I love this little clip. I find it incredibly inspiring. 

I plan to show it to my students, maybe even our whole team

 to try and help them see where the bar is set for the year.

Anytime something catches my eye or sparks my imagination, I try to get it out there to the students so that they might 'share the spark'.

Playing with the students! 

To intro the year, establish  sister classrooms, and start the students thinking about geography, Heather Lamson (St. Albans Town School) and I are going to use a SKYPE conversation to let our classes meet and then play Twenty Questions with each other. The goal being to figure out the others location first. The amusing part is that our schools are only  a mile or so apart! This will lay the groundwork for future classroom/ community collaborations.

I finally got around to looking at School Tube.

 What a really intense tool!

 It is full of videos made by students  and there are dozens of topics to get you going. You can also post student videos here- what fun.

I am attaching a link to a Back to School video that I found. Who won't love a first day with a little Bill Cosby sprinkled into it!

http://www.schooltube.com/video/ffcf8b963ae848bda1a0/Back%20to%20School%20with%20the%20Cosby%20Show 

                            Search Education                         

This is pretty neat!

 What better way to weave critical thinking skills and 21rst Century Skills together than to teach how to really narrow down a search, a description, or ask a specific question?

 I really liked this site. Check it out for a nice rainy day or maybe teacher's out lesson.

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searcheducation/

I have HUGE plans for Google Earth- limited knowledge, but that is going to change. I want to use Google Earth to help my students start off with basic geography- where are we (small to all-house to global location). 
As we work our way through our world history/ancient cultures themes I would like them to flag (?) their starting point and then as we work our way through history, add in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, and Greece. I am eager to explore a way to labels that are historical and current.

Google Documents

 

I am really into using Google Docs to share ideas with other team members. Our whole team shares a Google doc and we work together with that doc to help guide us and manage the day to day 'remember to's'. 


We recently added a calendar. This is pretty simple-if you want to see a sample it is accessible through  your e-(opps-G) mail- see sample below!

https://www.google.com/calendar/render?tab=oc

                                    

 Here's to great beginnings, ripples in the water, and turning it all inside out!
I am a 4-6 teacher at St. Albans City School and have been teaching for over a decade now. Language Arts and social studies are my passions & I keep taking technology classes to try and stay on top of things. There is so much to learn that I  am always trying to learn more. My students are some of my best sources!