked my interest, so I dug a little bit deeper and before I knew it I had dug my way to China finding out everything I could about Genius Hour and how to make it work in my classroom next year.  It sounded so AMAZING!  There are so many resources out there and great ideas that I couldn't wait to get my students on board with this idea.

Then I had to take a few steps back and remind myself it was only the beginning of July.  After I calmed myself down about it, I realized that this type of an idea might be something that I needed to run by my administration before I decided to take one day a week to let my students do whatever they wanted....Genius Hour Explanation....in case you are wondering what I am talking about.  I spent some time planning out how I would fit this in to my schedule, what Common Core Standards my students would be meeting throughout the project, and logistics of how this would work in my classroom. I presented this idea to my building principal and he told me to go for it.

I introduced the idea to my students in the first 2 weeks of school.  Their gears started turning about what they would do with an hour (technically about 50 minutes) each week if they could work on whatever they wanted, and before I knew it, we were 3/4 of the way through the first semester and finishing up projects and getting ready for final presentations!  In another post I will outline exactly how I have implemented Genius Hour and give all those great "teacher details" that took me the longest time to work out.  For now, I want to share a few ideas my students have been working on:

Tearing apart old computers and building a sculpture.
Building a remote control car (from a kit)
Making pottery
Creating a website
Making a YouTube Channel (a few are doing this with different focuses: baking, gaming, fashion)
Building a dock for their family's pond
Building PVC goal posts for football games at home (this turned into a model on the 3-D printer due to time, weather, and expense, but he still has hopes of getting them built before summer)
Making a video game
Building a model of the solar system
Building a model of a bridge out of toothpicks
And MANY more!

Building volcanoes out of clay which they will erupt with baking soda and vinegar.

Tearing apart an old computer to build a model farm.

Browsing Pinterest for Baking ideas.

Tearing apart a computer to make a sculpture of a person.

Working in the shop cutting boards for birdhouses.

The MANY part is where the title of this post came from.  In retrospect, I wish I would have started a little smaller and not had all 100+ of my students (5th and 6th grades) do this project.  It's a lot to keep track of and manage, but I do have to say, they are motivated and interested, and as much as they do not like the idea of giving a public presentation, the fact that they are presenting on something they are passionate about makes a big difference!

The Chicken Mummies (Yes, that is plural, we have 2 chicken Mummies) *Part 1*

Who doesn't love learning about Ancient Egypt?  It is one of those topics that is easy to get kids engaged in because they all know just enough about it to have some background, but there are so many unanswered questions that it is intriguing to everyone from age 9-99!  I will still stop channel surfing anytime I click by a documentary about something Egypt related.  Granted, I may have a little bit of a bias because I spent 6 months there back in 2006 doing my student teaching....it was a very safe place at that time, even though my grandma was very nervous the entire time I was there.

I feel lucky to be a part of the 5th/6th grade team of teachers that work together so well because when the Social Studies teacher said they were starting to learn about Ancient Cultures in class and one culture they would spend a significant amount of time on was Ancient Egypt, I shoved my way right into that unit of study as the writing and technology teacher.  I brought a TON of my photo albums and scrapbooks, I shared items that I brought back from my time in Egypt to share with the students, as well as lots of stories because they had even more questions about what it was like there.  Among other things, I had the students take a virtual field trip of a few main attractions of Egypt, like walking inside Khufu's pyramid at Giza (which I have actually done in real life, but sort of prefer the virtual way because it was a lot less dirty and there wasn't anyone hassling us for money "baksheesh" on the virtual trip) from NOVA's Explore Ancient Egypt website.  They are also in the process of writing a research paper about an Ancient Egyptian topic of their choice and making stop-motion movie depicting something relating to their research topic.  But, aside from all those other things, I think the thing they are most excited about is making their own mummy.  I have two sections of 6th grade that I see every day and both classes are in charge of making their own "Chicken Mummy".

Let me start this out by saying I am not totally crazy, however, I have had a raw chicken sitting in my classroom, not refrigerated...just sitting out on a cart,  for the better part of two weeks now.  And we take it out every couple of days to re-salt it.  No stinking so far, I know that was what you were thinking....I'm pretty sure that is the concern that my principal had too, but so far so good.   *I have done this one other time a few years ago with another teacher, but this is my first time going at it alone.

Here is how the process has gone so far:
Day 1:
Bring whole raw chicken to school.
Bring LOTS of containers of salt.
Bring 1/2 as many containers of baking soda as salt.
Bring 1 container of rubbing alcohol.
Also, we needed gallon sized ziplock bags, gloves, and lots of paper towels and Lysol Wipes.

