Go Hawks!

Next weekend is the big game - Iowa State Cyclones v. the Iowa Hawkeyes.  Here in Iowa, you have to pick a side.  After teaching in different states for many years, I finally moved back to Iowa in 2009.  I realized very quickly that on the Friday before the big game, you were expected to show your support for your team by wearing either Hawkeye gear or State gear.  Well, lucky for me, I love the color black and just happened to have a black shirt on that first year.  As the big day gets closer, I wanted to get my students involved in the big rivalry.  As I was "Pinteresting" one night looking for art ideas, something hit me out of the blue.  How about having the students draw Herky if they support the Hawks and draw Cy if they support the Cyclones!?  Well, I wasn't sure how they were going to do, but I was pleasantly surprised.  After putting up the bulletin board, I sent out an email inviting other teachers to have their students add to the excitement.  I am hopeful that by next Friday, we will have the entire wall filled!!!  (Hopefully with more Herkies!!!!)  I couldn't be more excited about this great display of team spirit!  Enjoy ~ and GO HAWKS!

     And... it's that time of the year again!  Almost time for back to school - well, some of us have already been back to school for a bit.  :-)  The picture above shows the amazing donations I have received from Mr. Roper and his wife - my neighbors who adopt my class every year.  They are incredibly generous and have provided supplies for my classroom and students for the past 3 years.  I am so grateful to them for graciously helping out the community in this way.  What a wonderful reminder that there are people out there who do amazing things every day to support students and our educational system.  Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Roper.  On that note, I hope that your final days of summer are filled with fun, sun, and pleasant thoughts about returning in a very short time.  Keep calm and summer on!

It's that time of the year again... time to start planning for fall!  As I am going through my student writing notebooks, I am finding that "Work on Writing" is a weak area as part of my "Daily 5."  I plan to revamp my writing options and I'm wondering if anyone out there has ideas they would like to share?  What works for you?  I will be working on this throughout the summer and would appreciate any helpful hints and tips!  Thank you so much and have a wonderful summer!  

(Time flies when you're having as much fun as we have!)

Give a cheer, spring is here - FINALLY!

What a beautiful day we had today, and hopefully the week will be just as wonderful.  As I look toward the end of the school year, I have been looking for end of the year reflective activities for my students.  Do you have any favorites that you use?  I would love to hear what you do in your classroom.  In the past, I have made a bulletin board that features the quote from "A Tale of Two Cities" - "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."  I have the students share their favorite thing about the year and their least favorite.  The answers always surprise me!

Student Teacher Anyone?

Good Snowy Friday Morning!  What a mess we've had this spring, or shall I say extended winter!  I do love rain, but this snow is a little much.  (See previous letter to Winter.)

Today I am wondering about all things "student teacher."  I have been asked if I would be interested in hosting a student teacher next fall.  This is something new for me as I have never had a student teacher in my classroom.  I have had many college students who are studying education come into my classroom for a day or two here or there, but never a student teacher for a field experience.  So, I'm looking for the pros/cons, positives/negatives, thoughts, comments, concerns of my fellow teachers.  If you have any advice, I would love to hear from you!  

Thank you in advance for your candor~
Ms. Lukes

How do we help the endangered animals?

This week, one of my reading groups was reading the book, "Endangered Animals."  We were able to have amazing discussions and one student  asked what we could do to help.  As we spent more time talking about the many endangered species of animals, the students continued to ask if there was anything we could do to help.  So, while watching television one night, a commercial came on for the World Wildlife Fund.  I decided that this would be a perfect way for my students to help endangered animals.  The next day I showed the students the many animals that we could choose from for a "symbolic adoption."  They ended up choosing the snow leopard.  For a donation of $25, we will receive a certificate showing that we have adopted a snow leopard and a picture of a snow leopard.  I let the students in the reading group explain what we had decided to do to the rest of the class and they were all very surprised and excited!  I sent home simple certificates with the students so they could share the news with their parents.  On Friday, one of my students shared that he and his little sister adopted a macaw!  How exciting!  This was an amazing opportunity to make a real world connection for my students.  Hopefully they realize the importance of protecting endangered animals.

   

Thought for today...

Easter Break and a Little Sunshine!

A Message to Winter...

The view outside my window right now...

Dear Winter,

While I do love to watch your beautiful snowflakes fall peacefully to the ground, I believe we have all had quite enough of your beauty for this season.  They say that sometimes those who are dying need to hear someone say that it is okay for them to pass on.  Well, Winter, it is okay for you to pass on.  We are ready for spring, green grass, and the warmth of the sun.  So, thank you for a lovely season, but it is time for you to go.  We look forward to seeing you again in November.

Love,
Ms. Lukes   

I'm No Van Gogh...

As I've mentioned before, teachers are responsible for art at my school.  I am always looking for new ideas for my students.  There are many great projects out there and I am grateful that so many art teachers share their ideas.  Something that I started last year was featuring famous artists and having my students try to recreate some of their most famous paintings.  The pictures below are from Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and Kandinsky's "Circles."  The students are always very intimidated before they begin, but I am always amazed at what they produce... and I think they are too!

So, any great art ideas out there that you'd like to share?  I am always looking for new ideas and I'd like to hear yours!  Have an amazing day - spring obviously didn't know that we were expecting it to be 70 degrees yesterday...

