Jitters & Things...

What Stuck? & New Curtains

Today was the first day back at school with the students. This year has been interesting. We weren't allowed in our classrooms early due to renovations throughout the building. I had decided earlier in the summer not to go in early this year and I believe it was the best decision I could have made. Our administration was generous enough to give us ample time to prepare for registration last Saturday.
There have been quite a few changes to my room. Nothing spectacular, but different enough to spice things up for me! I moved my desk, added curtains, added a word wall, and updated my filing cabinets and storage unit. Of course, there are a few other things I'd like to do, but time is not on my side at the moment. Between revamping my interactive notebooking technique, designing an advanced course, finishing my Brazil project, planning inservice presentations, and incorporating global competencies in my curriculum, I'd say I'm slightly overwhelmed....but who's not???


Today marked the first day with my new kids. It took me FOREVER to fall asleep! I'm happy I was able to sleep well because upon arriving to school my computer crashed when I was supposed to go meet my homeroom! I was tardy(ish) picking up my kids, but eventually got computer to cooperate.


While You Were Out Board & Turn In Trays

It's so amazing how different each batch of kids is from one year to the next. I'm excited to see how the year unfolds! Today's group of kids completed an anchor chart on what they thought a great teacher should be. I got some very interesting and enlightened responses. We had a great discussion about their expectations of what teachers should and should not do. From the exercise, I was able to learn that my students wanted a teacher that genuinely cares about them and helps them learn. I didn't necessarily learn anything new, it sure does make a HUGE difference actually hearing it straight from the kiddos! Tomorrow's group will clue me in on aspects of a great student! I'm looking forward to an amazing year!!!!



Obsessed with my new The Hungry Caterpillar borde

My Summer

Cheers to my future press release (or some variation of it)! Here's a glimpse into what a majority of my summer has been dedicated to. If you're reading my BRAZIL BLOG, stay tuned!

IFES Campus: Ibatiba

Teacher, Kristi Barnes, from Seneca Middle School, visited Brazil in June 2013 to take part in the Teachers for Global Classrooms Program’s (TGC) International Field Experience, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). Ms. Barnes is part of a group of 80 teachers selected to participate a field experience in one of seven countries worldwide. 



 

The Teachers for Global Classrooms Program is an exchange and professional development opportunity for secondary school teachers sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and administered by the non-profit organization IREX. Through the program, teachers from across the United States learn how to advance their schools’ global education practices, internationalizing teaching and learning in their classrooms.

 



The Doll Dance Performance in Mimoso

During the TGC International Field Experience, Kristi Barnes had the opportunity to travel and collaborate professionally with a designated cohort of U.S. teachers.  The cohort attended seminars on the history, culture, and education of the host country and through their in-country experience participates in discussions on best teaching practices and related educational issues.  Ms. Barnes then traveled with a partner to a local school for a dedicated visit to observe or team-teach when requested in international classrooms selected by IREX, and to discuss local educational issues with students, teachers, and administrators from the host-country.

 

This international field experience follows the teachers’ completion of an online course and participation in a Global Education Symposium in Washington, DC. Through all components of the TGC Program, teachers learn with, and from, their colleagues in the U.S. and in other countries to develop international knowledge and skills. The teachers will reconvene in October 2013 in Washington, DC, to share their experiences and to discuss best practices for internationalizing U.S. schools. 

 

IREX is an international nonprofit organization providing thought leadership and innovative programs to promote positive lasting change globally.  We enable local individuals and institutions to build key elements of a vibrant society: quality education, independent media, and strong communities. To strengthen these sectors, our program activities also include conflict resolution, technology for development, gender, and youth.  Founded in 1968, IREX has an annual portfolio of over $60 million and a staff of over 500 professionals worldwide. IREX employs field-tested methods and innovative uses of technologies to develop practical and locally-driven solutions with our partners in more than 100 countries.

 

Wish Ribbons
 Nosso Senhor do Bomfim in Salvador

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs promotes international mutual understanding through a wide range of academic, cultural, private-sector, professional and sports exchange programs. These international exchanges engage youth, students, educators, artists, athletes and emerging leaders in many fields in the United States and in more than 160 countries. Alumni of these exchanges comprise over one million people around the world, including more than 50 Nobel Laureates and more than 350 current or former heads of state and government.

Back In Action!

I haven't blogged (on this site) in several months. There has been a reason. I've just returned to the US after spending three amazing weeks in Brazil! Last year, I applied to participate in the TGC Program: Teachers for Global Classrooms. I was accepted and it has been one of the most amazing experiences. One requirement is to write a blog of our travel experience. While I am back in the US, the blog is not complete due to lack of consistent access to the Internet. I'm adding a few of my favorite photos from the trip. Feel free to take a look and comment!

