Long overdue...

March was a BUSY month!  Between Dr. Seuss and then St. Patrick's Day then Spring Break.  Finally got some items from the class SeeSaw so I could share their amazing  projects. Thanks to First Grade Blue Skies we learned how to draw a leprechaun and even gave them voices for a message to everyone.

 The March family project was to decorate a rainbow or create a leprechaun trap.  Here is a video with each of us showing your our project.

I love hearing the children explain their projects and all the family fun is a BONUS!!
St. Patrick's Day was our last day before Spring Break and what better way to celebrate than with a green taste testing party. 

Thank You SAC

Our SAC Committee sent 1 teacher per grade level to #MiamiDevice and it was so worth it!  Read about our trip here  We made a presentation to SAC with the help of some friends.  I am pretty sure they were impressed.  The Thank you sign above was signed by each student in the class of the teachers that attended #MiamiDevice  I don't know about you WOW that is a massive list of kids!

Collin is sharing his President's Day project.  Wait did you see his project?  

Mrs. Lenois is  one of the SAC chair and what a job that is! Thanks for leading our staff, school, and parents with the decisions that influence our daily schedules.

Emma is sharing her SeeSaw feed.  Check out here 100 year old ChatterKid project. 

Joshua is sharing his SeeSaw Journal as teachers and parents get to view his projects.

Ms. Clutter is sharing her take aways from MiamiDevice.  She loves the relationships she made and even presented with another teacher during a recent Early Release Day an app she learned with kid samples!

Thank you Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Lenois for taking on all the responsibilities of running CCE SAC.  Thank you for a place to seek funds to enhance our professional development so we can share and collaborate for our students and school.

Mrs. Stevenson our Teacher of the Year

Our Queen the super Fabulous Mrs. Stevenson is Cypress Creek Elementary's Teacher of the Year.  Our entire school celebrated with our Queen of Ceremonies while she dressed as the Man in the Yellow Hat with Curious George.  Each year our school takes part in the annual Character Parade.  Each year we also celebrate our school Teacher of the Year with their very own special theme filled day.  Just so happens we celebrated Mrs. Stevenson with the Character Parade a little earlier than usual.  Everyone dressed as storybook characters and carried books.  Really doesn't that just make you smile-everyone celebrating books! 

 

Our 1st grade LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Junie B. so we each took a different Junie B. to be and aren't we the cutest bunch you ever did see!

Our basket was movie theme and we hope you enjoy your treats and movie gift card.  Each first grader signed the back of the extra large movie ticket. Fun times!

Our administrators really outdid themselves with a Chick-fil-A and fruit after school party to send Mrs. Stevenson home on to enjoy her day.

Nine years ago I sat on the cadre to open Cypress Creek Elementary to the world.  She constantly amazes me with her talents to see every child int he school, make reading fun, and incorporate the standards K-5.  Our Media Center is a place filled with laughter and talk of the late and greatest books to read or websites to check out.  Reading Counts is buzzing because of her school-wide incentives.  Mrs. Stevenson is a team player and continues to learn from others, share, and collaborate with teaches to better their craft.  She is a motivator and inspires me personally to be a better school-wide teacher.  Thank you Mitzi and congratulations on your achievement.  You deserve it and so much more.  I am in awe of you and try to let you know just how much I appreciate you!

100th day

Every year we count the days in school and keep track.  I will have to admit this year I was not the best at making sure those dots filled the ten frames.  We count them to practice using a ten frame and looking at different combinations within numbers.  We celebrate the 50th day as a first benchmark and then the 100th day is the BIG day.  We dress as if we are 100 years old which fits in with our social studies learning about then and now.

 Each one of us in 1st grade has a center idea using 100 and it is always a highlight for each 1st grader to rotate into each classroom.  Fun times.  The best is the aging booth app on the iPhone where you can age them 100 years.  Make sure to check out the video because it is always a highlight and a good laugh to see all the fun. 

I hope it is a memorable day for the kids because by the end of the day I am pretty sure I really feel like a 100 year old.

*UPDATE:  We sent home some sentence starters for the firsties to finish and I wanted to share a few of my favorites.  Nicholas "My mom tells me 100 times to be best friends with my brother. Ariyah dad tells her 100 times that he loves her and she tells him 100 times she wants him to stay at home.  Logan W.'s dad tells him 100 times to behave.  Logan S. says his teacher tells him 100 times Good Job! (guess he hears that a lot from me).  Ellia tells her dad 100 times she wants a new dog and her teacher tells her 100 times to not shout out loud.  Lauren wrote her teacher tells her 100 times to write her name.  Sydney tells her teacher 100 times she wants to read and her teacher tells her 100 times to learn.  Emma wrote her teacher tells her 100 times to Chicka Chicka and she tells her teacher 100 times to Boom Boom.  Collin tells his mom 100 times that he wants a snack-growing boy. :)  Kaleb's mom tells him 100 times to get dressed.  And the all time fav-Keylee tells her teacher 100 times she wants to do a Go Noodle!  You have got to love kids and the things they say are just the best.  I love teaching these firsties!

SeeSaw and a directed drawing of a pirate...

We worked with the ar pattern and of course I dressed as a pirate and got some funny looks from the firsties.  Surprisingly enough they came up with quite a few ar words.  Then I thought let's get the iPads out and I could lead a directed drawing using the Draw and Tell app.  Ok these are the cutest pirates you ever did see and then we app smashed with ChatterKid to use our best pirate voices while reading sentences we created.







Ms. Clutter and I are using SeeSaw app to collect work from the firsties to share.  They can share with one another so we had to teach how to comment.  Once we were pretty good we shared with our parents so they could see the amazing work we are creating on the iPad.  Our next steps are to blog through SeeSaw and share with other 1st grade classes. So exciting to connect with others around the world and share our learning.