Personal Learning Network?

Anyone out there have their own Personal Learning Network?  I'm working to figure out how to create my own and would like to find out what people are using.  Are you a blogger?  Are you a tweeter?  Do you make Facebook connections?  Do you bookmark your educational favorites on Delicious?  Are you a Pinterester?  I'd like to hear some of the ways that you are building your collaboration with other educators.  Share away and let's help each other!

Storybird

Good morning everyone!  It's Thursday... I don't know about you, but changing the clock by one hour always does me in.  I have been tired all week and from the looks of my coworkers, they have been too!  Of course, my students don't show signs of being tired - EVER...oh, to be young again!

So, I'm wondering if anyone out there has any experience with Storybird?  If you are not familiar with it, Storybird is a website that features artwork from various artists and you can create stories to accompany the pictures.  I am trying this out with my third graders this year as part of the "Instructional Technology" class that I am taking.  So far, we have just been exploring the site and reading stories that have already been created.  The students seem to love it, so we'll see how things go as we move to the next phase, which is creating our own stories.  If you have any information about Storybird - good, bad, or ugly - please share!  Thanks so much and have a fantastic day!

Really???

Well, it's a Tuesday afternoon and the sun finally came out again.  The snowflakes continued to fly most of the day.  Last night, I was chatting with a parent during our conference - due to snow days, they were cancelled and rescheduled twice.  We got to talking about how we are both "grammar hounds" and I remembered a picture I had taken during a recent trip to Colorado.  On my return flight, this is what I had to look at the entire flight home.  

Needless to say, it bothered me so much I had to take a picture.  Anyone else out there bothered by this?  If you don't see the mistake, you won't understand.  If you do see the mistake, are you as bothered as I was?  Just wanted to share...

Here Comes the Sun...

Of course, as soon as I typed the title of my post - the song started in my head... "Here comes the sun, little darlin', here comes the sun and I say, It's alright..."  It is nice to finally see the sun after the long, dismal days of snowfall that we've had.  On a day like today, I can see the (spring) light at the end of the tunnel.  Speaking of tunnels, our classroom pets have been making lots of tunnels.  For Valentine's day, I gave my students two dwarf hamsters as a gift.  The students named them Rocky and Thunder... bold names for two little guys - or girls, funny thing is, we have no idea what they are!?!  Anyway, here is a picture of the newest additions to our classroom.  I am NOT a rodent person, but guess what?  They really are adorable!  Enjoy the sun while it lasts!

Check out my Wiki!

Another snow day... I guess that's okay because I have plenty of work to do for the class I'm taking - Instructional Technology.  Yes, this blog is part of an assignment that I had to complete.  Another assignment was to create a wiki - so if you're looking for something to do on this snow day, please check out my wiki and feel free to contribute if you'd like!

http://lukesconferencetips.wikispaces.com/

The Luck 'O The Irish

I can't believe that we are in the first week of March - where has the time gone?  This school year seems to be flying by... It really is true that time flies when you're having fun, but time really flies as you get older!  So, the next holiday is St. Patrick's Day and we started an art project for it last Friday.  We lost our art teacher due to budget cuts a few years ago, so the teachers are in charge of art.  I typically have my students complete an art project on Friday afternoons.  One of my favorite art projects back in the day was the old "twisting colored tissue paper around the top of a pencil eraser, dipping it in glue, and pressing it onto a piece of paper."  I'm thinking that there must be an official name for it somewhere, but I don't know what it is exactly.  So, that is what I call it!  Here is a picture of a few of the shamrocks that my students are working on.  They had never done this before, and they absolutely love it!  It really takes me back... :-)

Quotes that we love...

As I took a break from working on assignments for the current class I'm taking, I decided to spend some time "Pinteresting."  Yes, it is a verb!  As I perused the Popular posts, I came across a pin that included 60 inspirational quotes.  For some reason, I love spending time reading quotes - made by famous people, not-so-famous people, and everyone in between.  My favorite quote comes from the poem, Desiderata by Max Ehrmann - "Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence."  If you haven't read this poem, it would be worth your while to read it.  So, I thought, maybe you'd like to share your favorite quote... it can be inspirational, humorous, thought-provoking, whatever it is, I'd like to hear it!  Okay, back to my homework... (and Pinteresting)!

Thinking about substitutes...

Yesterday we had a team meeting and we all had substitutes for the afternoon.  I got to thinking... I wonder how many teachers tell their students when they are going to be gone, and how many don't.  Now, I can count on one hand the number of days I've been gone this year, so I rarely have substitutes in my room.  That being said, I have always been one to tell my students so that I can let them know my expectations when I am not there.  So, weigh in if you would - do you tell your students when you will be gone?  Why do you think that is a good idea?  And if you do not tell your students, why do you think that is the best way to handle the situation.  Just wondering...  

Anyone else sick of snow?

Yes, I'm officially finished with all of the snow.  Today is another snow day and the flakes just keep falling!  While it is beautiful, I am ready for the sun to return.  I've been thinking that it would be a good idea to get ready for spring art projects.  Anyone have any fantastic ideas that might bring some warmth to the classroom?  Last year we were working on synonyms and we made these flowers.  The students really enjoyed them and they added lots of color to the hallways.  Think Spring!