The First Amazing Day!

The last day before
Christmas break!

Reading my blog's name, Overly Enthusiastic Teacher, you have to understand that it describes me 110%. I really am overly enthusiastic...about EVERYTHING. If you spend 2 minutes in my classroom you will see that I am truly passionate about teaching and I love it!

This starts from day 1! I feel that it's important for my kids to see that I'm excited to be there. I remember a professor telling my college class, "Don't smile before Christmas!" and I was so dismayed. I'm always smiling!? How do I NOT smile? Sadly, I knew a lot of student teachers who took this to heart. But fear and intimidation is not the way to get your kids to want to be in a room for 7 hours a day with you.

In Dave Burgess' book, Teach Like a Pirate, he talks about building rapport with
your students. For me, this starts as soon as they walk in the door. I'm standing at my door welcoming every student into the classroom. If I met them at open house, I welcome them by name. If I didn't, I ask them their name, introduce myself, and have them find a seat anywhere they like. I tell them not to unpack, but to just take a seat. I have an activity and all supplies ready on their desk. I have music playing from my SmartBoard and I ask the first student that walks in to help show everyone what to do.

By the time the the first bell rings, I begin circulating around the room. I take a look at what they've drawn or written for me (this year I'm going to try the neat play dough activity I read about!).

After we've finished with the first activity I move on to a read aloud. I use the book, The Three Questions by Jon J. Muth. It's
based on a story by Tolstoy but makes for an amazing thought provoking lesson. The three questions are: When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do? I ask them to discuss what they think the answers will be. By the end of the book, students have a better understanding of my expectations for them. The present is the most important time, so always be mindful of NOW. The most important one is the person they are with, so they must treat their fellow classmates and their teacher as the most important person.  The right thing to do is to do good for the one you are with. This sets the tone for how I expect them to treat one another.

Next comes procedure time! I remember giving my kids a procedure book my first year teaching...what was I thinking?! Did YOU read the instructional manual on how to work your refrigerator or washing machine thoroughly? I bet not so much. You just went to the parts that matter or just used it! So we go through our procedures when we have to do them. I do explain what to do in the event of a fire drill, tornado drill, or earthquake drill, but this only takes less than 5 minutes. Then it's on to lining up for a restroom break!! Oh yeah!

Now, my father was in the Army. He taught me a lot of his call and response chants with his own twist and my favorite one was:

I don't know but I've been told!
Dornseif's are as good as gold!
Brave and true and never scared.
In fact they'd wrestle a big brown bear!

Kids LOVE these! In fact, most elementary kids enjoy call and response. For lining up we do:

Everyone's getting in a line,
because it's almost _____ time!
Our line is straight and oh so quiet!
Hands to our selves and nice and silent!
Sound off, 1 2, Sound off 3, 4 Bring it on down, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!

And I fill in with whatever we're about to do! Eating time, recess time, breaking time, specials time...you get the point! This gives them a predetermined amount of time to get to the line and also a quick reminder of procedures...but it's fun!

I have several other first day lessons, (G.L.U.R.P. boxes and I'm trying to figure out how to do another one Dave Burgess writes about in his book but for 3rd graders instead of high school students) but a new one for me will come at the end of the day! I'm going to start by asking my kids if they know what a blog is. Oh, yes. You know what's coming! That's right! We're going to blog! (Thanks Shauna for this great idea!) And we'll start on it day 1! I'll walk my kids through what a blog is by playing this great video! Then, I'll show them our classroom blog! We'll work together and create our first blog post. Then, I'll send the kids home with the url so they can show their parents. I may use Remind101 to text parents about the blog as well!

Just typing this out gets me excited for the first day! I already have my first day of school outfit picked out! (I even know what I'm wearing to open house!! I know...but I'm excited!!)

Do you have any great ideas for the beginning of the year? Leave a comment and let me know!

As Always,

Overly Enthusiastic Jen

Esthetically pleasing over functionality and purpose equals a great classroom! Part 1

I know, what a title, right? But seriously, I feel like my classroom over the years has been more about me making it look good then the actual functionality of my room. This year I am going to change all of that! So, here's the first post in a multi-part series of my classroom setup!

Sorry they're such a  mess!

My first big change this year is getting tables! We've had a few teachers transfer to other schools and one of them had tables instead of desks. I went to my principal armed with a great blog post about how tables could be more beneficial than desks and she agreed to allow me to swap! Thanks, Mrs. Davis! It already makes my room look bigger. I really want to do more collaborative learning this year and these tables will make that even easier.

Don't they look shiny and new!