Adding salt inside and under the skin.

More salting and kids taking pictures with their phones as we work.

1. Let chicken soak in rubbing alcohol for 1-3 hours.
2. Drain chicken juice and completely dry off chicken (inside and out).
3. Weigh chicken. (ours was 6lbs exactly)
4. Watch 1/2 the students gag while other 1/2 of students ask if they can touch it.
5. Cut a few slits into "meaty" parts of chicken.
6. Cover and fill with salt/baking soda mix.
7. Make sure to shove salt/baking soda mix inside slits and underneath skin. (more kids gagging)
8. Place chicken inside gallon size ziplock bag, then place that bag inside another bag.

Putting King Cluck into his baggie.

King Cluck is all bagged up and ready for his first night of a salt bath.

For the first week or so, we cleaned off all the wet, mushy salt/baking soda mix everyday and replaced it with more. (By we, I mean the students.  After the first day I have been pretty much "hands off" and it has become their mummy.)  Each class has voted and decided on a name for their mummy also.  My first period class named theirs "King Cluck" and my 2nd period class went with "Johnny McCluckerton".

Currently we are down to only re-salting the chicken 1-2 times per week.  It is a LOT less "juicy" now than it was the first week or two.  It is also starting to feel a lot lighter.  We haven't weighed it since the first day, so we will have to do that again soon too.  This is still very much a work in progress, but so far, so good.  aka: My classroom has yet to smell like you would expect 2 week old unrefrigerated raw chicken to smell.

We have plans in the works for the TAG kids to make a sarcophagus and some canoptic jars and we also have plans for where our mummy will be entombed once the ground thaws in the spring....

Voluntary Saturday School...?

...Sort of.

Today another teacher and I took 6 students to the Iowa Student Learning Institute in Waukee, IA.  Mind you, this is a Saturday.  It is also almost 4 hours away from our home.  We left Postville at 6am this morning.  These students not only volunteered, but were excited to get up and come to this learning opportunity.  Once we arrived, we listened to a couple great keynote speakers, whom I now follow on Twitter.

So very true, and so un-standardized test mentality!

Pretty sweet new shirts....gotta love these kids!

After we had a quick lunch provided by Waukee High School, we spent our afternoon in smaller breakout sessions.  The first one I attended with two of our students was very interesting.  A school in Iowa presented about how they (the students) are in charge of monitoring, troubleshooting, and instructing students and teachers in their school for most computer or tech related issues.  The students are in charge of allowing downloads and monitoring usage of other students.  They spend a significant amount of time working on this and it is worth one credit toward their graduation requirements.  It's a great idea and I love the way the students take ownership of the organization.

All in all, it was a great day spent with some great students.  We had some great conversations, most of which were school and tech related.  There were a lot of selfies being taken throughout the day too.

The first of many Selfies for the day!  

I also had a chance to have some time for collaboration with my tech teacher counterpart.  We never get a chance to work together and talk about what we are planning and teaching so being stuck in a car together for 6+ hours in one day was a good thing.

Starbucks Coffee Selfies!

And Starbucks, we live an hour and a half from the nearest Starbucks.  The conversation about stopping at Starbucks started at about 7:00am and didn't actually happen until about 12 hours later, but it was great anyway.  I know what you are thinking, and yes, we did in fact let teenagers get coffee at 7:00pm, then after another hour and a half drive back home, sent them back to their parents....caffeinated.  You Are Welcome Parents!  Consider this payback for all the times I have been given students that had candy and Hot Cheetos for breakfast.  Karma...am I right?

Now is as good a time as any...

I have been thinking about starting a blog for the past couple of years.  I don't know why it has taken me this long to actually do it.  It only took me about three minutes to get to this point of writing my first ever blog post (aside from the class blog that my 5th/6th graders and I do each week about Genius Hour).  I also don't know why I decided that today was the day I would start, but I guess, now is as good a time as any right?

Maybe it's because I am feeling a little overwhelmed at this point in the school year.  We have a lot of things going on in Writing and Technology classes each week, hopefully lots of good, meaningful learning experience so all this stress and going in all different directions is worth it! I really do hope that statement is true...if I am burning the candle at both ends and spending my days running around helping kids with a million different projects, looking at my disaster of a classroom at the end of each day, and spending my nights writing lesson plans and grading writing projects, I hope it will at least be for the benefit and betterment of my students and their learning.