Testing...testing...we're reading for standardized testing

First and foremost, I can't think of any teacher who truly enjoys standardized testing.  

Do I like analyzing data to see trends and how my students have improved? Of course.  Do I spend days doing "test prep" and "teach to the test"? Nope.  I offer quality instruction every day of the school year, not just right before exams.

I start by sharing this image with my students and their families:

Yes, testing is important.  Yes, testing needs to be taken seriously and their scores can impact their placement in sixth grade classes.  But do their fifth grade standardized tests determine the rest of their lives?  

No.

But they've got lots of feelings regarding testing.  We even have a big {pep assembly} to get them all pumped up (but honestly, it leaves some of them feeling even more anxious).

So, about a week before testing, I send home a request to families.  This year, it conveniently coincided with progress reports so I was able to send home this notice and colorful stationary without arousing too much suspicion from my students.

I also sent out class dojo reminders to parents to return the letters.  Some sent back beautiful notes like this:

While others never returned the letters (things happen) or sent back blank stationary.  That was kind of a bummer because I ended up writing nineteen letters the night before testing started.  (Yes, 19/36 of my kiddos needed a letter.  Each one was hand written and slightly different, so they knew it was personalized and I care.)

I didn't want my students to not have something to open the morning of the test.  Every table had letters:

After breakfast (because all our students get free universal breakfast), my students opened their letters.

There were tears.  It was a sweet, beautiful moment.  They went into the test feeling loved, supported, and encouraged.  That's what all students need.

During the test, they got fruit snacks (bad choice with the computers) on the first day.  

Things went relatively smoothly the first day.  I did have to write my first citation (during testing) for a student not listening.  I can't stress enough to this student that listening to directions during testing is kind of a big deal.

After the test, they got some indoor recess (due to the weather) and played games.  They have no homework (besides reading) on testing nights.  I also don't expect much from them academically on testing days because the hope is they've used all their mental capacities to do amazing on their test and have nothing left to give.  So we do some brain breaks, read for pleasure, watch some science videos (thank you Discovery Education!), and we work on logic puzzles.

The second day was a little more frustrating.  There were some major computer issues with the server (not on our end), so students got a lot of extra reading time.  They did an amazing job with being quiet (because they basically had to be quiet the entire day).

My last one finished testing a few minutes before the bell.  I spent almost six hours actively monitoring standardized testing.  For those of you not in the teaching realm, it means I walked in a circle, watching them type.  I pretend I'm in NASCAR, silently making my hundreds of laps around the computer lab. I can't read the test or the questions, I can't help them in any way, I just have to smile and encourage them.

I did get to rock this sweet testing shirt that a fellow teacher made:

They didn't find it funny. I thought it was hysterical (but that's usually how things go.  They don't always appreciate my delightful sense of humor.)

Due to all the computer glitches and their best efforts, we didn't even get a fun reward on Friday (day 2 of the first round of testing).  To show them that I was proud of them, I bought a bunch of rice krispie treats (something no one is allergic to in my room) and told them I appreciated them "sticking" with testing.  We enjoyed those snacks the following Monday and tried to take an outdoor recess, but instead dealt with a sudden thunder storm.  We set a timer and played games inside the classroom instead. 

Tomorrow we start the second round of testing with science.  Two days of testing (hopefully we'll be done before lunch), then afternoon specials and some reading time.  Friday is field day in the afternoon and we'll be doing games in the morning.  Next week is Spring Break (HALLELUJAH) and our last round of standardized testing (math) will take place in May.

We'll be "adopted" by primary classes for the last round of testing. I can't wait to see what cute cards and treats my kiddos get from the little ones.  While I don't love testing, I can say that the sense of community and support my students feel is amazing.

I did see this cute idea on pinterest and if I can find 3 dozen oranges at Costco, this may happen:

How do you motivate your students for standardized testing?

For additional chuckles on how to deal with standardized testing, this {article} always provides a laugh!

Learning Snapshots

I wish more of my day was spent teaching students, or preparing to teach students, rather than filling out paperwork.

Nevertheless, this  is the career I signed up for.  Here are some snapshots of our learning lately.

Poetry Mini-Unit

We've been working on different types of literature (RL 5.5).  Students are quite familiar with the components of novels, enjoy reader's theater, but tend to avoid poetry like the plague.  I get it. I don't actively seek out poetry to read during my free time either.

