No, I haven't been around; I'm sorry.

I am sorry for not being around much. Lots of fabulous ideas are running through my mind, and some have become reality. However, I need a lot of time to get them together for you. I have to scan some journal entries for you this summer... and so much more. Thank you for your patience and always caring about me. I have just been very busy.

I Have a Website Again! Please visit!

I have been working on the NEW Jasztalville.com nearly non-stop this week, trying to revive it as much as possible. Hopefully you will embrace the old content and love the new content. I have uploaded some big-time goodies for you in light of the inconvenience.

I told friends already that if you have Twitter, Google+, etc., please promote the website because technically, I am starting from scratch with my audience again. However, Teachingvision.org was online for eight years and a lot of people know I call my classroom "Jasztalville".

Please let me know what you think when you have the chance! Thank you very much for supporting my class' domain.

Need to come to terms with something potentially very heartbreaking...

Hello! It has been a very long time, and I know many of us care for one another-- and have helped one another immensely over the years. Today, I believe my beloved domain name of 8 years, teachingvision.org, was taken-- it is entirely written in Japanese right now, and it looks like someone registered a Wordpress weblog on it today. Right now, if everything cannot be recovered as it was, I am crushed. Always, I am determined to rebuild-- and rebuild-- BETTER, but my mind is clouded and I do not know where to begin. If this has happened, I am devastated and crushed because it was something that came from my heart.

It has been a very busy school year. I am finally getting my gifted endorsement after many years of dreaming about it-- and I have been blogging for Scholastic.com about their e-Reader program, Scholastic Storia. This has also been a year for me trying some tremendous new experiments, the greatest success being the dissection of cow eyeballs (as you see below). I began a new club at our school called the "Adventure Club" as well-- which was something that the advanced fifth-grade teacher and I began for the past four years, where we explored two colleges, the University of Florida and University of South Florida. I was not able to do that this past year, but this year, I get to bring students to both. We already traveled to Orlando for our EPCOT field trip, which is a phenomenal learning experience, too.

I told everyone I am my school's Teacher of the Year, also! This coming Friday, January 25th, the district Teacher of the Year will be announced. I have felt honored to represent my school and have sensational individuals share the honor-- the finalists have tremendous hearts and are so friendly. I cannot wait until the end of this next week to see who the interviewing panel has chosen.

In light of teachingvision.org again, I cannot believe how many people have visited the website in eight years-- nearly 300,000. I never thought one person's efforts during the summers would affect so many people (and their classrooms). Thank you for all you have done to support me so far-- and I promise, I will not let you down in the least if I have to rebuild it all. It was not a small website at all, but nothing's impossible. You all "fuel my fire" and propel me to "be my best"!

2012-2013 Teacher of the Year... and again, apologies.

It has been an extremely busy time, so please don't think I have abandoned you without thought. I have decided to revamp the Minded box over Winter Break a bit and create a lot of neat resources for you as time allows, even if that all goes into next summer.

I was also announced as the 2012-2013 Teacher of the Year at my school today where I have been teaching fourth grade for nine years! Thank you so much, friends, for nominating/voting for me to represent MES this year. I hope to make all of you extremely proud!

Recent Life in Jasztalville

This is not an informational post, really, just a post sharing about things I have accomplished lately with my students. The pictures below are of: reading centers, dissecting owl pellets, working in writing class, Safety Patrol, and making salt dough maps.

The kids started taking "goofy" pictures while they were painting their maps!

All in all, we have many beautiful salt dough maps drying so we can label them this week. We will also be adding Lake Okeechobee and a few rivers with blue puffy paint. Additionally, we have our second major experiment coming up (after dissecting the owl pellets, of course): dissecting cow eyeballs (no kidding). I have been wanting to do this project for a number of years now, but never found the courage to actually follow through with it. 

We are also working on expository writing and designing our theme parks this week. Also, reading class is going wonderfully because I have split the class up into three groups and meet with each group Mondays-Thursdays. I plan on incorporating the Minded Box activities in the near future as well. I will let you know more about everything as time permits! I have been immensely busy, but I haven't forgotten you! 

My Capacity.

I want to ask whether anyone can relate to this post.

As I ramble, because my mind is racing at 1,278,946 miles an hour, and you begin delving into the "meat and potatoes" of this post, please disregard my numerous tangents. I believe I have had a massive revelation.

Therefore, I apologize in advance.

Have you gotten to the point in your teaching where you realize you can be so much... more? Also, have you realized you can perform beyond how you have taught before because you have gained a great deal of experience? Like your mind is a reservoir of resources/experiences and you just don't know what to do with it? I think about the pattern of my brain activity over the course of a typical day-- and I am beginning to realize I... intimidate myself.

