Building Culture For All

This week I stumbled across an article from Castlegar News. It told the story of Emily Kandborg and her journey as she became a teacher of teaching English as a second language. The first quote from her spoke to me immediately. She said,

“Learning and teaching culture is my passion, and while my students are here learning English and what becoming Canadian is about, I get the opportunity to learn everything about them as well. Being able to give them the language tools to express themselves and share their culture is the most gratifying thing.”

As an inclusion teacher for my grade level, something resonated with me about the ability to teach and learn culture. Often times when you think of teaching students who are learning English as a second language you think of the work that needs to be done. The speaking, listening, reading, and writing tasks that need to be taught and learned. You get lost in the "to-do" and can forget that the culture is the core of who we are. There is no place for it on a lesson plan  - maybe there should be. Students come into our classrooms where the culture is very different and the way that we interact can even be different. As a small child I am sure this can be overwhelming and even scary.

Emily made another comment in the article about how resilient her students were despite everything they had been through. I think about that all the time when I look at my students. It amazes me how small children can come to school with all of this “stuff” weighing on them and manage to sit quietly, follow directions, and do as they are asked. Most of the time all while exceeding my expectations.

I have taken time to build culture within out classroom, but this makes me stop and reflect. Have I taken the time to let in my students culture? Have I made time to tell them how proud I am for how hard they work?

Each year is an opportunity to be a better version of yourself. Looking forward to all that the new school year will bring!  

Service, W. (2017, June 08). Selkirk College TESOL program brings international experience home. Retrieved June 09, 2017, from http://www.castlegarnews.com/community/selkirk-college-tesol-program-brings-international-experience-home/

Overwhelmed

I began my Bachelor’s degree at the University of Central Florida and began taking TESOL classes as a part of my elementary education program. I quickly fell in love with these classes and knew that I had a passion for working with students who speak English as a second language. I began my career teaching first grade in a rural school district with a large migrant population. All of my classes from UCF had paid off and I was able to use everything that I learned with my students.

As I am going into my 6^th year of teaching I am excited to continue to work as an inclusion classroom for our ESL students. The journey I go through with my students is different for each of them as they bring different experiences with them. One thing I try to foster in my classroom is a sense of community. While we all are different, on the inside we are very similar. We all want to be heard, included, and loved. I feel that this environment has helped my quietest of students find their voice in our classroom.

I am currently enrolled in a graduate course called Computer Assisted Language Learners. We are using Google Alerts https://www.google.com/alerts to tag items related to TESOL and Technology. Each week we will reflect on our readings with a blog post about the article and what we have learned. I was nervous to get started because I only had one Google Alert! When I went to my email to read what had been sent I was delightfully surprised.

KJ Kaiser is a professor at Webster University and recently spoke in Uruguay at the LATU Education and Technology. While the article I found was short it led me to look more into KJ Kaiser and his role in TESOL. The LATU website was exciting and very eye opening and had wonderful resources. I decided to Google KJ Kaiser so I could learn more about his work. I found his blog and several videos including the most recent one of him speaking in Uruguay. Then something happened…

Article: http://news.webster.edu/global/2017/kaiser-speaker-plan-ceibal-latu-uruguay.html

LATU: http://foro.ceibal.edu.uy/index.php/homepages/english/

I started watching the video and realized that it was not in English. I quickly tried to see if a translation was available for me to read and there was nothing. I tried watching some of it to see if maybe parts of it were in English and none of it was. Sitting along hearing a group of others talk in another language and wishing I understood was an overwhelming feeling. Not one I was expecting to feel as I began my research. My mind quickly went to a former student of mine. It made me wonder how he sat in my classroom day after day doing his very best to absorb this new world around him all while smiling and giving each day his best. I felt guilty, privileged, and a little ashamed. I do not think I completely understood how overwhelming it all can be. While searching about KJ Kaiser I did learn some great strategies for the classroom, but what stood out to me most was thinking about that student.

Data Data Data

Hey Teacher Friends,

I have started something new this year that I have been wanting to share and just have not had the chance.

I am beyond excited about this new way of keeping student data all in one place. Just to show you how excited I am about it... I created this video with a few extra special helpers!

The whole point of this is to show you how you can use your iPad and a few great apps to keep all of your student data on your iPad instead of carrying mountains of paper work home!

The first app that I am going to share is Notability!

This is a note taking app that allows you to keep your notes organized in folders. It also lets you annotate over top of pictures. One of my favorite features is it records audio. I use this while doing running records so that I can go back and listen to my students while reflecting on my notes. 

Once you have created student folders it looks something like this..

In each child's folder I have lots of different assessments! Here are some examples of what I keep in their folders. 

*If you want this assessment form for yourself, just click on the photo and it will take you to dropbox to download it.

Once I have imported the file as a photo. I drop the photo into a note within Notability. From there I am able to annotate on it! Once it is done it looks something like this...

*again if you want this file so that you can put your sight words into it, just click the photo to download it!

Here is what it looks like after I have marked on it...

I also use this app for other things like running records, math and writing conferences, tracking reading progress, and any other notes I might want to keep on them. I will even make a note for parent contact, so that I have track of when we have spoken!