We spent a few days on reader's theater in small groups.  I selected a passage about Mount St. Helens to tie in with our volcano unit (more on that later) and took the assignment as a speaking grade.

They also practiced taking portions of their novels and turning it into reader's theater scripts.

In doing so, students had to analyze what parts would be explicitly stated by the characters, what information would be presented in stage directions, and what parts might be eliminated.

But since poetry is a major deficit for many of my students, we decided as a planning team that this needed to be addressed.  With poetry, we'll discuss summarizing, layout (stanzas, lines), figurative language, and poetic elements.  Coincidentally, February is also poetry month, so we look like we're totally on top of things!

We started with a class guided poem on World of a Blossom, which actually sparked a forty minute conversation on symbolism (I budgeted twenty, tops).  They glue the poem into their notebooks, then practice annotating their thinking.  We worked on identifying types of figurative language before talking about what the flowers might represent.

I modified this lesson from Jefferson County's long range ELA plans, available {here}.  I taught their unit with fidelity a few years ago and really enjoyed their pacing.  Want just the poem? It's page 29 in the PDF.

Some of mine are experimenting with color-coding their notes.  As a teacher, I allow them this flexibility because fifth grade is such a crucial time for them to develop study skills that work for them.  I've had this discussion a few times with fellow teachers, but hold true to my belief that their notebooks are for them. As long as they have the basic requirements, they can annotate however they'd like.  We practice multiple strategies in the first half of the year, but the second semester means I let them choose how they take notes.  It helps get them ready for middle school where they'll take ownership of their learning.

From there, we did some partner and table reads.  I found a book in our school library about states and poems.  I selected some from the New England region to tie in with our geography unit.  As a class, we read about light houses.  As a table, they found alliteration in a poem about Gulls and Buoys.  With partners, they read about the Islands off of Boston Harbor (complete with pirates).

Surprisingly, they're really enjoying it! We spent some time earlier in the year reading The Raven, which they liked.  We'll be trying some colonial poems next, reading about Moana Loa, and ending with New Colossus.  (Timely, right?)

Project Based Learning

With our project-based learning, we ended our unit on catapults and moved into colonial America (which ties in with our social studies plans).  I'm so fortunate to get to work with such an awesome GATE specialist who co-plans and ties her standards in with what we're teaching.  

They're doing a five class period mock simulation of Jamestown and the starving time.  Each group has one leader (John Smith) that has to decide how the money is spent and which building tasks they'll complete during each given class period (season).  When the whole group works together on one task, it often leads to a lot of fighting.  It's interesting to watch which groups are able to divide up the work load to accomplish more during each season.

We also made sure to not select GATE students to be the group leaders.

Here a group is working on building their palisade, to protect Jamestown from wild animals and hostile natives.

Landforms

We also finished up a mini-unit on volcano formation.

A fellow teacher and Hawaiian native came in to talk about Hawaiian culture.  One of her friends sent us a box of goodies from the Hawaiian Research labs on active volcanoes.  We spent time exploring topographic maps of Mauna Loa and watched several Discovery Ed video clips.


We've explored equivalent fractions, fractions on a number line, adding and subtracting fractions.  Once again, color coding the fractional amounts is a helpful strategy for many students.  We use colored pencils quite often in math these days.

We have reviewed with bingo in small groups:

This game was part of an old {donorschoose} project and is still loved by students years later.  Thank you again to friends, family, and strangers who continue to support my students and their learning.


Up next?

This week brings the 100th day of school, Valentine's day and the class party, and getting ready to go to the neighboring middle school for a tour.

#yeareightisgreat

Well that's nifty!

This week I had the privilege of being named DEN Community Member of the Week.

I am honored and humbled by the acknowledgment for my hard work in the classroom.

Read the article {here}.

Skidding

The end of the school year does not come to a graceful stop.  Instead, much like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland, the end of May into June is a whirlwind of heightened emotions, long hours, crying students, a never ending to do list, and triple checking lists to make sure every task was accomplished.  

Then, it's over.

If you're wondering what it's like to teach in May, {this video} does a fairly good job at capturing how it feels to be in a fifth grade classroom.

My students are officially on summer break.  I am a few hours away from that joy as well.  My brain, however, decided that 2:38 am was a good time to start the day, so here I am.

