Blog of A Jenna

 I can do it all. I can take it. I can carry this burden. I can find blessing in adversities.  Although all of these things sound really nice. Like all nice things, they come at a price. Still, I practice looking for "the robins, not the crows."* I had begun to chase inauthentic targets. I spent my energy recklessly. I woke up one day a few years ago and found that I had lost my path. I was on a  path, but I knew it wasn't mine. I was lost. When I realized how much I spent worrying about chasing the wrong target, I shifted. I went into a chrysalis of isolation. Even though I was very used to being the center of attention in my personal life (theater kid, and even though I love conferences and learning, I felt like an imposter every time someone paid me a compliment. I still squirm at and deflect the very thing that I crave from my peers; acceptance.  (total cringe confession, I literally wrong a poem about wanting to be accepted by my peers - in middle school. ) When...

 One of the dangers that I face as a teacher is I learn and forget a whole bunch of stuff every year. For example, there is, somewhere out there, about three different blogs full of my writing...somewhere out in the ether. I used to blog what I learned in detail during conferences so I would never forget what I learned. Little did I know I could forget entire things - like spending hours and hours writing blog posts. As I face the second to last week of school, I feel ironically energized and ready. My report cards are done, but now, the cumes aren't - but that is another story. One of the things I forgot, and forget over and over and over again, is a small-group alternative to provide targeted practice for each student while calling over either one or two students, or entire small groups to reinstruct a targeted skill.  Because this style of instruction can be nebulous to try and nail down, I've found that having a grade sheet on a clipboard, a notebook, some labels, and some...

One of the main reasons I wanted to start recording the work I do, is to have a log for NEXT year. I seem to get annual amnesia. How did I have students keep their stuff organized? What is the paper flow system? I have created and forgotten, hundreds of routines, activities, and other bits of instruction of the years. The thing I am struggling with most this year is keeping the classroom clean. I have classroom jobs, but I don't make them a daily routine with fidelity. So, yesterday, I spent 3 hours cleaning the classroom.  When I moved into my current classroom, one of the things I lamented was that there were no cubbies. So, I borrowed a class set of milk crates from the cafeteria to make individual cubbies. I tried to make a bookshelf of them, and ended up not liking how much space they took up. So, the next iteration was for the individual cubbies to be a the students' table spot. WHAT. A. MISTAKE!!! I went through ONE child's cubby and recovered pencils, whiteboards, a...

 Work Glut #1 After watching New EdTech Classroom's video series about what's wrong with education, and what we can do about it, I was reminded of the value of Universal Design for Learning. It was the perfect timing for this message because I had just attended #EduProtocols World Wide #3 a few weeks ago.  Back in the day, I joked about loving drinking from the firehouse. I even created a long-defunct podcast where I shared my passion in a whispered nugget of teeny tiny ed-tech. www.tinyurl.com/oojot . The danger, I've learned, about drinking from the firehouse is that I forget as much as I learn. So, in an effort to help me remember what I've learned, and to help me deal with my habit of re-inventing the wheel, I've decided to record my work gluts.  Once I dive into the glut I can tend to start chasing rabbits. So, I'm hoping to create this little blog series, I'll be able to keep some focus. 8:15a.m - Learning Centers Choice Board Uodate @ 8:25 OMG! So, I...

 Hello!! It's me again. I'm making more sentence segmentation stuffs, this time I'm focusing on using a Halloween Poem, the 5 Little Pumpkins.  SLIDE DECK VIEW slide deck  --  COPY slide JAMBOARD VIEW jamboard  --  COPY jamboard SEESAW Self Correcting BOOMDECK I have included the original images for you to use as you want ;)

 I learned so much from a colleague today! I won't get deep into the details - since I'm just trying to get down my quickest thoughts and then share the links. Sentence segmentation is a skill in which students can count how many words are in a sentence. It seems like a simple skill, but the neurons being made for segmenting sentences will support students in later and more challenging tasks like segmenting words syllables, and syllables into sounds. Sentence Segmenting: Google Slide Deck - Show the sentences and ask students to use their fingers to keep track of how many words are in each sentence. VIEW SLIDE DECK -- GET YOUR OWN COPY Google Slide Deck With Graph - Same as above, and includes a small graph for either whole-group, small-group, partner, or individual work. It includes multi-colored drag-a-copy rectangles to make counting the words more kinetic and tactile. VIEW SLIDE DECK -- GET YOUR OWN COPY Jamboard - The background is the same as the Google Slide Deck With G...

Her blog:  https://simplyskilledinsecond.com/ Her Youtube She just started a series on Phonological Awareness that has been PHENOMENAL! https://www.youtube.com/c/AnnaDiGilio Her Product: www.guidedreaders.com   The best $167 I've ever spent on my classroom. I found Anna when I started researching phonics instruction. My district did not provide adequate training, and it was - and remains to be - a blind spot that I am patiently waiting to come into focus. Anna's resources on TeachersPayTeachers are amazing. I got hooked on her TAB-Its, a copy, cut and paste activity that leaves students with a little tabbed notebook full of the evidence of their learning.  If you are looking for legitimate learning on guided reading instruction and phonics, I can not recommend the amazing, incomparable, and genius Anna Digilio!