Las Colinas Elementary-IB World School

It has been quite sometime since a new post has been added and many things have happened during that time.

From October through December, I was the cooperating teacher for my first student teacher, Ms. Schroeder. It was a very rewarding experience for me and for the class. Ms. Schroeder was an excellent student teacher and was a big help during the first semester. The class and I wish her the best of luck in her teaching career. Please keep in touch.

During this time, we had two students move away. Lissette and Sung Min will be missed and we hope they are loving their new schools.

The most important thing that happened to Las Colinas Elementary during the fall semester was that we finally received notification that all of our hard work had finally paid off. We are now an Authorized IB World School. It is such an honor to now be an official part of such a prestigious organization. And it is really more than just being able to say we are an IB school...our students are gaining a new way of looking at the world around them and will be better citizens.

We are now gearing up and getting ready for the upcoming TAKS tests. Our first test as 4th graders will be the TAKS Writing test on March 3. The students are doing a great job writing and will continue to improve as the weeks wind down to test time. I must thank the 3rd grade teachers for doing such a great job of spending time focusing on writing. It is much easier to fine tune the writing of 4th graders if they already have the basics for good writing.

IB Authorization Visit

Our class, along with the rest of LCE, is busily getting adjusted to the new school year and preparing for our IB Authorization visit next Monday and Tuesday. We have worked very hard over the last two years and continue to work hard at taking on the various attributes of an IB school. Our students are working to become more international minded by taking on the attributes of the learner profile. They realize that these are things they should demonstrate no matter where they go in this world. It is great to see the students realize that although there are differences throughout the world, over all, humans have certain things about them that are universal.

We have begun working on our first Unit of Inquiry focusing on the Central Idea that areas are broken into regions based on similarities. We are currently looking at it with a Texas focus but will soon take it globally so that they students can see that this is the case everywhere and not just in their immediate surroundings. The students in 4th grade are currently working on a jigsaw project where each group has a region of Texas to become an expert on and create a PowerPoint presentation to share with the class!! They are doing a fabulous job thus far!!

The students are also learning to formulate questions based on the key concept question stems. These stems help the students to form questions that go a little deeper and are much more though provoking. They are learning that this is applicable in any subject. Our Wall of Wondering has already received several pondering questions that students are currently researching to find the answer to. It is so great to see them take on ownership of their learning and realize that it is not my job alone to help them learn.

Welcome to a New Year in 4th Grade

Room 301 welcomes a new school year and a new group of students. One week is completed, and the class is working to learn each other and the new 4th grade expectations. I love that each year is a new beginning for the students and for myself. As a teacher, you end the year with a group of kids that know what your expectations are and you know what helps them function as a class. As a student, you have new people to adjust to in your class as well as a new teacher. You may have students in your class that you have known for years but it is a completely different mix than you have ever had before. It takes some getting used to but before long neither of us will think about the previous year. I look forward to getting to know my new class and gelling together as the year progresses. The beginning of the year is so exciting because it is essentially a clean slate. Hopefully, this blog will be used more frequently this school year as a way to keep the world up to date on the goings on of Room 301!! Welcome New Class!! :)

Open House

Tonight was a great Open House. It is always fabulous to see so many supportive parents in attendance at a school function. I hope that you all enjoyed seeing some of your child's hard work. The kids have really worked hard this year and will continue to do so over the next few months. I tried to get around and talk to as many of you as I could, but I know I missed a few. I apologize for that and do know that I (and your child) greatly appreciate the fact that you were there for them tonight. It is the partnership between school and home that helps each child to be successful. When they are able to see that you support them as well as the teacher, it goes a long way. Kudos to each of you. Those of you that were unable to attend, we missed you and look forward to seeing you at other things throughout the year. I do realize that this is a busy time for many with various sports kicking off, girl scouts, boy scouts, religious activities, etc.

Book Clubs for Kids

I have noticed this year that the kids in my class love to read the same books and talk about them. A couple of examples of this would be The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and The Twilight Saga. While doing some research, I came across this website: http://www.readwritethink.org/beyondtheclassroom/summer/grades3_5/BookClub/ that shows how kids can form book clubs much like us adults do. I think this is a fabuluous idea and encourage parents to try this with your kids and their friends. The website gives ideas for different activities that can be done through these book clubs. One of the things that we are working on in our classes is good discussion and allowing the kids to take ownership of their own learning. This is a great way to encourage those discussions and the learning to continue outside of the classroom. I think it can be anything from a good chapter book to a nonfiction book about a topic the kids are all interested in. The beauty of our location is that many of the kids live fairly close to one another so this is a great opportunity for them to develop a love of reading together. If anyone decides to start one of these groups, please let me know how it goes. If you need any resources to go with that group, just let us know and we will see what we can get you.

VIP Recognition

I just wanted to post quickly to give a few thanks for my VIP award on Thursday. First of all, I would like to thank my colleagues. Las Colinas is a wonderful school filled with wonderful people to work with. In just 3 short years at LCE, I feel like I have gained some life long friendships. I love the community of learners that we have built together at LCE. It is exciting to see us growing together as educators.

Secondly, I'd like to thank my awesome room mothers and my class for the beautiful flowers and gift card. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful students and parents this year. I am enjoying working with each one of the students and will truly miss them at year's end. It is so exciting to watch them grow as learners as they progress through this phase.

Finally, I'd like to thank my parents who drove all the way from East Texas to Carrollton to be there at the school board meeting while I received my award. It was such a surprise but one I was most thankful for. I could not ask for better parents. They have made me who I am today and I am most thankful. Love you Mom and Dad!!

Yea, so this kind of sounded like an acceptance speech at an awards show but I felt led to give thanks. I am truly blessed and most appreciative of each and every person that daily affects my life. I know that because of you, I am a better teacher and more importantly, a better person.

Gaggle

I am so excited about the great opportunity our students now have to use a program called Gaggle. This is a great thing for our kids and a big help in meeting the state standards for technology. We hear a lot about state standards in math, reading, writing, science and social studies but we often forget about the standards in technology. I was talking to a fellow teacher recently who remembers when computers first came about and how many people thought they were just a passing fad. Obviously those people were way wrong as technology is now becoming so ingrained in our lives most of us could not function without it. For our kids, this is going to be even more a fact of their lives. It is very important that they are comfortable with technology in every way.

Gaggle is a great opportunity for our students to become familiar with email, blogs, message boards and chat rooms in a safe enviornment. It is highly monitored and anything inappropriate is sent to adminstrators. We are then able to block that content from the kids. We will be using Gaggle to do the Geography Homework so that the kids can practice downloading and uploading attachments as well as word processing skills. There are still a few kinks to work out with the attaching process. If for some reason, Gaggle won't let the student attach and gives an error message, let us know what that is so we can work on it on our end. I have asked the students to also save the file to their digital lockers as a back up.

Several of the students have set up blogs but they are only viewable at this point by other members of our school. I have also set up a message board that the students are supposed to be responding to.

This is a great opportunity for our students as well as something many of them find to be fun. Thank you as parents for your help as we embrace the future with these students.