Then, I had to go and ask if I could paint the tables with white board paint! Yeah, I know how crazy that sounds. But could you imagine the functionality behind it? My students will no longer need to "get out" their slate! Of course, several people have expressed their skepticism and pointed out several problems with having the table be their white board (won't it get dirty, they can't hold it up for the class to see, it'll get scratched when they put their chairs up, what happens when they write on it with a sharpie).  I'll let you know how it goes. It will either be the greatest adventure or the biggest mistake. EIther way, I'll let you learn from it! :)

I <3 this green! :)

I got the little organizer for
$13 Michaels!

Next, since I had primer for the tables, I painted over my book shelf cases! They were getting rusty and a little shabby. With a fresh coat of paint they look great! Now, I know some teachers will tell me: I don't have time to paint my room! Well, most days I spend 10 hours a day in that room. I want it to look nice! Wouldn't you rather spend time in a room that someone cared about? Plus, I bought the paint in little samples. Super cheap! The pictures show them without the shelves in since they were still wet!


Lastly, I wanted cheap cute decorations. Something that would give my room pop without much effort or money. Thus: tissue paper poms! I saw these in a lot of blogs last year, so I tried my hand at it. It really was easy and I think they look very cute! Now, to figure out where to hang them! >_< Here's a link to a great video tutorial on how to make them. It's from a wedding show...but it's a good tutorial and the one I used!

Cute and cheap! I'll be making blue ones soon!

 I'll post the next part within the next week! Hopefully you'll get to see more of how I'm setting my room up since more of it will be set up by then! :) Anyone have any great ideas for the classroom? Feel free to post them in the comments section!

As always,

Overly Enthusiastic Jen

Motivation....but how?

I was reading Amanda Cyke's blog post about demotivation (I highly recommend it!) and it inspired me to finally write my own experiences when it comes to motivation. Thanks, Amanda!

Within the first 2 months of school "my kids" know the important people in my life. They know who my "Bestie" is at school. They learn all about my husband, Kevin, and my mom and dad. Yes, these people are important to me, but most important is my little sister. My little sister has been my guinea pig since the day I realized I wanted to be a teacher (we're 11 years apart).

But there was a time when I was a constipated, selfish, angst-y teenager. Oooh, I can just see my annoying 17 year old self which is why I probably don't teach high school. Now, to give a little more background I've always been an anime-watching, science-fiction-fantasy-reading, Star-Trekkie nerd. And what is a nerd's favorite past time? Inducting other people into their nerdom! Of course my sister was going to be a nerd: we're all nerds in my family!

Which meant I had to share my love of anime with my baby sister. Here's the thing: I only watched subtitled anime. Which means I had to read the whole show to her. Now, if you know anything about a 6 year old....you'll know that they watch the same show over, and over, and over, and over...you get the point.

So one day, she asked me to read the subtitles to All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuka Nuka for the 100th time. Being a teenager, I told her to read it to herself. She looked at me aghast, and said, "But I'm only 6! I can't read that good!"

"Well, pause it and sound the words out!" and I stomped off. (What a horrid sister, right? :-/)

But she did. By 2nd grade, my little sister could read and comprehend at a level far beyond her age's norm. Why? She wanted to watch her shows!! She was motivated by an intrinsic desire to learn. Where there's a will, there's a way.

You see, sometimes it isn't that a child isn't capable of learning, but rather he or she hasn't found the right motivator. Which brings me to Dee. I love this kid. He was an awesome student, but came into the 5th grade at a 3rd grade reading level. He wanted to read, but had lost all hope of ever reaching his goal. He hated reading.

I sat down with him one day and asked him what he liked. He liked video games and ninjas. I could work with that. I called his mom and told her that I had a plan, but only if she was OK with it. She said that at this point she didn't care WHAT I did if it could get him to read! With her consent, I went to an anime store and bought graphic novels. The main two were Hikaru No Go and Naruto (I asked for her permission because Naruto is rated 13+) .

Now, Hikaru no Go is about a kid who plays the game of Go and Naruto is about a ninja. I chose these two for a reason. Naruto is basically the town clown/idiot and an orphan. He can never do anything right, yet he aspires to be the town's leader. Eventually, through hard work and determination he becomes a great ninja and saves many people. I think Dee felt like Naruto. He wanted to be able to read, but felt like the system thought he was stupid. Hikaru is a young boy who thinks the game of Go is stupid, but with the help of a spirit becomes really good at it. See where I'm going with this?

He read these books like he was breathing air. He loved them. One day I asked a friend of mine to let me borrow his Bones graphic novel compilation. This thing is thicker than any Harry Potter book! He carried it around like it was the Bible and was so proud of having a "big" book.

