NOTEBOOKS GALORE!

So, I've been working in my classroom - seriously, a week and school starts!
I love having my students work on fluency with Six Minute Solutions and Comprehension with Timed Readings. I've debated how to make these charts into an interactive notebook, but I don't think it will work. So, they are staying in the plastic folders.

HOWEVER, I am in the process of setting up a Reading Interactive Notebook and an English Interactive-ish Notebook. The debate is to combine these together, but since I LOVE Giggles in the Middle, I might just keep the English portion in it's separate binder, with students adding their own learning to the Caughtyas.

THAT LEADS to the Reading Notebook - I've studied NUMEROUS ones this summer, and I am definitely going to mush a bunch of different things together! I'm planning on the students using their Composition Notebooks for this, that way students can transport them easily. I need to make my own "this what goes on the left side and right side," because, frankly, I want my TEACHER / CLASS input on the Left - I've only found one other teacher: Sabra who has admitted to putting class items on the left. Other influences for my Interactive Notebooks: Randy, Ms. Mohamed, and Donalyn Miller. I hope they go well - and I'll post photos as we grow with them this year!

School - 17 Days! Some of my plans: Focus: English

Hello,
I hope you have looked up #FMSBlizzard on Twitter - he's been making the rounds!

I've also been reviewing what I liked / thought helped last year - right now, the focus is on English. I know my students struggled with the concept of sentence types. I know my students this year will, also. So, last year I created "The Minons Do Grammar" Link to my document:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dFK3wjr29jJubpTAElPe3YYOxO74y2J_KDpFiSk_dPw/edit?usp=sharing

It really helped the kids understand sentences, and I plan on using it this year. (I did think about redoing it with new movies - but I've not seen any that I really want to relate to sentence types.) Additionally, I plan to incorporate the use of ELA interactive notebooks - which I've done somewhat before, but I conscientiously am going to focus on this to help students this year! Thank goodness for Pintrest - it's where I've gotten several pictorial ideas on how to make them work better than ever! Plus, with my new Twitter connections, I know I can always get help from another professional!

Day 5 - Wrap Up STEM

Today, we finished at Sanford Underground Labs. It was great to help come up with the idea of new ways the Labs could reach out to teachers -- there is so much they are doing! I'm very interested to see what they can get done in the future for educational support.

The other portion of the day was sharing our lesson plan ideas. I must say, I believe we came up with great ideas to implement into classrooms and get students excited about STEM. Even though I don't directly teach STEM - it directly links to Social Studies and ELA by the complex interactions of humans and their environment. Additionally, show me a profession that you don't need ELA to excel in!

Overall, I've met some great people and plan to work with them from across the state!


PS - I like you all, but I'm happy to be home for a bit!

Day 3 & Day 4 of STEM

K - Potassium! Just a bit of humor to start the night. Yesterday, was a long day - but so informative.

DAY THREE reflection: (Since it didn't post last night!)

First, we learned all about Extremophiles - which are just awesome little bacteria that can survive in EXTREME conditions. These little bacteria literally just appear where needed - when they no longer have a food source, they "disappear."

Now, other than what they eat, why are they important? They can help break down Biomass - basically anything, but really think of the use of switch grass, corn stalks, and other materials that are SUPER hard to break down into basic sugars. This stuff is usually waste - we can't use it.  Extremophiles can actually make this stuff usable - that is AMAZING - and turn these products into bio-fuel (and hydrogen as a byproduct).

So - this means that we all could literally use our own biomass to create fuel! THAT is amazing! Imagine not needing to go to a gas station in the future.

The other NIFTY part of extremophiles - because they appear and eat toxic (not toxic to them, however) substances, they can be used to reclaim water. The Homestake Mining process polluted the water - the off chance of trying bacteria colonies to eat all the "junk" ends up making the water safe. The Water Treatment plant even noticed that bacteria level themselves to what is in the water - a diesel bacteria colony rose up and ate up all the diesel.

That night, we wrote our cross-curricular lesson plans (with LOTS of LAUGHS)!

DAY FOUR!

Today, we learned about Engineering.

Did you know, playdough can be made into a circuit conductor? I found that pretty sweet.

Additionally, I learned all about the different ways you can analyze the rocks to actually be able to create the Underground labs.  They then take all the information and create digitized models of how to build it. This portion of the program was pretty interesting.

We also built magnetic fields, which was fun. I can see the other lab we did, making magnet accelerators, as a way to tie the information into US History and the development of different weapons.

We also learned about a really interesting project funded by South Dakota to create C13 in a new form - and massively cheaper! (Oh, and art history was a good choice to take - because the Chillers figured out how to coat the lead bricks in paraffin to keep the lead from getting pours that collect radon.)

Moreover, I learned the differences between linear accelerators and cyclotrons.

Finally, we learned about underground climate when Steve G. shared his research and challenges he faces in writing code and getting down to maintain his equipment.

STEM - Day 2 Reflection

WOW!

I'm getting all kinds of ideas @SanfordLabs.

Yesterday was a bit over my head -- nuclear physics and such. (I learned a whole bunch of terms about quarks, neutrinos, flavors of neutrinos, etc.) That said, we saw the building of equipment underground, and the problems of cosmic rays and data collection.

I can't imagine being in a clean room and wearing FOUR pairs of gloves and still trying to manipulate tiny pieces.

However, I can find the idea of the research going on and how it will impact our world. (Dark matter and Dark particles and how they keep the world together.) I also learned more about our Sun - and how elements always try to get to the stable valley.

Overall, there is "stuff" that I will take away and guide my students to the understanding of the world around them, and I know I've got students who would be BEYOND interested in this.

Sanford Underground Labs

So, I've spent my first day in STEM working on my own learning at the Underground Labs Learning Centers. It has been amazing. I can see numerous lessons to pull the Geology together with Geography: why people choose to settle in certain locations, why people would attempt to mine in the ground, how the ground formation creates new technologies for mining, how seismographs can be used to monitor moon "tidal" pull in rocks. Beyond these: how a mine impacts a town (Seriously - would you move a WHOLE town THREE times?), how a mine needs to be closed down, and general usage / property rights  / water rights impact what can be done (all that legal writing --- tell me that commas don't matter!).

I've also found out that ONE INCH of rain = 12 million gallons of water into the underground mines. That alone is amazing, and I can think of lessons about how that water could be removed, used, ect.

Here's to more learning! Oh, and I've met a bunch of interesting teachers from all over the State of South Dakota! Several of us are already coming up with ways to link our classes and projects to expand student horizons into a global environment!

"Teacher Vacation"

I love the idea of "Summer Vacation" -- note the idea! The connotation of this word implies are lazy days, doing whatever you want.

REALITY: Not enough time in the day to get ready for the next school year, or get all your own summer projects done!

So, here is my reality: Last week I got a much needed break of one point five days at my parents' farm. Followed by two days in a classroom, learning about SLOs for South Dakota. At night, I got to stay and see my sister. This was followed by a seven hour drive back home, a night in my own bed, doing laundry and repacking to head out the next day to a five day training.

So, this leads me to where I am now - in a college apartment waiting for the Sanford Underground Labs STEM workshop tomorrow! I'm exhausted, but excited to see what I can learn!

However, I do long for the idea of Summer Vacation - reading books, grilling, hanging out with family and friends! I need to make more time for all these!