I Heart Unicorns!

 I have had the most fun teaching an after school enrichment class this fall! I Heart Unicorns is filled with a dozen 4-6 year olds who all share a passion for the magical way of the unicorn. The class has filled my heart as we completed unicorn yoga, discovered our unicorn names, created homes for our unicorns, and learned all about the eight types of unicorns discovered by the Magical Unicorn Society. The Magical Unicorn Society books have been a big inspiration. After learning about the different types and decorating their own unicorns, students most enjoyed the unicorn hunt! Make two copies of the types of unicorn pages. Cut out the unicorns and hide them around your house. The other copy is the map. As your children go on a unicorn hunt, ask them about where they are as they find each unicorn. The Desert Flame is in the hot sands. Act the the ground is a desert! The Water Moon is, of course, in the water. Swim to it! This was so much fun, and my own children (3 and 4) have spent so many hours going on unicorn hunts!

Zorgamazoo

 A few years ago, I came across the most imaginative children's chapter book called Zorgamazoo by Robert Paul Weston. The entire book is written in rhyming verse! Hundred of pages! It is such a fun read-aloud made even better by the audiobook read by Alan Cumming. In the book, a spunky young girl, Katrina Katrell, comes across a mysterious creature called a zorgle. Other mythical and made-up creatures are also found throughout the book and it just bursts with joy and creativity. I can't wait to teach it again soon! 

Zorgamazoo unit found here. 

Morphology Asanas

 As I'm working my way through an online yoga course, I decided to try to merge by summer IMSE Morphology + training with this newest PD opportunity. In Humanities, students are learning Greek roots and using IMSE's resources to put these roots together to create new words. In an attempt to add more movement into our day, we have added poses with each morpheme. In Humanities, warrior pose is called TELE pose. Not every word has an actual yoga pose attached to it, but it sure is fun to see how the students come up with poses to connect to the meaning of their roots! 

Children's Yoga Training

 My main goal for this school year is to increase the mindfulness activities in my classroom... and in my life! I have been exploring online mindfulness programs and came across YogaRenew. They offer certified yoga training courses as well as add-ons in children's yoga and mindfulness and meditation. While it's over 200 hours in training, I am looking forward to all of the positive ways that the courses will impact my students, my family, and me! 

Check our all of their offerings here. 

Felicia Rose Chavez

 Last Spring in my research into inclusive ELA instruction, I came across the book The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop by Felicia Rose Chavez. I was so blown away by her ideas into adjusting the writing workshop model to amplify historically quieted voices was so powerful that I reached out to her and was able to talk with her in a zoom call for some tips on transforming my own writing program! While there were many takeaways and my own copy of the book is covered in post-its marking favorite reminders, my favorite two are the focus on author's voice and the need to ask permission before giving feedback. Writing is personal. When a student writes a story or an essay, they put themselves into it, and every author's voice is one that matters and should be heard. As an English teacher, part of my job is to help students develop their craft by writing complete sentences and using proper grammar rules and structures while also helping their work stay their own. Letting students take the lead during their writing conferences and tell me and their peers specifically what they'd like support with has been a game changer. My students feel like writers. Students with struggles and learning differences that make writing a challenge are writing pages upon pages in class. The number one rule for a writing workshop is that writers write. I'm happy to say that I have a class full of aspiring authors.

Grammar Escape Rooms

 I have been on a mission to make grammar a more exciting part of my curriculum. It's never been my favorite because there's not much creativity when it comes to grammar. You are either right or wrong. Most of Language Arts allows freedom. You can find many themes in a text. You can write stories that are full of imagination. Grammar, well, can be boring. In an attempt to keep boring out of my classroom, grammar escape rooms have been created. Students work together to solve 4 worksheets on a particular unit of study. There is always a theme and some horror to escape. In the noun escape room you must solve all of the challenges or risk losing toes to frostbite. In another escape room, aliens are out to destroy the planet and knowledge of the parts of speech is all that will save all of humankind! Maybe grammar isn't so boring after all. 

Verb Escape Room

Parts of Speech Escape Room

Noun Escape Room

Subject and Predicate Escape Room

ISACS Takeaways

 This year's ISACS' conference was held right here in Louisville! Teachers from across the region gathered to share and learn together. My absolute favorite idea has to be Winterm. The ISACS' session was titled “The Best Two Weeks of Middle School," and it totally sound like it would be. The entire middle school participates for two weeks during the winter drag. Teachers work together to create two week sessions that may or may not be in their disciplines. Students choose their top courses and are fully immersed in the two week session. There was a Harry Potter themed session that included literary analysis and Quidditch, an entrepreneurial session that led to a service project where students sold their goods, and an amazing Mars expedition that turned the cafeteria into a Mars space station! The whole idea seemed invigorating, and maybe exhausting, for both teachers and students. I love the idea of large-scale cross-curricular projects that inspire creativity and learning from students and teachers alike. Doesn't a baking competition sound like just the right mix of hands-on math, research, and teamwork? Or poetry and songwriting? Maybe that film background could come back in play. :)