We are starting SEP Conferences tomorrow.

We are starting our Student Education Plan Conferences with parents this week. In Fifth Grade we have decided to have it different that weusually do. We are having all the Fifth Grade teachers in the Gym. Each of us will be at a different table in the Gym so the parents can vsit each of us if they want. We have flexible groupings in Math and Language and the parents want a little more detail on these subjects, so we will let them visit each of us. We set up the parents five at a time in an hour.  We have set up the times so the parents can come anytime in that hour. It makes it so the parents don't have to be right on time. If we take a little longer or shorter with a parent, it does not make a difference.

We put together our Flexible Groupings for Math and Language for the first of the year and it went great. Then we got the news that one fourth of our team will be heading to another school because of low student numbers in our grade level. Ouch that hurts. We are very sad about losing Ms. Marshall. She will be back next year. So our groupings changed from four groups twice in the morning to three groups twice in the morning. We are glad that we went to the Kagen Trainings. They gave us some great ideas for mixing and matching students in the groups.

There are a few programs that I am using this year. I am working on how to use them in the classroom. 
The first is Wikispaces. I used this program last year for the students to type in their homework onlne at home instead of writing it on paper and remembering to hand it in. It worked great. Students went right home to get their projects and assignments done. I could tell when they finished their assignments and they could have the piece of mind that they finished it and it was handed in. I have a few more ideas that will come up as I get them together.
The next is VoiceThread. This is a website that has video commenting oftware that students can comment on a document, a picture, an assignment, or a lecture that we had. They can ype, video, voiceover, and even write on the assignment. This will be the first year with this program. I am looking forward to see what I can do with this for the students to use on assignments.
The last one right now is PollDaddy. I use this one for the students to answer questions about thing we did in class, what they thought of assignments, assemblies, field trips, and guests that come to the class to speak. They take a short poll and I can see the results and I show the class in a graph. The students get to be part of graphs and they can see how tey can use graphing in thier lives.
These are a few of what I want to use this year.
There will be more I am sure.

I am getting ready for school. It starts in a week. I am putting down a few ideas that might help me organize how I put together my classroom and the curriculum. I do need to wait on a few things to work with my team on, but I can get my ideas together for presentation to them. We have a few changes this year with  us losing Mrs. Lords, but we will put everything in order and it will be great.

The First in Math program was a big hit with the students. they have been working at home and at school to get "stickers". I have ne student that spent 3 hours at home practicing and working on her math. So far, so good.

We are starting a new math program on computer for the students to increase their basic skills. I am sure they will be excited about using it. It is called "First in Math". I will be tracking them to see how they do. We will be competing against other classes and students to see how mamy "stickers" we get. It will be interesting. "First in Math" is a program that we will be using in our summer program this year also. If the students improve while having fun, we will probably buy the program for each class to use in our school. We will see.