 

Inside a Cathedral in Brasilia

Feijoada
Home cooked deliciousness!

In Mimoso with Tina & Claudia

Lanche= YUM!
Filet Mignon, corn, fried banana, cheese, lettuce, potato sticks & more!

Dancing Forró at a BBQ

Three Powers Square

Radio Tower View of Brasilia



www.flygirlsc.blogspot.com

Holding On

IF I can make it, I'll be in the beautiful country of Brazil in just a few weeks! I will also be celebrating my birthday (YAY...totally love the month of May), traveling to the great state of Texas (Austin, please don't disappoint), making appearances at various salsa/bachata events, and ending yet another school year.

I realize I haven't blogged in a while, but as you can see, I've got a ton on my plate right now. I've been building (slowly, but surely) a website for my school/ district on global education and 21st Century skills. I've also been attempting to learn Portuguese. As usual, there aren't enough hours in the day to get it all done. Blah, blah, blah...

Before the big break, we had a guest presenter that was a HUGE hit! I invited Dr. Jim Leavell from SCCTA (South Carolina Center on Teaching about Asia) and professor at Furman University, to speak to my kids about Japan. He discussed the history of Japan, feudalism, the introduction of guns into society and of course, the bushido code and the samurai! How can this teacher compete with replica swords used by samurai? I mean, really...

Today is bittersweet. It's the last day of Spring Break! As I awoke this morning, I must say I was awfully grateful not so see my kiddos today. Ijs. I love 'em, but....

Here's a taste of my Spring Break! Enjoy!

PJ & Madness!

I'm pretty sure my kiddos have jumped off the deep end! Last week, I "conveniently" missed Valentine's Day to be at a global education conference hosted by TGC (Teachers for Global Classrooms). I must say I'm happy to have missed the sugar highs & lows of 130 sixth graders!
A lot of the craziness comes from the beginning of our PJ unit (Percy Jackson). My team has developed a huge interdisciplinary unit centered around the book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Our kids love it and so do we!
Last week, we started studying ancient Greece in my class. So far we've discussed geography and reviewed the major gods and goddesses of Greek mythology. In writing class, students wrote acrostic poems about an assigned god or goddess. Here's a sneak peek:

While I was out, we started our door decorating contest. Each teacher is assigned to be a Greek god or goddess. Students are to decorate the door with symbols. I'm Athena, goddess of wisdom. Our door won 2nd place! I guess my kids can do things without me! A few other doors are pictured as well (Poseidon won 1st place).

Soon we'll be gearing up for our song parody contest. Last year, my class won with Athena Rocks (Party Rock Anthem)! Cannot wait! :)

Let the Fun Begin!

Oi, Brazil! Ready or not, here I come!
IREX is an international nonprofit organization providing leadership and educational programs to promote positive lasting change globally. Teachers for Global Education (TGC), part of their education branch, provides professional development opportunities for middle and high school teachers from the United States to participate in a program focused on globalizing teaching and learning in their classrooms. Currently participants from all over the United States will be traveling over the next few months to Morocco, Ghana, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, India, Indonesia and Brazil.
The symposium in D.C. welcomed TGC fellows and their administrators. The focus for the symposium was to emphasize the importance of global education. The teachers spent time meeting with their traveling cohorts, learning about the culture of their host country and planning sessions for the Essential Question ( Essential Questions Graphic Organizer) and  Capstone Project.
The weekend was wonderful! It was great to finally meet everyone after participating in a two month online course earlier this year.
I'm sure this will be the first of many posts. I'll also link the website I'm developing for my Capstone Project that will detail my travel experience and provide resources for educators.
If you're interested in applying, the application for the next cycle is due March 4th!

Currently February...

 

 

 

Happy Sunday! I'll keep today's explanations brief since I'm on the way out of the door.

 

Listening:  I <3 Coldplay. I play instrumental covers of their songs all the time in class.

 

Loving: I <3 FOOTBALL!!! Today is bittersweet. I love the party, food and football! I loathe waiting months until the next season starts! Seriously....GO RAVENS!

 

Thinking: The day's BIG dilema!

 



Wanting: I'm starving! I have zero food in this house! How in the world did I allow that to happen?!!?

 

Needing: I don't dream much. If I do, I never remember them. Three of the past four nights, I've not slept because my dreams have been uber disturbing. At least I can wake up and realize that they aren't true! At this point, I'd much rather not dream and sleep all night. Hope this trend doesn't continue!