Periscope our #numbertalks

AFT's Thinking Math Common Core K-2 course changed my teaching and still impacts me today.  I have seen first graders explain their math thinking and convince me of a more efficient way to see simple math and they can still make me say WOW~I have been teaching for 23 years.  Each day we work through 5 mental math problems.  We look for patterns, connect to previous learning, and pose alternate strategies to showcase there is more than one way to solve math problems.  It truly is a highlight of my day.  When I first heard about Periscope I thought that is how I can showcase my class and impact learning for teachers and students across the globe.  So I took the plunge and here is our 1st Periscope.

I love these mathematicians!  They are using known facts, related facts, compensation, doubles, counting on, and making ten to name a few.  You don't get to see and hear all that in a worksheet!  If you are into Periscope make sure to follow @teachjwright @wrightsrippers @malloryclutter or #numbertalks  I plan on more Periscopes and set up https://katch.me/teachjwright today so you can watch them outside the 24 hour time. I hope you can use them to watch for strategies.  Maybe watch as I record their thinking or practice your own recording skills. Maybe use with your team to set a goal to try out #numbertalks.  Maybe show your class so they can hear how they can too talk through their thinking.  We are all in this together and I am so thankful for Amy Spies, Becky Pittard, Heather Williams, Diane LeJeune, Stephanie Hajdin, Cassy Jurgensen, Liz Lily, Christina Rajcoor, Mallory Clutter, Karen Lassiter, Kym Whitehurst, and the math mom for us all, Alice Gill for helping me realize my potential in sharing math.  Thank you to AFT-Alice Gill, VTO-Andrew Spar & Primrose Cameron Hall, and the Teaching Channel for helping me to really learn math and sharing it with the world.  More to come so watch for us...

Reflections on the last day of 2015...

The last day of 2015... there was so much to be #thankful for this past year.  I have a Top 10 list:

10.  #miamidevice was amazing and this time I had 7 other friends learning right along side me.  I can't wait for all of us to share and take 2016 to new levels remember #youmatter and our very own #ottersmatter My BFF at school was a part of this group and we are working along with our team to share and collaborate, even more to come in 2016...

9.  Finally made the trip to Georgia to see Aunt Alice and Uncle Gene.  They were our neighbors when I was a baby in Taiwan and helped my parents with everything and anything for a young couple.  They were there when I took my 1st steps and took me to the deep end of the pool.  They are my family.  Uncle Gene broke his leg last year so I didn't get to visit.  Aunt Alice needed back surgery so we didn't visit this summer.  It was almost 3 years since our last visit so with our Christmas break we took a few days to make the trip to Georgia.  I am so thankful I got to see them, hug them, and listen to stories about my life.  They are 83 and I don't know hoe many more years I will get to see them but I made sure to tell them how much I love them!  

8.  Twitter yes Twitter.  Anyone that knows me knows I work-A LOT and on Twitter I have found my people!  I read the best blog posts, gather the best ideas to use in my classroom, and have the best PLN to grow as a global teacher.  I am connected to teachers all over the world and share the message-use Twitter.  Still working on furthering that message. 

7.  Volusia County Schools where my daughter started Spruce Creek High School and our son is enrolled in 7th grade at Creekside Middle.  Kaile ran Cross Country and I cheered as she practiced day after day to see that mile time come down and her 1 mile PR is lower than mine.  Guess I will be working on that time in 2016.  Carson played the saxophone and right before Christmas took on the bassoon.  I am thankful for a school system that offers extra curricular activities to enhance education.

6.  Apple yes, tech Apple because I use it daily in so many ways.  YIPPEE I got an Apple watch and it is a game changer people, trust me ask and I will let you know why-I am sold!  Apple also offers schools a discount when you buy in packs of 10 and thankfully we have had grants and Parents Night Out to grow our iPad program at school.  We are changing education for students throughout Cypress Creek Elementary.

5.  Disney World-what?!? We bought annual passes last Christmas to share with our kids.  See Kaile is 14 and pretty soon she will be driving and not hanging out with us:( We went to all the Disney parks and made a total of 25 trips.  25 times I couldn't wipe the smile off my face, hug my kids a little tighter and see pure enjoyment on some faces during our trips.  We rented a camper for Spring Break and even stayed at the Boardwalk-thanks Uncle Randy.  It truly was a gift to our family that kept on giving all year long. I took more pictures than you could imagine and I will have them forever. :)

4.  Crossfit Diehard where I push myself everyday to be better than the day before.  I finally learned to do rope climbs with confidence and overcome my fear.  I can record my progress and see the results.  I choose to eat healthier, get to workout with Tim at least 3 times a week, and together talk to our kids about a healthier lifestyle.

3.  My firstie class because they keep me on my toes.  I celebrated my 23 years on December 17 and I can honestly say I enjoy going to work every day to interact with the future.  I have a class of 18 amazing kids that make me smile, challenge me to create interactive lessons, and show that I make a difference in their thinking, reading, writing and ways to see math in the real world. I just love them!

2.  My parents and Sunday night dinner.  My dad and I try to outdo one another each Sunday with a dessert war comparable to Top Chef.  It fills my heart with joy to have our children laughing and talking with the whole family over dinner.  Sunday might be the best day of the week.

1. My family because without Tim, Kaile, and Carson where would I be? Truly I am blessed beyond words to share this life with this crew. Love them more than I could ever tell them. We are thankful God has blessed us with one another.

Well that is really just the tip of the iceberg and I could go on an on but I am hoping you get a sampling of the things I find making me a better person and I can't wait for 2016 and what is in store for me.