You see, the thing that most people don't realize is that a comic book, although it has pictures, can still be a deep reading experience. Yet he had pictures to fall back on when he was confused.

By the end of 5th grade, Dee was on a 5th grade reading level. He was comfortable with reading chapter books and his mom told me, laughingly, that she actually had to yell at him to stop reading and go to bed one night! The kid who seemingly HATED reading.

So, what's the take away? What have I learned from all of this?

Every kid can learn. What makes our job difficult is figuring out HOW to get them to learn. I know they can, but we have to figure out what will motivate them.

My advice? Get to know your kids. Find out what they love. Help them to realize that they can do anything they want. Believe in them and anything is possible.

As always,

Overly Enthusiastic Jen

To Twitter Chat or not to Twitter Chat?

To Twitter Chat or not to Twitter Chat: is that even a question?

This summer I found my love: Twitter chats! Twitter chatting is probably my favorite part of my Personal Learning Network. I love "listening" to what other educators have to say about many different topics and helping others when they need a good resource! Sometimes I get ideas, get inspired, or even get excited about teaching!

I have begun to participate in #EdChat and #3rdchat regularly and plan to continue throughout this school year. I don't need convincing, but my fellow colleagues do! I can already hear the excuses. So here they are with my answers to them!

#1: I don't have time to do that!

You'd be surprised at how easy it can be to find time! HGTV and Food Network's shows are 30 minutes long and I know many teachers that make time for that! We all have the same 24 hour day: you just need to figure out if having reflective conversations with other teachers around the nation and world would be worth your time. (Hint: It is!!!)

First, many Twitter chats happen after 6:00pm. Hey, we're ALL teachers with lives outside of school so we try to find times that work for everyone. Next, you don't have to Twitter chat every night! Choose one chat that you'd like to participate in to start of with! For example, if you have Sunday mornings free, there is a #sunchat for educators from 8-9 am CST! Or, if you have more time in the evenings, there's a Tuesday night #EdChat from 7-8EST!

Here's a Goggle Doc that has all the current educational chats and times. They have just about everything! From high school math, gifted and talented classes, to school counselor chats: there is bound to be one for you! Look through it, choose 1, and try it! You'd be amazed how fast an hour can go by when you're Twitter Chatting!

#2: That sounds too hard/complicated!

OK. You can read, right? How about type on a computer? Would you like to learn about what other teachers are doing across the US and the world? I know the answers are yes. Then you can and should Twitter Chat! Web applications like TweetDeck and TwitterFall make it pretty easy. There are many educators who have blogs, video tutorials, and cheat sheets to help you begin as well.

The hardest part for me when I began? Remembering to add the hashtag of the chat! >_<

#3: I wouldn't know what to say/tweet!

Fair enough. Not everyone is ready to put themselves out there. My advice: lurk! No where does it say you HAVE to comment. I can admit that I lurked on my first few chats. So find about 5-10 people to follow from the chat you observed. Look for the people who shared great resources or made comments that you agreed with. Throughout the week and during the chat, see what they say.

Then, I promise, it will happen. You'll be "lurking" in a chat and someone will tweet something....and you HAVE to reply. It might just be to retweet what they said. It might be to agree with them. Maybe you've experienced it differently. Either way, you'll begin to join in and you'll never look back!

In the end, I can't force anyone to do something they just don't want to do. Yet, I truly believe that Twitter Chats help you grow as an educator and as a person. I'll leave you with one last thought. Have you ever had an awesome idea and you ran down the hall to share it with one of your colleagues? Just imagine what that would be like if you had teachers from all walks of life who are enthusiastic about teaching to share it with.

As Always,

Overly Enthusiastic Jen

What have you encountered when introducing teachers to Twitter Chats? Respond in the comments and let me know what you said!

Clock photo credit: Salvatore G2 via photopin cc
Bush photo credit: a-birdie via photopin cc
Woman photo credit: mranthem via photopin cc

Genius Hour is Pure Genius!

Sir Ken Robinson is an author and leader in developing creativity and innovation in schools. If you've never heard of him and you're an educator, you're seriously missing out! He speaks about how schools kill creativity and how education needs to be reformed. Isn't this what teachers have felt like and thought for years? But the question becomes, what can we, as individual classroom teachers, really do about it? We can't always change the policy, but I think we can change how we implement it.

In comes Genius Hour. It starts with the idea that we all have genius inside of us. The thing is it varies from person to person. Why? First, we all have different talents. Second, we all have different passions. Could you imagine Mariah Carey creating the next innovation in tablet computing? Probably not. But I would say she could create a new innovation in the world of music.

