Veteran's Day

Today we celebrated Veteran's Day. It was a day early, but the meaning was still there. The kids had a great time. We invited veterans to come and speak to them about their experiences and talk to them about the importance of the military and Veteran's Day. The man in my classroom did an awesome job. He talked to the kids about how the military ensures that they have certain freedoms and about how the people in the military made a choice to put others' happiness before their own. I think it really hit home for some of them. He talked to them about cool things he had seen while in the Air Force and the neat places he had been able to see while in the military. Mostly, he talked to them about the importance of understanding and appreciating the military and the awesomeness of living in the United States. I was so impressed and really appreciated him giving up his time to talk to my kids.

Happy Veteran's Day!

And a million heart-felt thanks to those who have served or currently are serving our country.

I Knew But Maybe Not

I knew that I loved my new school. I knew that from the moment I interviewed that I would love it there and I do! I knew that. But, I did not know how much. I have such an awesome group of people to work with. It really hit home this week when I started a research project with my students. I wanted them to research Explorers and learn about them, but mostly my goal is for them to gain research skills so that we will be able to do even more research projects as the year progresses. I spoke to the Media Specialist and the TIS at my school. I told them what I wanted to do and they both jumped on board to help me. I am just so excited (and forever grateful for their help) about this collaboration. I took the kids to the Learning Commons (what we now call the library/media center) a few times this week. The first time the Media Specialist took them through a pre-assessment to see how much they know about research. Then she discussed the results with them and explained the correct answers. (I was excited to see that they remembered a lot about what we learned earlier this year about non-fiction text features.) The second time she worked with them to review how to use non-fiction reference books. The third time she and the TIS helped them to use the laptops to research. We will continue our research next week and I am so excited! I just cannot express how grateful I am to these two AWESOME ladies for all of their help!!