Today I am linking up with Doodlebugs for their Five for Friday linky party again, where you post 5 random things from today or this week, click the link or the button below to link up yourself!
If you have been regularly reading my blog, this is not random, however I am SO proud of my students and coworkers for coming together as such an awesome team during this endeavor. My 5th grade students have created a video for the Michael and Son Jingle Sing-Off Contest! We are in a crazy competition with another school in the DC Metro Area, and we need as much help as we can to stay in the lead! Over the past week, we have been flip flopping from 1st to 2nd place. Please help us by voting for Hoffman Boston Elementary here! We appreciate your help SO much!
I hope everyone's Thanksgiving dinner was yummy and that you all got to spend quality time with family and friends. My family, my boyfriend, and I traveled up to Cape Cod to visit with my Granma and we had an incredible dinner. My favorite new addition was the Spinach Balls that I added to our appetizer list- small bites that are filled with spinach, stuffing, and goodness. I got the idea from my friend Kristen, who hosted our Friendsgiving last Sunday. Here is the link to the recipe from The Kitchen is My Playground.
I am about to start my Peter and the Wolf unit with 2nd grade this coming week, and I ran across a pin on Pinterest that led me to an old post on Loretta Harbertson's blog, Music for HomeSchoolers- Music Lessons for the Young Child. Loretta has made listening maps with icons for each of the character themes, and I am definitely adding them to my lessons this year- Thanks Loretta!
I have officially become obsessed with Twitter, and, more specifically, Twitter ed chats. Someone tweeted a link to the Google Doc list of all the educational Twitter chats, and I am so excited to join even more of them next week when everyone picks back up after the holiday! There are SO many, and there are a bunch for each day of the week!
Each chat has a moderator and usually they follow a simple Q and A style. For example, they'll post "Q1: What do you think about blah blah blah?" and I'll respond "A1: I think blah blah blah." Poetic, I know. ;)
I've now joined 5 different chats:
#sunchat- I will remember this as my first Twitter chat :) This is a Sunday morning education chat that happens from 9-10 AM EST. Great for a pre-work week reflection on your teaching.
#elmused- Elementary Music Ed chat- occurs on Tuesday nights from 8-9 PM EST (I believe). Great chance to chat with educators who are teaching the exact same things that I am every week!
#ecet2- Elevating and Celebrating Teachers and Teaching chat- occurs 8-9 PM EST on Sundays. I stumbled upon this last weekend and loved what teachers had to say!
#musedchat- Music Ed Chat- occurs from 8-9 PM EST on Mondays- last week we chatted about our teacher evaluation processes and how they were alike/different/what we think should be changed.
#vachat- Mondays 8-9 PM EST- this chat is for Virginia educators- which, if you couldn't already tell from the name of my blog, includes me! :) This week the theme was: What Are You Thankful For?
Those last two I participated in simultaneously on Monday- and loved every minute!!
This has been a crazy month, and it has really been amazing to be able to post every day and reflect on my life as an elementary music teacher. I have also been paying even closer attention to other blogs, so I have learned about so many fun linky parties (including this one) and have added so many blogs to my Blogger following list.
Blogging started out just being a reflective tool for myself, but now it has allowed me to connect with so many educators out there, and I am so thankful that I started it up! I thank everyone who reads my blog, because I love knowing that someone out there is able to gain something from what I write each day!
I hope you all are not going too crazy on this Black Friday shopping day- I am avoiding that craziness- have a wonderful Friday!
~Ms. Patrician
Thanks for the info on the Twitter chats! It's a goal of mine to participate in one. I'll have to check these out!
ReplyDeleteSara :)
The Colorful Apple