Let's recap, shall we?  Since there's a lot that's happened, I'll stick to one topic:

ABC Count Down

The last twenty six days of the school year are devoted to an ABC countdown with each day having a different spirit concept.  In theory, this is wonderful and helps the kids finish the year strong.  However, we also were standardized testing until the end of May and it's incredibly difficult to keep kids motivated on spirit days.  I failed spectacularly at taking pictures this year, so I'll just describe our spirit days.


A: Art day. My students had a math test and I told them their art was fraction models.  They didn't find it funny.  I on the other hand, found it quite amusing.  I gave them some doodle time once their tests were all turned in.

B: Beach towel day.  Students brought in towels (I forgot) and we read outside in the court yard once standardized testing was done.

C: Crazy hair day.  No dye and nothing to distract from testing.  I let my hair dry naturally so participation was easy.

D: Disney day.  I'm sure I was some sort of Disney princess.

E: Exercise day.  We laid on the ground and did some stretches.  We also worked on calming breathing exercises before taking the SBAC.  I walked around in circles for hours "actively monitoring" testing, which means I make sure they're on task, but can't look at the specific questions that are asked because it's confidential.  I also try to win the fitbit step challenge of the day with my coworkers.

F: Fruit day.  Some of my students brought in snacks to share.  B brought me flowers and pineapple (since this was also teacher appreciation week).  Happy coincidence that it was fruit day!  Because I still had a lot of math concepts to teach before the math SBACs (we took ours in three parts: ELA, math, and science while spacing them out three weeks apart), I used this to teach about surveys (favorite fruit), organizing data, and making graphs to represent the data.  Since it was derived from our classroom, the students were super engaged.  They also generated questions that could be answered by the class data, which helped them practice thinking critically.  I paired them up and had them share their questions before analyzing if the question was answered explicitly by the data, inferred by the data, or not supported by the data.

G: Geography day.  This happened to coincide with a digital field trip from {Discovery Education}, so we visited Indiana and learned about cars.

For our first digital field trip, this went fairly well.  We missed the first twenty minutes (because they were out at recess) and this was geared toward high school students, but it was still a fun experience.  We made connections to perseverance and the scientific inquiry process, so they were still able to get something out of it.

H: Hat day! This also coincided with a visit from {Dr. Frey}, a field trip to the {Springs Preserve} for their {Butterfly Habitat} AND May the Fourth (Star Wars Day), so I had to plan accordingly.

Luckily, B's new BB8 hat did just the trick! 

(Naturally, Waffles is in the picture!)

Students learned about life cycles, so this was a perfect tie in with standards.

I: Inside out day.  One students wore a shirt from the movie, while others wore their clothes inside out.  I accepted both for spirit day points on {class dojo}.

J: Joke day.  They brought a joke to share.  Their jokes were not that amusing.  My jokes are rarely child-friendly. 

K: Kickback day.  My first of several opportunities to wear yoga pants to work.

L: Lollypop day.  Students could enjoy a sucker during independent reading time (if they brought their own).

M: Movie day (?).  Again, this was weeks ago and a lot has happened.  If it wasn't movie day, it should have been.

N: Neon day.  Another year has come and gone where I realize that I own nothing neon.

O: Octopus day.  This day, by far, makes the least sense.  We are a landlocked state.  We are in the middle of the desert. Yet, we use this day to discover the {Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus}:

Except this creature isn't real, so instead we have the life chat that not everything you read on the internet is true.

Next year I vote this is orange day. It would be much easier.
 

P: Pajama day in all its glory.

Q: Quiet day.  This coincided with testing, so it was a breeze.

R: Red & read day.  This one was pretty straight forward and a great opportunity for me to rock a red Gryffindor shirt. 

S: Superhero day.  I failed in my attempt to ban Superman shirts.

T: Team day? (This was only a week ago and clearly not a memorable one.)

U: As much as we tried to convince the students that they were to wear their underwear outside their pants like Captain Underpants, the true spirit day was uniforms.  Some of my students came in their boy scout uniforms, some dressed as doctors, and most rocked sports attire.  My request to come as Batman was denied.

V: Video day.  We Facetimed with a teacher who is in the hospital.  Her students loved it.  Mine shared their Vokis that they made on the American Revolution.

W: Watermelon day.  If they wanted to, students brought in pieces to share.

