Coming Full Circle: From TCEA 2013 to TCEA 2014

It's hard to believe it's TCEA time again.  I'm actually writing this post from the Convention Center in Austin between sessions.  This blog was born here at TCEA last year and I feel like it's been a successful first year.  Who knows what this year will bring--more tech posts, more posts about STAAR prep, more early reading skills--but one thing is for sure, wherever this year takes us, it will be onwards and upwards!
I had my first experience presenting at TCEA this morning and I will be the first to admit I was a little nervous. Luckily for me, I had an amazing support team from CISD, including my own Tech guru, @getheather, a.k.a. Heather Russell, and my amazing co-presenters Valery Medford and Katie Abrams. I also had my own cheerleader in the front row in Courtney Selby.  Though there were a few things I wish had gone slightly differently, overall, I was very happy with the way the presentation went. I said what I wanted to say, timing was good, room was full (with very few early exiters) and I only tripped in front of 100ish people once and didn't even fall down.
In case you were not one of the 100ish people and you missed my presentation, you can find the Prezi for Bloggers Lead the Way! here. My message is and was and always will be this:  If you have something to say, say it.  Say it in a way that is inspiring and up-lifting.  Motivate people to take action.  Be a change agent for improvements.  If you're an expert, share the wealth.  If you're not and you'd like to be, start asking questions. If you read something awesome, pass it along.  We can point to all of the things that are wrong in our schools but until we become the responsible party and start doing something about it, we're only going to see the problems and never be the solution.
Oh, and you can do all of that stuff with a blog.
If you are here at TCEA, what has been your favorite part so far? If you're presenting, drop me a line so I can check it out!
Whether you've been reading from the very beginning or you've just started checking-out  Reading is Elementary, thanks for the support.  Please feel free to leave a comment anytime.  Here's to another year of leading the way to great discussion, eye-opening discoveries, and incredible learning for our students.
@AmyVanHornCISD

TCEA Proposal

This blog was actually born in Austin at TCEA 2013.  I'd been considering starting an educational blog for several months and it was when I was away from my family, surrounded by colleagues, and tons of tech that I decided to go ahead and make it a reality.  For TCEA 2014, I am submitting a proposal for a presentation on blogging. I'm still not completely tied down to exactly what all that presentation would include but I am thinking my major focus would be on how to disseminate information and start discussion through blogging.  As an instructional support person in my district, I have found this blog very effective for both of these purposes.  I work in a fairly small district but it is always refreshing to hear someone from another campus (and my own!) say they read one of my posts and that it was helpful to them.  Also, as an aspiring administrator, I feel that this blog can be a great resource for potential interview committees in my future.  I know that there are other teacher-leaders out there who have a lot of knowledge that they would like to share and I feel that blogging is one way to let others know what is working, what we are reading about, the great things that are happening in our classrooms or in classrooms we have visited, and what trends we are seeing in education.  I would also cover how to use blogs as a classroom teacher and some of the basics for getting your blog started.  I would love to hear your opinions as to whether or not you think this type of presentation would be beneficial.Please feel free to leave a comment--yay or nay!
I have been getting a lot of anonymous comments lately and those are always welcome.  I would love it, however, if more of you felt comfortable enough to leave your names with your comments. I think this could be a great place for us to start some discussions. If you read something and you love it, please let me know.  If you read something and you think I'm way off, I'd like to hear that, too!   Summer is coming up and we know we will all be thinking about next year. What are you planning on doing differently?

Awesome Idea: Flipping a Book Study and PBL

As you know, I am currently at TCEA in Austin and I attended several amazing sessions the last two days where I got a lot of great ideas to use with the students I work with and with classroom teachers at our campus.  I will be sharing a lot of these ideas in the days and weeks to come but my most favorite idea today revolves around the idea that we can flip a book study for our gifted and talented students and also incorporate a project based learning experience! I'm not quite sure where this idea came from, I had it while I was in a session talking about something else, but I absolutely love it, so let's go with it!
I chose our GT kids for this particular project because we are a PK-2nd campus and I don't know that all of our students would be able to easily access the technology I am planning to incorporate or if they would be able to handle some of the higher level content I am hoping to incorporate into the lesson plan. I am working with our GT teacher to solidify our plans but this is the basic premise:
We would select a short novel that is appropriate for our 1st and 2nd grade GT students.  All our lessons would be broken down by chapter or two chapters and we would incorporate the flip by teaching the lesson ahead of time and recording it.  These lessons will most likely be posted on this blog for the students to watch or possibly on edmodo--or both.  The students would need to read the assigned portion of the text, watch the video, and then answer a few higher-level thinking, opened ended response questions. We would also do a lesson about appropriate responses, the kinds of questions to ask yourself while reading, note taking, and questions to ask during conversations with others.  The students would meet to discuss their responses in class and share the notes and questions they jotted down while reading.

