End of SDE Conference, Trying to Get Home

Well I made it through a wonderful week in Vegas.  I met many wonderful teachers and learned so much (I think my head might be a little overloaded-in a good way).

I am currently sitting in the airport after this wonderful conference, patiently (okay doing my best to patiently wait) for my flight home.  It has been delayed twice now.  It is currently scheduled to leave an hour and a half later than it was suppose to, but what can I do???? I decided to make the best of it and begin going through some of my notes from the conference and sharing a few new ideas/activities/apps that I learned about this past week.

Here goes:

1.  One session I attended on Monday was about Becoming a Guided Math Guru!  Even though I have been doing small group math listening to Reagan Tunstall talk about how she organizes and conducts Math in her classroom really brought some ideas together for me.

• First She has created for her classroom a Daily Math Warm UP Schedule.  Each day she has a concept/activity that the kids work on for the first 5 minutes of math time.  I liked this idea because it keeps the kids from getting bored and it still practices past concepts.  The best day probably for the kids is Friday when she has some kids of Fun Friday review.
• Second in her schedule is here Whole Group Math time.  This last about 20 minutes but some days it might be shorter if the teacher just need to give direction for the Guided Math/Small Group time.  The is a time that she shares/teaches general information on new concepts.
• Third is when she does Guided Math/Small Group Math.  She has this time set up where their are 5 groups in her room (this would depend on number of kids and time), but these five groups rotate through 5 stations, with each station lasting about ten minutes. 
• Last she has the class come back together to conduct a reflection for their learning during the Guided Math time.

The reason I liked this session so much is because I already have some of this in place in my room, but I needed some ideas for the rotation of my Guided Math time.  This session gave me a jumping off point and when my brain settles down in a couple of days this is going to be one thing I am going to working on sketching out for next school year is how to manage the rotations in my Guided Math and Small Group time.

I found on Reagan Tunstall's Blog -Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits a post she did on this session.  Here is the link if you would like to read how she does Guided Math.

The post is titled: Guided Math Galore

Well this is one session I have had time to reflect on while sitting in the airport.  I will post another session soon.  I hope this helps to give you some ideas and guidance on your Guided Math Time.  I personally believe in this time and am always looking for ways to improve my Guided Math lessons.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Check back soon.

Leslie

Day One at SDE Conference

Well I made it through Day One in Vegas and right now I don’t know where to start with everything that took in today.  

First my day started with a great session presented by Cara Carroll.  She discussed how she implemented Reader's Workshop with the kids in her class.  It was very energizing and exactly what I needed to hear.  I feel like I have gotten away from following the standards and have been following the reading series provided by my district more.  Well let's just say I have never been a series person and I don't like what I have been doing in my classroom.  This session I feel is going to get me back on track for the way on did and want to teach in my classroom.  The session was fun and energizing.  I immediately went and bought one of the two books Cara suggested during the session.  Below is a link to the book.  If you are looking to do reader's workshop in your class I would recommend this book.  Even though I have only skimmed through it I really feel it will be a great resource for making sure you cover the CCSS in reading as well and enjoy teaching your children to read and comprehend stories.

The second and last session I went to today were presented by Reagan Tunstall.  She presented one session on Writer's Workshop and another on Becoming a Guided Math Guru!  I really enjoyed both of these sessions.  The session on math really made me think about how I have my math work stations set up and what I need to do to make sure I work with my students each day in a small math group setting (just like when you meet in your small reading groups).  Check on Reagan Tunstall's blog.  She does a much better job of explaining these two areas than I would.

A last session I went to was on interactive notebooks.  The session was presented by Renee Dooly.  She did a great job of giving examples of why to do interactive notebooks and the different ways that they can be used in the classroom.  She also recommended a couple of books on interactive notebooks.  The links are listed below.  Also, if you want to check out her blog she has done a series on her blog about interactive notebooks.  Renee Dooly's Blog- Fantastic First Grade Froggies

Well I will stop sharing for now.  I hope that you are able to get some information from these wonderful session presenters.  I know that I did and I can't wait to go back tomorrow for more fun and learning.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Check back tomorrow for some updates on what I learned and bought.

Chat soon,

Leslie

Conference Update

Well I am still on the move to my next summer conference.  

I finished the ISTE 2015 conference this past Wednesday. Boy was that conference great and overwhelming.  I am still going through my notes and checking out all the new apps and activities I learned about at that conference.  I will be posting more information as soon as I am done going through my notes.

This morning I left for Las Vegas and I am currently relaxing before a big week with SDE.  I have been looking through all the sessions I signed up for and can't wait to get started tomorrow morning.  

Sorry for the quick update but I want to make sure I am fresh and reading for a week full of fun and exciting learning.  I also can't wait to meet some new friends.

Talk soon,

Leslie