X: x-change autographs.  We took all the fifth graders to the courtyard and gave them twenty minutes to sign yearbooks and t-shirts.

Y: year-end clean up!  They took all their stuff home and I took down everything on the walls.  My classroom is being painted, so everything has to be cleaned and put away.  My room is also being used for summer school, which means everything of value (all my books) that can't be locked away must come home to the garage.  B's been awesome at helping.

Z: We spent the day at the pool, then had a BBQ so I'm not quite sure what the official spirit day was for yesterday.  I shall call it zzzz for naps day!  (Although I had no nap and probably could have used one.)



When I wasn't handing out spirit day points and remembering the ABC count down, the end of the year also brought:

*Teachers vs. Students Kickball: (I did not strike out and the teachers won.  Success all around)

*Assemblies

*Hosting a bridal shower

*Hosting 3 baby showers

*End of the Year Staff Party (we had a taco truck and a fiesta)

*Observations (because there's no better time than the end of the year!)

*Grade level trivia with iPads and Kahoot (more on that later!)

*parent/teacher conferences

*report cards and awards 

*Fifth grade promotion ceremony
 
*Fifth grade pool party and BBQ lunch

*meetings.  Lots of meetings.

*Skyping with the Chief of Staff for Arkansas's governor

*Dunk Tank:

 

Oh yes, and finishing my grad school class.  45 non-contract hours in 3 weeks.  That was rough to say the least.  But I'm done (for now) because there is literally no incentive for me to take any additional courses (but more on that later).

On non-teaching related things, some of my bridesmaids and I planned the bridal shower and ordered invites, B and I escaped to Arizona, we took in a 51's game with friends, we puppy sat for a week, and had our AC start acting up (thank you home warranty), and I had car issues.  Fun times!

No wonder I'm exhausted!  

All that stand between me and summer break is finishing the last dozen items on our end of the year check list and officially signing out.  T-8 hours until break! 

 

Trying new things

Despite being sick, it was a weekend of firsts for me.

It was my first Thanksgiving not with my mom.  It was my first one with B and his family.  It was a little strange, not being with my mom, but his parents and extended family are incredibly welcoming.  I realize this is part of growing up and that holidays are about compromise.  We just saw my mom a few weeks ago and will see her again right after the holidays, so it'll be okay.  Plus I talked with her a good half a dozen times this weekend (sorry mom!).

We arrived early and I helped in the kitchen (this is big for me people!).  We brought a variety of bread, wine, and flowers for the table.  His cousin made the whole duck-chicken-turkey situation which I was not brave enough to try.  

Food was delish and I felt a bit like this:

Afterward, my allergies got the best of me and I napped.  To be fair, I had a full stomach, a warm blanket, and my football team wasn't on television.

Friday was the first time that I did not go Black Friday shopping.  We ventured out of the house around one pm to visit the post office (bestie's birthday is next week), pick up Chinese food, and some medicine from the grocery store.  I know, I live an exciting life people!  The rest of the day revolved around trying to grade, napping, and decorating for the holidays.

Saturday we did a Small Business Saturday vendor event at my house.  I had {Jamberry}, Amy (my upline) had {Younique}, Lisa had {31} and Janel had {Origami Owl}.  We split the set up, which worked out way better for everyone's budgets.

We had a great time and started brainstorming our next big Saturday event.  We'd love to rent out our school's multipurpose room and have a Saturday shopping event...when things calm down.  So, March?

Our set up is getting better and better each time!

Sunday I tried a flash sale for Jamberry online with a VIP group.

It went okay, but I have ideas how to make it better for next time.  I'm thinking of doing a make up and Jamberry flash sale in the middle of December for those procrastinating gifters.

I did decorate and wrap gifts! (3 for my mom, 1 for his mom, 1 for my bestie, and 1 for Leah, my brother's girlfriend and one of my bridesmaids).  Obviously solid progress.

The rest of the weekend involved napping, attempting to finish up this grading pile, snuggling with fur babies, watching television, yelling during football, and doing the minimum amount of school work that's required for Monday.

This week brings extra paperwork (student withdrew and we've got to get ready for parent-teacher conferences, which means sending out conference notes.  I've learned my lesson, mine will be pink to clearly identify that they get returned to me.).  I've also got Battle of the Books tomorrow (we're trying paper slide videos), a Discovery Ed meeting, and the possibility of visitors just popping in on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (no pressure there!).  I'm already ready for next weekend.

