Ms. Springer's Blog: First Week of School

Adams 14 Schools are in full swing this week. Check out Ms. Springer's students!

Ms. Springer's Blog: First Week of School

Recycled Fashion

Check out our Recycled Fashion Fashion Show at Rose Hill with runway music provided by our 3rd and 4th graders. Click here to see the photos. I am having trouble uploading the music to this blog but I will post a link to the website when I get them posted. The top three outfits were displayed in the Aspen EcoFest.

I found a great IPad tool that I used with our autistic third grader this year. Since our school is getting the SSN program this coming year I want to get more tools for our special needs kids. When we were doing our piano unit, I let this particular student use an app called Sound Prism which is built on a triad system, so pretty much everything you do sounds good! He loved it and would ask to play the "color piano".

Kindergarten Writing Rubric

My colleague, Mrs. Nazarenus, developed an amazing rubric that my children found to be helpful as they wrote during writing time! Kate identified six focus skills that the kids need to work on in order to produce grade-level work. The skills include: conventions, ideas, organization, word choice, sentence fluency and voice. Kate included kid-friendly pictures and words so that they feel comfortable using the rubric as they write. The photo included within this blog entry shows a student referring to the rubric as she worked on her piece of writing!

THANK YOU MRS. NAZARENUS FOR CREATING SUCH A FUN, USEFUL AND PRACTICAL RUBRIC!

Kindergarten Graduation!

The kids graduated from kindergarten and are ready for 1st grade! Yay! This year was an amazing year in kindergarten. All of the students who began the school year with me ended up ON or ABOVE grade-level! Congrats kiddos! The children learned how to read, write and spell so many words. I am so proud of the progress that they have made and I can't wait for them to succeed with the rest of their educational careers!

To celebrate the end of the year, the children decorated their own graduation cap, ate scrumptious cookies and put on a concert for their family and friends! Thanks to the music teacher, Mrs. Lewis, the children sang and chanted nearly 15 songs as they enjoyed being the center of attention!

Congrats to all of the kids for making this year one of the most memorable and fun years ever! Good luck in first grade!

Year Reflection ( a bit late!!)

This year was truly one of my best and I owe it to this experience with Global Learners. Not only did it challenge my teaching but it challenged and INSPIRED my students. I became very comfortable with the Smartboard and motivated to continue learning/experimenting with film making with the students! The Film Fest was such an amazing experience and learning alongside my students throughout the process was unforgettable! (and a little crazy!)

In addition to learning how to seamlessly integrate technology into the classroom DAILY, I also realized just how powerful and beneficial collaboration can be. Working with all of you, especially my mentors Jon and Kelly, really inspired me and I appreciate all the ideas you shared!

Kelly and Dave, you are amazing! Endless thanks!
:)

End of the Year

As the school year comes to end, I want to reflect on the improvements I have made with technology. In the beginning of the year I considered myself a novice when using Smart Notebook. I was still able to help other staff members answer basic questions about the software but unable to create fancy interactive lessons. Throughout the year I have been able to improve my lessons by adding links to lesson or interactive activities. I would get ideas from various websites like Smart Exchange and then attempt to add the features I found interesting to my lessons! I am also able to trouble shoot more successfully for myself and other teachers. Overall, being a part of Global Learning has helped me integrate technology into my classroom in meaningful ways. I feel more competent using technology and sharing ideas with colleagues.