I created an example running record to show you. I did this because I do not want you to think they look beautiful. This is my notebook... truly. Some notes look neater than others! My running records are usually pretty quick. Often during writing and math I will take a picture of the students work and drop it into the note. Then I can comment on it and add notes!

There are some pages that I the students are required to participate. The reading progress chart is one of them. They use the coloring tool and are able to see how they have grown since the last time we assessed. I also created a darker line on the chart so that I know where they are supposed to be at that point in the year.

This is really just the beginning! I do not want to overload you with too much for right now. So take this in... check out Notability and see if it helps to make your life any easier! I sure hope it does ;)

Smiles,

Snow Day Sale and Valentine's Day Goodies

Hey friends,

I am at home today thanks to mother nature! We are supposed to get an additional 4-6 inches tonight, so we will see if I will be home creating away tomorrow also ;)

First things First! I am throwing a SNOW DAY SALE!

My entire store is 20% off, make sure you stock up on goodies for topics like Penguins, Daily 5, and even the END of the school year! ;)

**Click on the pictures below to take you to my TPT store!

Next, this is a reminder about the cute Robot Clip Art I have free in my store! Please leave feedback!

I do not know about you... but I CAN'T stand spending money on valentines! I created these so you can print them easily and attach a small dollar spot item to them. I was thinking maybe an eraser and pencil. I hope they make your Valentine's Day a little easier this year! 

Have a great day!!

Our Little Peanut

Hey there blogger friends!

I feel like it has been too long since I have sat down for a good blog session!

This summer was filled with all sorts of emotion! At the beginning of May, my husband and I purchased our first home! Our home was built in 1900, and from the moment I walked through it I knew it was where I wanted to start our family. It has such character and charm. As a little girl, I always pictured my house with a big front porch and a swing. When we started out on our house hunting journey, I never thought we would find anything like this house in our price range. After several months of looking, this house came onto the market. It needed some improvements, but overall it was the perfect home for us!

If you are friends with my on Instagram, you know how much time I dedicated to decorating this front porch. My poor husband was knocking down walls on the inside, while I was planting and crafting on the outside. (I have to take a moment to say how blessed I am to be sitting next to such a wonderful man! He has spent and continues to spend countless hours on this home to make it perfect. He has the patience of a saint, and I know our dreams would not be a reality without him! Love you, Babe!)

So after the house was "somewhat" done, we decided to have our housewarming party! I was so excited and so nervous. I wanted everything to be perfect (surprise), but it is just so hard to make a house your own in just 2 months. Needless to say, there was plenty of food and drinks for the guests. Most people spent their time in the backyard enjoying the beautiful weather, and everyone thought the house was beautiful! 

I remember as guests were arriving feeling very frazzled and just not myself! My poor husband can attest to this! Just a week after the housewarming party I was starting to feel less and less like myself and was praying that maybe our plan of starting a family was coming true. We were on vacation visiting my family in Florida when I felt almost positive that I was pregnant. Davey and I ran out to the store to get a test and were beyond words when the test came back positive. We had only just started trying, and I never thought it would happen so quick. As excited as we were we decided to give it some time before we told anyone. A few weeks later we were back at home and still in shock that our lives were going to change forever. Davey had begun to plan the nursery. He was so set on painting a mural in the nursery. But then a Saturday morning that changed everything. I had woken up and went to use the bathroom. My body felt different. Weak and achy. I noticed some bleeding... 

I called the doctor, and he confirmed I was most likely miscarrying and that there was nothing they could really do for me because it was so early on. I cried a heartbreak that I have not felt since my sister passed. I never knew I could have such strong feelings over a child I had never held in my arms. I prayed to god to give me another chance, but I knew there was no undoing what had been done. I wanted to hide away. I felt ashamed like maybe I had done something wrong. I packed away the little gray romper that I had bought and the few maternity items I had got out of excitement. I went back to work with my cheerleaders and just tried not to think of what we had lost. 

I consider myself to be a pretty happy person, but it was so hard to go through all of that alone. We did not tell our families. We suffered in silence. It was awful...

I begged my husband if we could start trying again. I think he was nervous, even with the doctor's approval. After lots of talking and crying, we decided that we were not ready to give up. Just 24 days after miscarrying I took another pregnancy test and the little line was faint, but it was there. I refused to get my hopes up. I waited 3 days and took another. Each time I took another test the line got brighter and brighter. When I went in for my first visit, my doctor could hardly believe the news. He said it was a miracle I got pregnant again so quickly. I was over the moon! I was going to be a mommy!

This time I decided that instead of keeping the news to ourselves we were going to share with our family. I knew that if I had to go through all of it again, I would rather be able to cry in the arms of those who love me than suffer in silence. The different reactions we got were priceless. I have them all written down so that I can one day share them with our little peanut. 

We started with our parents!

Then the grandparents!

Then after my first trimester was over, I shared with my classroom parents!

Then my students! 

and finally to Facebook! :)

I am 16 weeks today, just 4 weeks away from finding out the gender. I still have days where I am scared and nervous about what could happen, but mostly I feel overwhelmingly happy that there is a little life growing inside of me. I dreamt about this for a long time, and it is so much better than I could have every imagined. We continue to count our blessings each day and look forward to holding our little peanut in our arms in May! 

Thank you for reading! 

Smiles,