Tweet all about it!

Amanda Farber, a 2nd grade teacher at Linn Grove Elementary, has brought a version of the tweet to her classroom. Her goal was to have students transfer learning from their small group guided reading lessons to their independent reading. After a Cognitive Coaching lesson with Linn Grove's Instructional Strategist, Tiffany Kinzenbaw, Mrs. Farber generated ideas of her own for students to showcase their utilization of the strategy. She came up with a creative way for students to "post" tweets during independent reading time using post it notes and a bulletin board.

Students will also have the option to actually tweet on her classroom Twitter account. Students will need to be mindful of the words they choose as they talk about their reading, since Twitter allows for only 140 characters or less.

One story they read in small groups was called Adios Oscar! . She told students that, "Great readers ask themselves questions before, during, and after their reading." On the their classroom Twitter board, students were able to share their questions they had about their book, but also a favorite part of the story. Some of the classroom tweets were...

How did the moth figure out his way to Mexico?

Do all moths have dark bodies?

My favorite part is the author's message of accepting who you are!​

The students have been productive during independent reading and love their new Twitter board!

Fishing for Learning- The Best Catch of All

Photo permissions allowed

Teaching little cherubs to write can be a challenge.  Molly Dabroski, Instructional Strategist at Wilkins Elementary has been co-planning and co-teaching with Betsy Bushlack, a fourth grade teacher. 

Together they have been co-planning and co-teaching writing.  After several planning and coaching conversations, Betsy told her Instructional Strategist that she would like her students to improve their writing.  She wanted to start with narrative writing.  Her goal was for students to be able to "hook" their reader with a bold beginning.  

Molly and Betsy co-taught several lessons on good hooks and made many anchor charts to help students remember the important aspects of personal narrative writing.  

As a final culmination the classroom teacher and the instructional strategist dressed up as fisherman with poles for students to grasp the importance of writing good hooks.  Students learned that "Fishing for Great Beginnings" in their writing would be the best catch of the day. This skill will feed their writing skills for life. 

When asked about the value of having an Instructional Strategist to work with, Bushlack commented, “The co-planning and co-teaching  has positively impacted the students in my classroom and it is very evident in the student's writing.”

This is what teacher leaders do:  they work with teachers to improve their adult content knowledge and instructional practice to make a difference on how students learn and perform. 

Creation Meets Innovation

Meet Kendra Starkey, Student Support Services Teacher at Echo Hill Elementary School.  Each day Kendra works with the students in her classroom on a wide variety of skills and curriculum.  As a part of her daily routine, she has students participate in calendar activities.  

She was looking for a new way to make her white board interactive. Previously she made manipulatives with magnets that students could move around on the board for calendar time.  This was adequate, but students were not as eagerly engaged in the lessons.  Another problem was that the magnets and manipulatives took up all of Mrs. Starkey's whiteboard.  She was not able to utilize it for other lessons.  Mrs. Starkey met with a Technology Integration Coach, Jessica Zimmerman.  Jessica helped locate a MimioTeach bar for Mrs. Starkey to use. 

One week after being given the MimioTeach capture bar, Mrs. Starkey eagerly went to work creating lessons with the software associated with the MimioTeach bar.  Her lessons were instantly brought to life.  

Now the students are fully engaged in the interactive white board lessons that Mrs. Starkey created.  Mrs. Starkey and her class are taking Calendar Activities to a new level.  Students independently maneuver through templates on the MimioTeach and are fostering self-confidence and comprehension through each lesson. Well Done!

Technology Brings Reading Alive in the Classroom

Curling up with a good book takes on a new look in our elementary classrooms today. TumbleBooks are animated, talking picture books for kids. TumbleBooks are created by taking existing picture books, adding animation, sound, music and narration to produce an electronic picture book, which is read to you.

First graders at Linn-Grove Elementary spent time in their building computer lab, with classroom teacher Katie Schafer and one of the elementary Technology Integration Coaches, Karla Koenen. The TIC, (Technololgy Integration Coach) the building Instructional Strategist, Tiffany Kinzenbaw, and Mrs. Schafer met to plan out this lesson.

They spent some time planning together, brainstorming potential roadblocks, best ways to approach the desired end product, as well as made a picture cheat sheet with clues for students to utilize.