My mind is like Pinterest. When I see one anchor chart in a teacher's classroom, or see one display, my brain plasters that image into a very complicated web of fascinations. I constantly peruse the Internet, spending numerous hours reading weblogs and articles, locating "seeds" that can spark lessons, and downloading short videos that can make learning a concept a more visually appealing experience. I have developed probably 1,000 resources in nine years of teaching, some kind of rudimentary and not so tremendous, others astounding. Then I realize I have worked for Scholastic since 2009 and communicate with numerous authors and exemplary teachers across the United States. I am promoting the Scholastic Storia app on the iPad this year, also. I guess I am knowledgeable. (The main idea of this is NOT for me to "toot my own horn", by the way. These are just my personal thoughts-- and I don't think I'd be able to communicate the purpose of this post properly if I left pivotal accomplishments in my life out.)

Yet as I sat at the district's elementary writing committee meeting this afternoon, I glanced around the hosting teacher's classroom, fell in love with her anchor charts as well as several concepts of hers, and hung on to her every word as she spoke about a very grueling FCAT 2.0 writing workshop she attended this summer. I then thought to myself, I could be more to my district and my fellow teachers, not just teachers in Texas or Arizona or wherever who read the posts here and know about teachingvision.org. 

Then the same thought ran through my mind yesterday at our Common Core task force meeting. I have ideas for implementing Common Core for fourth graders (though Florida's fourth grade teachers still address Next Generation Sunshine State Standards), though I honestly do not know where to begin in communicating all that's within my vision. Yet when our assistant principal mentioned a database will be created for the teachers at the school, I realized it was my time to step up, to be the exemplary contributor I have always envisioned. I should not be afraid to share. The littlest thing can really help someone to achieve something awesome.

The thing is, it's very hard for me to vocally express myself sometimes. I am willing to create anything anyone needs, yet it's an immense challenge for me to communicate that point across. When the teacher at the writing meeting brought up Lucy Calkins and Writingfix.com, I thought Ooo! Ooo! to myself. I have read about all that extensively over the years, yet I've never really talked about them much to others I am near.

Then I thought about a plethora of other connections as well as resources I have made over the years, realizing I rarely share them with people I know. I share them here with people I have never met. I have been complacent with the same thing, day to day, for a long time.

So... I am writing a teaching bucket list. I have realized I have needed to set teaching goals for a long time. Some will benefit you here! Some will benefit my district and school. Others will benefit my self-confidence, because honestly, I lack in it at times and shouldn't feel like it is lacking. I need to tell myself I can do anything I put my mind to!

1. Follow through with my blogging at Scholastic (about Storia and book recommendations) this school year with EXUBERANCE. I want to step up to the plate and create a lot of good resources for the Storia app in my classroom. I didn't feel like I stepped up to the plate in the last few months of school last year when I received the iPad with Storia installed on it from Scholastic. I can be honest online and everywhere... I guess sometimes it is hard to implement something at first. 
2. Make more videos of my students' metacognition, collaboration, etc. I used to be horrible at videos, but now, I really enjoy it. I just need to keep doing it. 
3. Publish more of what my students accomplish in my Language Arts classroom. (.pdf-wise) 
4. IMPLEMENT, starting tomorrow, a strong, somewhat grueling, but fantastic curriculum I have envisioned for Language Arts for a long time. My goal is to expose kids to the excellent world of reading and writing through phenomenal examples. 
5. Smile more often. Realize not every day is going to be a pivotal accomplishment, but sometimes even... a step backward. Yet then the following day, I have to be a warrior and challenge my students. 
6. I desire to publish at least one of my young adult chapter books. 
7. I desire to do a wonderful job presenting Common Core resources to MES' fellow educators as well as Language Arts resources for the district. 
8. I desire for my students' parents to realize everything I stand for as an educator. 
9. Eventually do something more than just teach. (Publishing? Public speaking? Starting a teaching-related business? Being someone really cool like Lucy Calkins? Wow... that would take a lot of channeling the tangled web in my mind!) 

Well, well, well. I have to get off for a while, but hopefully... I have communicated my thoughts properly, not befuddling you, turning you off, etc. Have a wonderful day tomorrow! It's going to be Thursday!

Photo Album of Jasztalville Life So Far This Year

Here are just a few photos from the beginning of the year... 

The first day of school, we did the "Saving Fred" activity. It was a riveting experience as the class spent about 15-20 minutes figuring out how to save him best. 

Once each partnership completed their mission, I took photographs.

The following day, each student shared the contents of his or her "Me Bag". 

Last week, I presented students with their own reading bags made of duct tape and  jumbo plastic zipper bags. It wasn't a real inexpensive option, though they turned out exceptional and I am excited for the two classes.  

Here is one student's bag. I made 37 bags to accommodate my two classes of reading students. 

Oh-- and we had fun with our class/fourth grade Van de Graaff generator, too. We also used the fourth grade microscopes and digital gram scales in the first few weeks. 

There is FAR MORE I could have photographed, but I know seeing the lack of photos I have taken so far, I will include more in the next few weeks as we do more hands-on, exciting activities. (p.s. Not all permission forms have come back in yet for online, yet they will ASAP.)