BrainPop Jr. exhibit in the Exhibition Hall at TCEA

Bats in our belfry! Can you see the little black speck ?  We had an unregistered guest at TCEA today!   

 They would also be working on an Inquiry Circle Project as evidence of their learning. If you are not familiar with ICP's, I highly recommend you read Comprehension and Collaboration by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels.  It's basically an idea that stems from PBL (project based learning)  but the most important difference is that the project doesn't have to be directly related to the text--it just has to circle back to it.  For example, I read Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff with a group of 5th graders last year. I explained ICP's to them and helped them brainstorm ideas.  One of the students decided he wanted to research Hershey's chocolate.  He created a Glogster all about the history of Hershey's. How is this related to the novel?  Hollis is eating a Hershey bar in a scene from the book. Hence, the circle!
ICP also involve some circling by the teacher.  It's incredibly important for the instructor to circle everything back to the Student Expectations you are trying to address through the text.  You have to be very mindful of where your students are headed with their topics and make sure it always ties back in to a pertinent skill or piece of knowledge students are expected to acquire.  Daniels and Harvey are very good at explaining strategies to ensure this happens in their book, which became a Bible of sorts for me for a couple of years as I learned to utilize ICP's with my higher level thinkers. Since that time, I've also tried it with my struggling students and it can be incredibly powerful for them as well.
For our GT students, I am hoping to give them lots of different options for their final presentations.  I have used Animoto, Xtranormal, Voki, Blabberize, Weebly, Wikispaces, Glogster, and several other sites before with great success. It seems like most of my students want to choose a PowerPoint and I do not think I will let this be an option this time. Prezi, maybe, ppt. no thank you!  One of the best parts of TCEA for me has been learning about a lot more really amazing websites and apps that work a lot like the ones I listed above and I'm hoping to be able to use some of these!  If anyone would like more information about how I've used these presentation tools before, please let me know and I'll be happy to discuss and link up some examples.
I've had three or four "Ah-ha" moments today and I can't wait to try out some of the other amazing ideas we've had during our sessions and from the conversation that's been generated from them.  If you're at TCEA and you've had an amazing moment of inspiration, please share it in the comments!  We'd love to hear it! Even if you aren't here and you've been inspired by something recently that's made you say, "Oh!  Wow, I can do this!" please let us know!
Tomorrow, I'm planning to post about another super idea we got from a presentation at TCEA.  It involves Xtranormal, Rachel's Challenge, and Classroom Management--three of my favorite topics!

Let's Talk About Reading!

If you are able to read this blog, you probably had at least one outstanding teacher who invested a lot of time and energy into helping you develop your ability to understand the basic principals of reading.  If you are able to understand this blog, you probably had at least one teacher who taught you the fundamentals of comprehension. If you are really enjoying reading this blog, you certainly had an amazing team of teachers who instilled in you the value of acquiring knowledge via the written word. This blog will be a platform for me to share all of the wonderful teaching methods and strategies I learn through my role as Reading Specialist at an elementary school in suburban Dallas, Texas.  I am so lucky to have been mentored, trained, and given feedback by dozens of amazing teachers over the last 12 years and I've also been blessed to serve in this coaching capacity for the last 6 years, which has allowed me to visit the classrooms of outstanding educators and to participate in critical conversation about what works and what doesn't work.  I will be discussing phonics, decoding strategies, guided reading, comprehension techniques, project based-learning, technology and apps,  best practices in teaching and a number of other topics designed to help educators and parents assist the children they love in improving their reading skills and become life-long lovers of literature.
I will also be inviting you to join in the discussion!  Through your comments, questions, and even guest posts, you will become the architect of this blog and a valued contributor.  I love the saying, "What seems obvious to you is amazing to everyone else!"  You are an expert in many things and your contributions will always be valued here so please feel free to join the conversation.
Follow me on twitter, if you'd like at AmyVanHornCISD and be involved in the amazing conversations the teachers at CISD are having as we create the 21st Century Learner.  Education is growing more and more exciting each day and we all need to do our part to keep the momentum moving forward!
Tomorrow, I will be posting about the TCEA conference I am currently attending in Austin, TX.  Today's sessions were full of amazing apps, websites, tips, and strategies that can help our students not only learn at a faster rate but have fun while they are doing it!  I am very excited about the prospects this blog will provide and I hope you will follow along and join in!