The DEN has landed

Last evening, I had the distinct pleasure of attending another DEN event.  I wasn't quite a presenter, but I wasn't quite a regular newbie either.  It was interesting to observe the DEN event from the perspective of a future presenter.

Read more on the DEN {here}.

I brought two teachers with me and there were a few dozen educators present.  We did some SOS ideas (Spotlight on Strategies) and watched the DEN video.  It's strange to see some of my friends in the video...definitely a fangirl moment!

There was lots of positive energy and that's my favorite part of the DEN.  Educators are sharing their ideas with one another and celebrating classroom successes.  They are open to new things and sharing their ideas with each other.  Being in the presence of the DEN is such a rejuvenating, energizing experience.

I already have a few other teachers ready to join our next session (Oct 22). 

In a district that is so bogged down by frustrations (seriously, a second insurance hike? A mandatory Saturday session on insurance or they'll drop all dependents? Not okay), it's nice to shake off the negativity and embrace the good things about teaching.

I have a great job.  I have great students.  Some are more challenging than others, but I've truly got the best job in the world.  Being around other teachers that feel the same way is such a fulfilling experience.

It's a shame that my passion and excitement upon leaving DEN events is such a stark contrast to how I feel about a majority of the other professional development situations. 

When was the last time you felt passionate and excited about your career?

The DEN visits Vegas

In the fall of 2012, I was sent to yet another professional development training.  I prepped for a sub and showed up at Chaparral High School, looking very much like a high school student.  Even though I proudly displayed my school district badge, I was still questioned multiple times about which class I should be in.  I know, someday I'll appreciate looking much younger than I really am, it's just not that day.

I arrived in the room marked Discovery Education and found a seat near the back.  The room was decorated with a race car theme and the leader's bubbly personality was infectious. 

Throughout the course of the day, we learned all about resources on Discovery Education that extend far beyond assessment.  One of the most pivotal things we learned about was becoming a STAR educator, which allows access to even more resources.

So I applied and was accepted. 

Then we learned about the Discovery Educator Network Summer Institute, which would be held in Burlington, Vermont that upcoming summer.  Impulsively and on the provided lunch break, I decided to film my application video.  Mrs. B, who was my fellow colleague, filmed it on one take on her phone and I submitted the application before leaving the training.

I returned to my school excited to share what I'd learned, but put the application in the back of my mind.  Why would they pick me, a newbie, who had been a DEN STAR for all of twenty minutes before applying?

Well...they did pick me.  I attended the summer institute and it was amazing.  Catch up {here}.

Upon returning, I participated in the ambassador program and shared the DEN with my colleagues.  I then switched schools, moved, and skipped applying to DENSI 2014.

Once the dust of major life changes settled, I decided to apply for DENSI 2015, which I was blessed to attend.  Each year they pick a different location and it's always amazing.  Catch up more on my adventures in Washington DC {here}.

This year, we're gearing up to make the DEN even bigger in Clark County.  For the past two DENSIs, I was the sole representative for not only my district, but the entire state.  

Nevada, we can do better.  Vegas, we can definitely do better.

So, fellow teachers in CCSD, I invite you to join me for the Fall Ambassador Program, starting October 1st.  Yummy food will be provided, you'll get to hang out with me and the DE staff (always a blast!) and most importantly, you'll learn strategies you can take right back into your classroom and meet fellow passionate teachers.

Register on Pathlore!

For me, attending one of these sessions opened the door to meeting my tribe, to re-igniting my passion for teaching, and for making some lasting connections with educators in other states.

(After School Update: See above flyers! I had a colleague already sign up, hooray!)

How will the DEN change you?

September Goals

I don't know how it happened, but September is here!  Here are my top ten goals for the month.

First and foremost, much of September should be spent catching up on blogging! I have so much to share about the first weeks of school, classroom culture, staff development day, wedding updates, exciting updates with Discovery Education, and the engagement shower! I haven't done any of the {Blogtember Challenges} which is disappointing.  

Second, I hope to nail down a wedding date and venue this month.  We've seen two and have a third appointment in a few hours.  It will come down to logistics and finances, but I'm really, really, really leaning toward venue number two!

Third, I hope to finish the book I'm reading.