Genius Hour has professionals and students set aside an hour each week to work on or learn about whatever they want. For the classroom, the teacher gives them a structure within to work and monitors to ensure they are on task, but gives them the choice to work on what they want. I thought it sounded pretty awesome. But does this really have a benefit?

Google has something similar called 20% time where their employees are allowed to utilize 20% of their work week, a day, to work on whatever they want. Sound crazy? If you use gmail, you wouldn't think so since that is one of the innovations that came from it!

So, interested to try it?

AJ Juliani has an article on 10 Reasons To Try 20% Time In The Classroom and even had a student redesign his handout into an infographic!! 

Chris Kesler's website, Genius Hour is an amazing resource for beginning Genius Hour in your classroom. He even has advice on how to approach your administrators about it!! (I'll need that for this year!)

Want hear from a teacher who has implemented Genius Hour for a year? Check out Joy Kirr's blog!

If you're still not sold, Genius Hour Manifesto is a great read to get you enthused about Genius Hour!

Now, I don't see this as a panacea for all of the issues in education, but I feel this idea could truly transform the way our classrooms work.

Are you going to try Genius Hour in your classroom? I am! I'll be blogging about our journey and so will my students! Look forward to seeing the amazing work they'll create!

As Always,

Overly Enthusiastic Jen

iCan with the iPad

Look at my fellow teachers working hard!!

A few weeks ago I participated in an amazing week of content building with fellow tech savvy teachers. It's amazing what you can do when you have the time to be creative and work with others (which is what we need to be allowing for our students to do too)!

Well, one of the teachers,jessica cox (hope you don't mind me posting about how fabulous you are!), thought we should do some sort of iPad management piece to our iTunes University course on creativity. I latched onto this and together we came up these iCan with the iPad licenses! (She thought she remembered seeing something similar on Pinterest, but we just couldn't find them!)

The idea is that you have students show you how to properly use the iPad in the beginning of the year (or whenever you first get them) so that there is no doubt in the student's mind that you are aware they know the proper procedure when using the iPad. They each get "certified" to use the iPad. There is a handy little check off list that you can use, or edit if need be!

Next, if you see them doing something they shouldn't with the iPad, you can give them an iPad Violation. The slip explains what they NEED to be doing instead of reminding them of what they've already done. This way, we felt it kept the note positive. Too many violations and they will have to be "re-certified"!

You can download these over on my TeachersPayTeachers page FOR FREE!! That's right: FREE!

If you'd like to learn more about our wonderful iTunes U course on Building a Creative 21st Century Learning Environment just click the link!

QR Codes in the Classroom

photo credit: Yutaka Tsutano via photopincc

I had a lot of fun this year helping another teacher begin implementing technology into her lessons. She isn't the most tech savvy educator, but wanted to learn and could see the benefit that technology could have for her students. I offered to help and we chose a few days to begin meeting an hour or two after school. When I asked her what she wanted to do she told me that she wanted something that she could easily integrate into lessons she had already planned.

A misconception many people have with using technology to teach is that you change what you teach. You suddenly need to make all new lessons. The thing is, you don't change what you teach as much as you change HOW you teach it. She had the right idea, so looking through her lessons we decided to try QR codes first.

This is one of the QR codes that the teacher used!

QR codes are basically bar-code images that allow you to quickly send information. The information can take many different forms: a website address, a location on a map, an e-mail address, or even just plain text. She had already planned a states project and a math graphing lesson for her students that she felt she could easily change parts of to integrate QR codes.

So, how did she do it? Instead of having students find the website to make their bar graphs on for the math project, she made a QR code for them to scan that would take the guess work out of if they were using the right site. Then, instead of having them write out how they went about getting their information and creating their graphs, she had them create a QR code that they would attach to their graphs.

Next, she decided that for their state projects, students would create QR codes for their state's capital. In this way they not only had to find their state's capital, but be able to locate it in google maps (which, let's be honest, that's how most of us would look it up). She then had students create QR codes of short paragraphs about their state. These, they posted up on a map.

I liked her idea so much, I used it myself!

Her results? The kids LOVED it! Her students were proud of their work and would show it off to not only other teachers, but to each other. They were engaged with their work and enjoyed learning about what others did as well.

Now, many of you may be thinking: that's it? But realistically, these small successes the teacher had encouraged her to step further out of her comfort zone: if this worked, what else could she do? By the end of the year, this teacher ended up creating her first video! Now that she knows how to create and edit a video she wants to show her students! How amazing is that?

So the questions is: Do you know someone who could use a little help with implementing technology into their lessons? What's stopping you from helping them?

Don't know how to use QR codes? Check out my iTunes U course on them!

As always,

Overly Enthusiastic Jen