Sunnyside Elementary School- July 2017

So as I've said in my other 2 posts, July was such a whirlwind, I was interviewed July 11th and was offered the position the next day with school starting on July 18th. However the Principal for Sunnyside, Robert Cochran, was not on my interview panel so I hadn't even met him in person when I came in the first Friday, the 21st. Robert had called me on the 13th, welcoming me to the team, and he was just as great when I met him in person.

He was very generous allowing me time to plan and meet my partner VAPA teacher, Sarah Lincoln, the music teacher. She is super kind and invited me to lunch to meet her team of VAPA teachers from Salt Creek Elementary where I got to network with those teachers.

7/28- Story Bird (1st Grade)

My first week teaching (7/28) I had the 1st graders from Ms. Cesena and Ms. Eslinger's class. They created poems on the computer using Story Bird describing how they felt about Sunnyside Elementary School.
I had collaborated with these teachers and asked them what they wanted students to be able to do/practice more of and they had both immediately said logging on the computer by themselves and dragging items with the mouse. A problem that you may not expect, is that students are mostly familiar with using touchscreens, not a keyboard/mouse.
Storybird incorporates both with students having to log in on their accounts, selecting a picture, and dragging words onto the image, to create the poem.