I survived my first big professional development endeavor! Yesterday was the big day! Overall, I’m pleased with how it went, although I certainly learned a thing or two about pacing for next time. It was difficult to manage the time in a room with no clocks when my PowerPoint was up, and I couldn’t see the clock on my computer screen. I guess it’s time to wear a watch again! I had had the opportunity to share a few things at the district level over time, but this was a whole other ball game. Having an hour to speak in front of roughly 120 people was a totally new experience for me! All in all though, I’m satisfied. I made a few contacts in other districts which is great, especially since I’m job searching. I’m also really excited to be offered the opportunity to work on our K-5 Literacy team at the county (soon to be regional) level next year. Stark County is pretty big, so I am humbled and excited about this opportunity. I’m certainly the little fish in a big pond. I was the only teacher presenter, and all of the other presenters either worked at the county level or on the State Support Team. So, I’m definitely a pretty small fish. I have to say THANK YOU to everyone who previewed my presentation! You gave me so much peace of mind going into this. I love our bloggy community!
I’d like to share an idea that I picked up from my new reading consultant buddy, Joe, yesterday. It’s a strategy for helping students determine importance, especially in nonfiction texts. It may help to have students think about what’s most important to take with them when they go on trips, and what they can leave behind. After the short intro, you can introduce a short piece of text to the students and read it together. Then, the idea is that the students will work independently or with groups to determine importance, write them on notecards, and pack their “suitcases”– small manila envelopes. Eventually, the “suitcases” get pruned down, and the students “travel” to areas of the room to share with partners. After a few minutes, the whole class gathers to share out the most important facts from the text. Isn’t that fun? If you’d like to have my version of this lesson, you can snag a freebie below! Teacher directions are included in the file. ENJOY!
I have just recently started blogging and I have to say, I LOVE YOUR BLOG!
-Victoria
http://washandlearn.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the freebie! It's rainy here in Alabama, too!
Jennifer
First Grade Blue SKiES
Amanda,
Although I am new to blogging, your blog was one of the first I got addicted to:) Love all your stuff!!! Thanks for the freebie, it is too cute:) I am a faithful follower!!
4thgradefrolics.blogspot.com
So on target and an authentic way to teach this skill.
Thanks.
Denise
Yearn to Learn Blog
What a fantastic idea. I work with children with learning difficulties, so extracting the important information only is often a hard thing to do…the travelling suitcase idea is a beautiful way to do it. Wish I had thought of this one myself, but am so happy I found it. Thanks for sharing.
Congratulations on a successful presentation! I love your freebie. Teaching kids how to determine importance in nonfiction is not an easy task but I love this take on it. Thanks again for always being so generous!
Kelley
Mrs. Randall’s Learning Library
What a great idea! I just found your blog and I love it. Thanks for sharing I am new to blogging and yours has given me lots of ideas
Please follow my blog: http://www.pocketfullofkinders.blogspot.com
Love this idea! I'll definitely be using it with my readers this school year! Thanks for sharing!
ishare-teacherinme.blogspot.com
love the idea..thanks for sharing…BTW…it's raining here in Michigan too! ALL week long!! 🙁
CONGRATS!!!! Being a presenter is EXHAUSTING work!!! 🙂 But very rewarding!!! I almost cried to read about K-Fed 🙁 Nooooo!! We went through two surgeries with Nugget so I feel your worry and pain!!! I hope that things calm down for you soon! Sounds like you have a lot of great (and not so great!) things going on!
Melissa 🙂
Oh! And THANKS for the freebie! Love it!
What a super idea!! Goes nicely with the Common Core Standards. 😉 Thanks for sharing.
First Grade Factory
Your freebie is excellent!!!!!!!!!!!! Just what I needed on a rainy night here in Tennessee. 🙂
I'm glad it went well 🙂 Congrats!
I am obsessed with that LD font! I want to use it on everything! lol
Hadar
Miss Kindergarten
Great idea, I will use this in the fall for sure! I'm new to your blog and have found so many great ideas already! I'm interested in hearing more about the ideas you got about reading nonfiction and the common core. I've been working in my district this year doing some professional development on close and critical reading and the common core reading standards. We are currently focusing on the common core writing standards now. Looking forward to following your blog!
Love it!!! I'm going to use it as I provide professional development to teachers this fall. Thanks for the idea.
This is wonderful! How do I print or save to my computer from Google docs, though?
You may have already figured this out by now, but if you're in Google Docs, there's a drop menu right under the Google image on the left side of the screen. If you click that, you'll be able to print or download from there. I hope that's clear enough! I'm not really fluent in "techy", but I'm working on it! 🙂
Thank you for sharing great things! I absolutely love your ideas!
It's not coming up anymore. Could you email it to me? kitten_belle@yahoo.com thanks:)
Hi there! I found your packet on pintrest but all the links don't seem to work anymore. Could you email me the Pack a Suitcase freebie?? mutchlerj@laramie1.org Thanks so much!