 

Pet Peeves: I've had a sinus infection I've been fighting this past week. Luckily, my kids were researching in the library so I didn't have to try to learn sign language since I bascially couldn't talk. Thank God for librarians that teach research lessons!

Repeat offenders...I really need people to learn from their mistakes. I'd prefer if they learned the lesson the first time. When you get down to the thirty-second time...my patience has run out. Don't come to me for sympathy because at this point...it's your own fault. <stepping off soap box>

 

Wheew....I'm done. It's the month of love so I'm gonna try to give it all day, every day!

I think that'll be a post-it mirror mantra! :)

Time For a Pep Talk.

This lil' dude totally made my morning! I just think this is so precious!
I’ll definitely be using when the going gets tough later in the year.
Hopefully, it will inspire my kids to keep on keepin’ on!

#kidpresident #spacejam #frost #dance

 

A little R & R...

Really wish the R & R referred to rest and relaxation because there is far too little of that in my life!

Today, R & R is for religion and research! I am (unofficially) not teaching this week! Thanks to my school's AMAZING librarian, I get to watch my kiddos in action! (1) I have an completely unreliable voice. Thank you sinus infection from Tartarus <insert sarcasm here>! Could not have timed this project any better! (2)She teaches the kids research strategies and I get to learn with them since this is a new project for me. Yay.

This week we're researching the following religions from around the world:
Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Students are divided into groups and assigned a religion to research. Group members are assigned roles (historian, artist, geographer) and are to become experts on their assigned religion. They get to teach the class next week. Two hands in the air for two weeks of supervision! I really love seeing the kids learn in this manner and be responsible for their own learning....just saying.

This year I've been learning about a TON of Web 2.0 tools. For this project, we're using Glogster. Glogster is in it's simplest form an interactive poster where you can put text, pictures, videos, music and more! There's a lot of freedom to create a glog on any topic/ subject.
FYI: Glogster is free! There is an educator option that teachers can purchase. This option allows the teacher to create secure accounts for students. This allows for students to create accounts without using their e-mail address. I am using the free version for this project.

I'm attaching the example I made for my kids. It's ridiculous simple to use. We're going to introduce it to the kids tomorrow! I hope they love it. I'll post some of their completed projects next week. Just thought I'd give you a sneak peek!



My Glog 

Happy Tuesday!

New TGC Cycle!

I haven't posted much about this opportunity, BUT I figured I'd share the link if anyone out there is interested. If you like to learn and you don't mind traveling somewhere around the world to learn about the culture and education system, this program is for you!

 

I applied last year and after completing a tough and extremely informative online class on global education, I learned I'd be going to BRAZIL this summer!

There's MUCH more work to be done, but from the little that has already occurred, I'm a new teacher! I highly recommend you apply! It will be an experience you won't forget!

*No pressure :)

 

 

Teachers for Global Classrooms

is kicking off a new application cycle.

Applications are due March 4th!

All Linked UP!

 

Getting all linked up & such! Feeling like a true blogger. I must admit that I'm super surprised I've blogged as much as I have already! Haha!

Make sure you scoot on over to Farley's Blog to join the party!

 

 

I'm sure all of this business is self explanatory.

• I pretty much <3 Alex Clare. I'm sure you've heard "Too Close" from the Microsoft commerical, but you should check out his other stuff. Fabulous voice!
• I've been sippin' on diet Ginger Ale all day. Lovely drink. Too bad I feel like I've been hit by a truck in gut!
• Preparing for a BIG project my kiddos will start at the end of the month. Trying to put the finishing touches on how all of this is going to play out. Oh...and we're already behind so, yeah...yay projects?!?
• Pretty tired & the bed is calling my name, BUT I'd really love an oreo...okay TWO oreos right now. Might be over doing it for a girl who's had diet ginger ale, a banana, and saltines today. YOLO!
• As everyone else does, I'd love an extra 5 minutes or 5 hours for ME! The end of the grading period is next week so it's crunch time!
• My "OLW" is PEACE! Need to stay calm and get down to business. Have tons on my plate, but want to make sure  I take care of myself mind, body and soul!
   

Hope everyone is getting back into the swing of things!

Just think it....It's almost Hump Day! :)

Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater!

Just spent the last 2 days textmapping with my kiddos and I feel confident the adventure was a success. Hope I'm not honking the horn too early, but I guess I'll figure out Monday just how well it worked.

What is Textmapping?

You can click on the link above to search the website for information and tips, but here is a brief explanation from the source.

