The End to a FANTASTIC! School Year with Donna Lewis & the Globe Trekker Crew

I even worded it that way on my end-of-the-year evaluation because I meant it. :)

In my years of teaching, (I sound like I have 35 years experience, hahaa..) I can honestly say that this was a great batch of kids. I knew I was going to miss them, so I created a Photostory for them. My kids loved it!!! And, I'm so glad because I wanted them to remember this year as a GREAT one!

You'll see pictures of our classroom, colleagues of mine, and some personal moments, since the kids are always asking personal Q's...

As for me, every teacher knows that having the freedom to teach and explore... and reach new heights with your kids, is the best thing that could happen in your job as an educator. That's how it was for me. I felt the freedom (thanks to our principal this year) to reach the stars and I reached the sky.

Spring Semester School Projects

The power of interactive learning.

It was second semester... The month of May to be exact. The kids were tired (so was I), in need of something different, but still willing to learn which is not very often that we as teachers see this at the end of the year.

Thanks to my wonderful friend and school librarian, we ended up making a corner of the library a U-shaped classroom as the kids explored iTouches through a project I ended up creating. It was the perfect opportunity for my students to explore all the applications in them, especially World Wiki (applicable to my subject area), and get a good sense of technology nowadays. After all, this is how the future looks like... Working together as a group, too. Meaning, everyone in the group was to be responsible for everyone because all would get a "group" grade.

So, how did my students do at the end of the year, after so much standarized testing, and things to do? Check the picture below. The engagement level even as the pictures were taken describes it best. To say the least, I was proud of my students for "getting into it" and displaying excellent behavior as we shared the library with 3 or 4 noisy and different classes...

What do you think? :)

Miracle Drug? or Good Ol' Fashion Medicine??

Whatever it is, it works!!!
It's called Spring Break. Aaaw... You can feel Spring in the air... the end of a school year is approaching... and summer is just around the corner... All very refreshing. It's good to pause and take it all in.

It is also a good time to catch up with every day life: Errands, cleaning, organizing, income taxes, going through old mail, etc... Even with all the things I still have down on my list that I need to get done, I feel the beauty of Spring (and Spring Break) all around me. I believe that it is the perfect opportunity for teachers to get new "energy fuel" (like a sports drink with electrolytes in it) and insight about what is to come... :)

Source: Here.