I'm a few chapters in, but with the start of the school year, most things got put on the back burner.  I've got an ever growing pile of books to read, so it's time to make time for me!  Seriously folks, it's {a problem}.

Fourth, I need to put the house back together.  I did a major clean, with B's help of course, before the engagement shower.  Part of this cleaning meant shoving things into the guest bedroom that we didn't want to deal with, so now I've got to resort the new mess I made.  We've still got the tables set up and banners on the wall.  I need to transition the house of engagement shower mode and back into how we normally live (because strangely, it's not with a ten foot dining room table.)  

Fifth, I get to decorate for fall!

(Disclaimer: This is not my home.  

This is way too many pumpkins, but you get the idea!)

I love decorating.  I didn't want a pumpkin explosion before the shower because I wanted it very clearly decorated for the party, but now it's time for fall.  I've got pumpkins and football decor to set up!  This will probably be a next weekend task.

Sixth, Waffles gets to go to obedience school.  We have to pick a date that works for both of us and make those appointments.

Seventh, I need to finalize long term social studies plans.  On paper, they are mapped out through winter break and work out just fine.  I have most of the powerpoints made, I just need to do some revisions.  Once they're done and shared with my grade level, they'll also be available on TpT, so check back soon!

Eighth, I need to finish thank you cards.  

We weren't expecting anything at our engagement shower, but some lovely friends ignored this request and spoiled us. 

Ninth, I need to get Waffles on her walking schedule.  She did great on her walk last night, but ideally she'll be getting two walks a day.  I know with the weather changing, she'll get more time outside.  Since we're in the desert and she's already got a black coat, I'm overly cautious with having her get too overheated on walks.  

Tenth, B and I need to adjust our budget.  We'd wanted to purchase a second security door, but that's now on the back burner.  Since our doors aren't standard sized, we need custom ones and they are close to two grand a piece.  We are almost done paying off the first one (and the new dishwasher), but can't buy the second one like we'd planned.  Instead, we're prioritizing with purchasing a water filtration system for the house instead since the water here isn't the best.  Plus we've got to save for the wedding.  I didn't realize that the full balance had to be paid before the big day, so it's a good thing it's still more than a year away!  Both our families are helping (which is wonderful), but we are planning on a gorgeous day with 120 guests, so there is a bit of a price tag.  Nothing drastic with the budget, just less eating out and more game nights at home.  Hopefully our friends will understand!

What are your goals for the month? 

DENSI 2015 Overview

I'll start off with saying that I believe all professional development should be like DENSI.  It was a purposefully crafted week that allowed for whole group sessions, hands-on exploration, discussion, collaboration, and smaller break-out sessions that were dictated by teacher's choices (unconference).  

Here was the overview:

Sunday

We took arrived at American University and I was already exhausted.  I left Las Vegas at 12:30 am, landed in Philly around 8 am, then landed in DC at 11.  DENSI doesn't start until 3, but my suite mate was awesome and picked me up from the airport and let me drop my bags off in my room.  She had been there since Friday because she is on the Leadership Council.  I then found two newbies from Chicago and we went off in search of food.  We must have found the DENSI hotspot because I saw my roommate there (along with a good three dozen other hungry teachers).  After lunch (and gelato), we headed back to officially begin DENSI.

After getting our lanyards and fighting for the elevator, we took our press photos, unpacked, and had dinner.  DE brought in food trucks and then we did a gift swap and scavenger hunt.  Part of our packing instructions were to bring a gift that represented our home town, so I brought a mug, playing cards, and a poker chip key chain for my mystery person.  I got some peanuts from Virginia (lucky B!) and my person was super friendly.  We also got our DENSI swag, which included a Shark Week hat (I love Shark Week) and a selfie stick.

We then had our opening session, went over the schedule, and had some guest speakers.  We broke off into our smaller team meetings.  Since all of our team was female, we named ourselves the Estro-DEN.  One of the ladies on my team was also my suite mate, so that was a fun coincidence.

Monday

We spent the morning site seeing and the afternoon on our own.  I chose to spend the afternoon in the Natural History museum, including an accidental nap during an Imax movie on oceans.  (To be fair, it was a very soothing and calming movie.)

We saw the Thomas Jefferson, FDR, Martin Luther King Jr, Lincoln, Vietnam, and Korean war monuments.  We drove by Embassy row, the Washington monument, and the White House.