Finally the TIC and the classroom teacher co-taught students how to access TumbleBooks in the lab. As they launched their first attempt to access the website, it was an adventure. Some first graders have no experience with a mouse due to only using touch pads. Once the kinks were worked out what resulted was pure joy. Smiles, laughs, giggles, and wide eyes focused on the screen brought reading to life for room 1S. Mrs. Koenen will continue to support Mrs. Schafer through the transition of training students to use this technology independently in the classroom setting.

Bringing Current Events Alive in the Classroom

It’s going to be a fun year in Mrs. Goldberg and Mr. Moran’s 7th Grade Social Studies class at Oak Ridge Middle School.

It all started with an idea.  Mike Moran found a website (fantasygeopolitics.com) that he thought would help inspire students in his 7th grade Social Studies class to pay attention to global current events. The website was created by a teacher, who loved fantasy football.  He decided to incorporate that type of competition into his classes. He began a site to keep track of countries mentioned in the New York Times. Each student would draft a country and the competition would span over a determined period of time. Whoever had the most points would win. Mike saw the potential in this idea and pitched a modified version of this to his colleague Beth Goldberg.  Mike and Beth sat down with their Instructional Strategist (Nicole Redington) and Technology Integration Coach (CJ McDonald) to figure out how this could be implemented into their classroom in conjunction with the curriculum.

After a couple meetings and some negotiation, the teachers and their TIC came up with a plan and created their own website (linked to fantasygeopolitics.com). Mike, Beth and CJ created a trial league to see what the student experience would be like. Encouraged, they moved on with the project tailoring appropriately for the course. During a short series of meetings to collaborate, Beth and Mike diligently planned the modifications, timing and assignments while CJ advised and created a tutorial for students to use to help them navigate the site.

On September 4th, after being introduced to the project concept and getting “teams,” the students were given a class period to begin their research about potential “draft picks.”  Imagine a room full of 7th graders sifting through current world events, strategizing about which countries would be left over and fanatically trying to determine their best pick for the next day’s draft. The buzz in the air was that of excitement and engagement. Yes, excitement and engagement while exploring global current events…by 12 year olds.
On draft day all went well as students passionately picked their countries, prepared to follow the news anxiously hoping to gain points and win the class competition. Small projects will help enhance the learning by formalizing “Get to know your Country,” and “Advise the President,” presentations. At the end of the project they will have a summary assignment where students will present to others about the current events in their country. Maybe it will be a website,  or a presentation.  Regardless of the format, the students are hooked.

This chemistry happened because of a series of events.  To recreate this experiment you will need:  one teacher’s inspiration, another teacher’s willingness to take a chance, and the prudent lesson planning of a team.


This is just one example that demonstrates the potential of teacher leadership.  Our dedicated classroom teachers executed this event with the encouragement and help of our teacher leaders. With continued dedication, collaboration, and expertise of our teaching staff, it is going to be a fun and productive year at Linn Mar Community Schools.

Blown Away!

I have had the best week ever.  I am BLOWN AWAY by the students, staff, teacher leaders, and administrators at Linn-Mar Schools.

This week I had the opportunity to work in kindergarten, first grade, and third grade classrooms at several elementary schools in our school district.  While I taught Jolly Phonics, Journeys, Guided Reading, Daily 5, and Everyday Math, classroom teachers had an opportunity to give assessments to students, or leave their classroom and observe model teachers in action.  Model teachers are a key part of our Teacher Leadership Program at Linn-Mar.  There are twenty model teachers Pre K-12 that have been selected to keep an open-door policy and welcome staff in to observe their teaching.  As I visit more classrooms each week, I'm convinced we have hundreds of model teachers.  I'm so impressed with what I have seen.  I'm loving my new position, but after being in our amazing Linn-Mar classrooms, I'm over the moon with new ideas in management, classroom organization, room arrangement, transition phrases, catchy songs, and Whole Brain Teaching, I am looking forward to using these amazing ideas and strategies someday.

As I listen to stories of staff who have been visiting classrooms and observing teachers, and as I observe them myself, I am blown away by the teaching and management in these classrooms.  Why? We are only three weeks into the school year and I have witnessed some amazing routines in action. This tells me as an educator that our teachers are extremely organized, well-planned, and have spent plenty of hours in the off season to be ready for game day..... a.k.a the first day of school.  Thank you everyone for allowing us to come into your classroom and learn from you.  We have so much to offer each other.

I want to give a shout out to all the teachers who allowed me to observe and teach in their classrooms the past two weeks.  I also want to give a shout out to our State Legislature and Department of Education for the opportunity to implement Teacher Leaders in our School.  We have so much to learn from each other.  Thank you for allowing us to be better in our craft.