Ear, Butt, Fairy & Laughter

First!
Happy New Year!
Its Farley's Currently Time!
I absolutely LOVE reading her blog, Oh Boy 4th Grade. and joining her linky party! Woot Woot!

Well I hope my title, "Butt, Fairy & Laughter" got your attention!  It gave me a chuckle!  What a way to start the new year but I am positive it is going to be an awesome 2015!  So here is my New Year Currently.... 

Listening....My 14 year old is trying to convince my 7 year old that she is watching the ball drop with some video she found on Youtube.  LOL  Keeping my fingers crossed it works!  I love listening to my kids interact when they are not fighting which some days are few and far between.

 Loving....Of course winter break but mostly importantly my new hearing.  I had my "ear" drum replaced this summer that has been missing for at least 5 years.  Today I went to my last post op hearing test and was told my hearing is back to the normal range.  YAHOO!  I did not realize how bad my hearing had become until it was given back.  Wow what a difference! Love!

Thinking.... I need to get my "butt" in gear and start some school work done before this breaks slips by. 

Wanting... I feel like I have been in a creativity slump.  I don't feel inspired to blog or create any new TpT products.  I did make one product over break because I felt my "Flashlight Friday" needed something more.  Flashlight Friday is where the kids read for the entire period on Fridays with a flashlight but it needed some accountability for the kiddos.  So poof I created 4 different quick worksheets for them to fill out, one for each Friday, on what they are reading.  Here is the TpT link if you would like to take a peek.


Needing.... I always need a cleaning "fairy" godmother.  I hate to clean anymore:(

Yes... I have been thinking of some new career challenges/adventures that still involve teaching.  Hopefully more to come soon.

Maybe... A second job.  I like Farley, have some BIG medical bills and I have decent insurance.  See loving!   So I need to bring in some more money to pay off those bills.  Gosh if I could only start creating some more TpT products. 

Wish...For a year of new adventures, good health and laughter!

Share some linky love, find a new blog or two and have an amazing new year,

Hour of Code - Coding? Me?

Happy December everyone!
The school year is almost half over!
I just can't believe it!

Well I wanted to share something that I am working on for my 4th and 5th graders next week.  Have you hear that schools are being invited to teach one hour of computer coding sometime next week (Dec. 8th - 12th)?  They hope to get 10 millions kids coding next week.  WOW!  You ask what is coding?  Coding helps us to make apps, games, websites, video games, software...... which is the future of jobs of many of our students.

 So next week I was selected to teach coding to my 4th and 5th graders which is going to be taped for a State of the School video.  There is an awesome website code.org which has tons of really cool step by step tutorials that even kindergarteners can use. 

On my Google Classroom that I have set up for each of my classes, I linked a few of the tutorials such as Frozen for the girls, Angry Birds for the boys, Flappy Code where the students can design a game using the Angry Birds game.  I even found a website (Made With Code) where they can program the Christmas lights on outside trees of the White House which will be aired on YouTube.  Cool right?

After going over the basic vocabulary and previewing the websites with the entire class I will let them loose to explore and have fun. 

For some of my students who have a little more computer knowledge I added the Kahn Academy tutorial which is a step by step tutorial that is a bit more challenging. 

They even have non-computer lessons which teaches the students to use a "code" that another student follows to recreate a pattern on a 4 x 4 graph or cups that represent the "code" that move a student robot to do certain things.  The kids are going to love it! 

 Is your school doing the Hour of Code?  Are you doing an Hour of Code in your classrooms?  If so, how are you presenting it to your students?  Please leave a comment or two I love to hear from everybody!