 

Textmapping is a graphic organizer technique that can be used to teach reading comprehension and writing skills, study skills, and course content. It is practiced on scrolls,  which are an alternative environment to books. Textmapping and scrolls can be used strategically, but they are not strategies. They are enabling technologies - simple, basic tools which can be used for reading and classroom instruction. The same strategies that can be taught in books can be taught more clearly and explicitly by using scrolls  and mapping.

 

Textmapping enables teachers to clearly and explicitly model reading comprehension, writing and study skills in the course of regular classroom instruction.

Textmapping shines a light on the pre-reading process. It focuses more attention on, and spends more time with, the text itself - lingering on the page, delaying abstraction, forcing readers to engage in a more careful in-context comprehension of both the big picture and the details, and enabling teachers to explicitly and systematically model comprehension processes.

It is low-tech, easy to learn, easy to teach, requires no special equipment, and can be adapted easily and inexpensively for use in the classroom. All you need is access to a copier, tape or glue-stick, and colored pencils, markers, or crayons.

 

This is how it all went down...



I referred to the process of textmapping as a way to cheat WITH my permission! Yes, my sixth graders that ate up! Instead of reading the 6 pages of text in our book on Hinduism, we were detectives and found most of the information the students needed to learn without reading every single word on the page. During the lesson, we marked the following text features:

• Section headings &Text chunk
• Sub-headings
• Questions
• Key words (bold, italics) and meaning
• Pictures
• Captions (The only part of the text we read in its entirety).

Using Yellow to mark key words and their meaning

Using the finished product to complete assessment

My Textmapping Tips:

• Be a super model! Before coding, we discussed the text feature we were looking for and its significance. Because it can be overwhelming to look at so much text at once, we always did the first two pages of the text as a group and then  I let the students analyze the remaining pages. With every other text feature, I continuously reviewed what we had previously "marked" and how it all tied together.
• Divide your students into small groups. I made sure to call on all group members and made sure that every student had a chance to mark the text. Make sure each group has their own set of highlighters, markers or crayons. Be sure to print enough copies to make your scrolls. *We used tape instead of glue.
• Key Make a key as you go along so students can easily remember what each color stands for.
• Challenge them! When searching for meaning, ask for an explanation. Show me? Where is it in the text? Why is this important? Look for cross-curricular connections. Did you find all (inset a number)?

At the request of the students, this technique will be included in the rotation. Hope your adventure goes as smoothly as mine!
Happy Mapping! :)

Mystery Student

I found this idea on a blog while looking at a different post.
To help keep the kids motivated in the new year, I'm going to have a Mystery Student each day. I will be on the look out for R.O.A.R. characteristics (Respectful, On Task, Always Safe, Responsible). We define what actions are acceptable and fit each aspect of R.O.A.R. at the beginning of the school year and practice throughout the year. Our PBIS committee gives us coupons the kids can earn by displaying great behavior. These coupons can be used for a variety of raffles, dance entry, drawings and as "money" to pay fines or purchase a new I.D.

For each class I teach, a student will be selected (the kids won't know) as the mystery student for that day. If the student does well, they will be identified as the mystery student of the day and  receive 5 R.O.A.R. coupons. If the student fails to meet expectations, the student won't be identified by name and we'll discuss what behaviors were noticed and ways to prevent them from happening again.
Free reward system so I don't have to spend my pennies on candy!
I plan on using a class roster to keep track of who I'm watching so students won't be chosen more than twice a month (based on class size).

Happy 2013!!!

I'm back! Sorta kinda....
I had to take a brief hiatus from blogging because I took an online class on global education to help prepare me for my TGC symposium in February and trip this summer. The class was demanding, but I was able to learn a lot and I'll be sharing some of that information on this blog and the website I'll be creating as a resource guide for teachers as a final project. I am thrilled for the class to be over and for life to resume it's "normal" course.
After completing the course, we found out our travel destinations for the summer program. I'm happy to announce I'm going to Brazil!!! I'm very excited and have started learning Portuguese. Reading and writing the language is easy peasy, but the whole speaking thing is throwing me for a loop! My natural inclination is to turn Portuguese into Spanish sooooo...yep....I'm working on it!
Today is the final day of Winter Break. I am terrified of what 6:00 a.m. is going to feel like tomorrow!
I'm planning on starting the day with review and an introduction into text mapping with the kiddos tomorrow. I am excited to see how the kids react. I'll post again at the end of the week to let you know how it goes, but here's a brief overview of what it is and how it works!

Textmapping overview

Happy Reading!