Blogging Slacker Means Pinky Promises

So I've been slack again...Ok maybe not slack considering the amount of things going on currently; but definitely lower status in the blogging world. I have now making a Pinky Promise with myself. This pinky promise is to blog weekly. Yes! Weekly! I know, I know..it is intense considering my previous history of roughly approximately two blogs per month. I'm bringing my full game-on mode for blogging. I feel that it is very beneficial and absolutely love making blog posts. I feel as though they help me reflect on my teaching, our lessons, and things we are doing throughout the classroom and Cramerton Middle. By making this pinky promise to myself, you may get overwhelmed with my blog posts, but they will be helpful, influential, and beneficial to myself and hopefully some other teachers, educators, community members!

This blog post is focusing on the technology being used within my classroom currently. Some slight, teeny-tiny actually, hiccups that I've come across thus far involve the Flip Camera and My new *5* Laptops. The Flip Camera, as I noticed in it's first few uses, is extremely sensitive in picking up sound! A small sneeze across the room can be picked up. I just realized the importance of video recording in secluded spaces away from distractions and everyday classroom noises. The Laptops, as seen through their first uses, have a shorter battery life than expected. In direct response to the lower battery life, there are not enough usable outlets in my classroom for them to be plugged back in! I have solved this by simply gathering some extension cords and surge protectors in order to make sure there is the available outlet when laptop batteries die. Below are some of my amazing students using the laptops and computers within the classroom to research their hometowns and evaluate the information in relation to the 5 Themes of Geography. (Check Out The Project Here!)

Until next time, most likely later this week...There are so many updates to fill in between this post and the previous post. The pictures from our Book Drive, as well as updates on my amazing softball team are yet to come this week ;)

A Little of This...A Little of That.

It has been far too long since the last time I have blogged. I can truly say that I have missed it and missed simply being able to update our progress throughout this year. It's about time!

Here is the new October Newsletter for the Dolphin Team. We are looking into our Language Arts curriculum and studying the 8 Parts of Speech, 5 Parts of a Sentences, Phrases, and Clauses. We will also be starting one of my FAVORITE novels later this month and reading Peter and the Starcatchers. Students always love this novel; especially after reading Peter Pan to begin with! For Social Studies we will begin our exploration into Ancient Civilizations and Mesopotamia.

*Speaking of beginning Peter and the Starcatchers...Here's a glimpse of the Dolphins completing Venn Diagrams with the novel by J.M. Barrie and the Play with Cathy Rigby. Check it out on Amazon

Bragging Just a Bit....
After spending countless hours on Pinterest (by far one of my most favorite sites!!), I found a very inspiring way to create my Accelerated Reader Board for this year. Since all my students have varying goals, it was important for me to keep track of their progress, not necessarily their current point total. Here's my adapted version... **Have to say....I'm pretty impressed with myself! :) **

Finally here is our updated BOOK DRIVE totals. Our drive ended at the end of September. This was our first annual book drive that we can up with for the September 11th Act of Service. We set our team goal at 200 Books. We ended up with over 1100!!! We could not be more impressed with our school, community, and students who donated these wonderful books. I can not wait to donate them and get books to those in needs! I will post pics as the books are donated. Well...Having a wonderful week! Everyone have an amazing Friday ;)