Groovy Educator

Several years ago when I taught Kindergarten, I made a nursery rhyme powerpoint presentation for my class.  As we learned each rhyme I would color/highlight the rhyming words or whatever focus skill or sound pattern we were learning.  After the children memorized the rhyme, I recorded them reciting it and added it to the presentation. Each day we would review the powerpoint and each week it would grow  a wee bit longer with each new rhyme.  The children were highly engaged in the activity and it helped build their reading fluency.  I especially liked how we were able to quickly review each focus skill.  The nursery rhymes became my transitions in class.  Whenever we moved from circle time to our desks or our desks to circle time, we would recite a rhyme.  We would recite a rhyme while distributing materials.  Everything had a flow... If I had time I would do this again with first grade poetry.  I have to have the time to find ...

Several years ago when I was teaching Kindergarten, I had an idea in the night.  I used to keep a notebook next to my bed to jot down these ideas... I need to start doing that again!  It was an idea that I quickly implemented and loved.  For some reason I fell away from it but I plan on reinstating it this year.  What might it be?   Musical transitions! Now you may have heard about singing chants to transition from one subject to the next.  I love to do that too but this is different. The musical transitions I am referring to are designed for literacy stations or centers. In the classroom music helps manage volume.  If you play soft background music, the children learn to keep their voices low.  Being able to hear the music helps them self regulate their volume.  (You have to explicitly teach this of course!)  It is also soothing and peaceful.  Couple these two notions with transitioning from center to center and you h...

Every year I begin the year by reading Hellen Keller's biography to my students.  Her story is about overcoming adversity.  It was not her fault that she lost her abilities to both see and hear.  It was not her fault that she could not talk.  This book is a springboard for teaching tolerance.  Over the next month the class and I have several deep discussions about how it is important treat others the way we want to be treated.  We talk about how we do not know what other life experiences have shaped the other person.  We discuss how our experiences change us and how to reach out to others.  We learn to stand up for other people and how to handle bullies.  We also learn that there are NO EXCUSES why we cannot learn.  If Hellen Keller can learn to talk without being able to hear and learn to read without being able to see, there is absolutely no excuse why you cannot learn to read.  We discuss how everyone learns at his or her own pa...