Snapshots from Monday:

(Inside and outside of the Jefferson Memorial)

Dr. King

(Fun fact: His position means he's staring at Lincoln's monument, where he gave his I have a Dream Speech)

President FDR's memorial

(We were told not to sit on his lap. I'm disturbed that the tour guide deemed it necessary to tell us that in the first place.)

Washington's monument 

(Fun fact, you can see the different layers because of construction issues about 1/3 of the way up!)

Korean War Memorial

President Lincoln (Notice the hands are A and L in American Sign Language)

(Added to the Lincoln memorial steps to honor Dr. King)

The White House

After site seeing and dinner, my roommie and I crashed.  We'd been up for a while and both were on West Coast time, so the 6 am alarm seemed very early.

Tuesday

I immediately began to hate my alarm clock.  We had to get to the dining hall early to compete for food with hundreds of enthusiastic children.  I'm pretty sure the future leaders of America (or a similar spin off) were there, so there were lots of sixteen year olds in business attire trying to navigate the campus in heels.  We didn't even bother attempting Starbucks when we saw the line out the door. 

On the bright side, this was a site we saw every morning:

(As a Nevadan, I enjoyed the greenery.)

After breakfast was our morning session, then break out mini-sessions (which I'll reflect upon later) with lunch in between.  I took notes on my pink memo pad, which is ironic considering I'm at a tech conference, but that's how I process information the best.

(On a completely unrelated note, I also process learning best when I have Starbucks and chocolate...)

I attended: PBL in the media rich classroom (project/problem based learning), doodling in the classroom (as a means of note taking), showing what you know (projects), and library and digital resources (to share with my librarian).  All my sessions were amazing.

Dinner followed, then the DENmazing race (the Amazing Race, Discovery Style).  My team was not competitive (hence the name the Frolicking Unicorns) but we had a great time.  As an added bonus, I found some new team builder games to use next year with Sunshine committee.

We had to jog through the hoops and then crawl through the tunnel before throwing a football through another hoop at the end of the station.  There were at least eight different embarrassing games.  

After the DENmazing race, we did an escape room.  This was my first time participating in one and it was awesome.  It was 1985 themed and our team escaped the room the fastest.  We had to work together to solve clues and figure out puzzles to enter different rooms within the escape room (there were six rooms total, so I guess it was the escape suite).  

Wednesday

Again, the alarm clock came too soon as did the fight for the omelet line with the children.  The day was again broken into smaller mini-sessions.  

I attended: Coding (which I definitely need to investigate more), app smashing (combining different apps into a project), portable presentations (a good dozen things to use besides Prezi), and took the last session off to process everything I'd learned so far.

I also had some time with the DENSI gnome. 

He is not to be left alone and enjoys meeting all the DENSI participants.

We then did another team builder that focused on mini-debates that could be used in the classroom, had a team meeting, (had a post-dinner nap), and then had a DENovator (craft) fair.  I made a shark week coaster (because obviously), a few other small craft projects, and had a great time chatting with others.  

I don't know how, but I want to do something like this for our wedding.  The craft wheels in my mind are spinning!

I also snagged this iron-on to use on a future project:

Next time I attend, I'll definitely plan a craft to share :)

Thursday

Thursday is both my favorite and least favorite day of DENSI.

It's my favorite because it's unconference day, which means the sessions are all created based on what we as educators want.  It's loosely structured and meant to allow for glorious amounts of collaboration.  

I attended information on utilizing twitter and instagram in the classroom (teaching_with_avice if you choose to follow), classroom dojo, mystery skyping, and more.  There was so much wonderful information that I can't wait to share (both here and with my school).

Thursday evening brought our history-themed closing session.  Being the only delegate from my state, it was a little sad to see all the group themed costumes and not have anyone to collaborate with.  I represented the West with Annie Oakley because I already owned all of my costume components.  Some of the other states went as cave women, Egyptian pharaohs, and history bees (yes, bees).

Friday 

We cleaned our room, headed to breakfast, and then to our tear-filled final session.  I headed to the airport to meet Erika and then began our best friend filled weekend.  

I returned home late Monday evening and have been slowly processing the week since then.  I'm a little frustrated in my delay at getting out DENSI notes, but I've also had eye doc appointments and the puppy is interested in chewing on everything but her toys, so she requires constant vigilance.  Good thing she's cute.

Stay tuned for more in depth session notes!