Southern California Kindergarten Conference Blogger Bash

Whew!  I'm finally back in my own house and laying in my own bed, after a long (but fun and wonderful!) two days in Pasadena, California for the Southern California Kindergarten Conference.  This is hands down, one of my favorite professional developments each year.  I really have to give my principal a huge shout-out/hug of thanks for consistently letting me take the Friday off for the Pre-Conference session, and for footing the (rather large) bill for registration year after year.

This year was especially exciting for me, because I was a featured blogger for the first time during the Blogger Bash on Friday night!  It was a humble honor to sit at the bloggers' table with some of the best teacher-authors I know.  (Ummm, any of you heard of Katie Knight and Kelley Dolling HELLO?!?  I had the opportunity to see both of these ladies' pre-conference presentations, and they were AH-MAH-ZING.)*

*Side note: You should all binge watch Happy Endings on Hulu during your Spring Break this year.

During the Blogger Bash, all the bloggers and I got to rotate around to each table and answer questions about our blogs.  For all of you who weren't able to make it to the Blogger Bash, these are the two most frequently asked questions I was asked last night: 

First of all, let me just say that I wish I had more time to write blog posts, and that I am in AWE of the women who are able to write on a consistent basis (as opposed to me, who has only written a few times this calendar year so far).  But, the posts I do write, are nearly always written between the hours of 11:30pm and 2:30am, when I am unable to shut off my brain and fall asleep.  Does that mean that the next morning when I wake up at 6:00am, I am an exhausted zombie?  That would be a big fat YES.  I read somewhere that you should schedule times to write, just like you would set aside time for an appointment.  I would like to get to that point, but if I'm going to make time for something other than exhaustedly putting on sweats and crawling into bed at the end of the day, I want it to be for the gym.  (Because let's get real: summer is around the corner, and this body is not bikini-ready.)

When I first decided to begin my blog, I was terrified to begin.  I racked my brain, trying to come up with ideas that I thought would be "blogworthy."  Finally, I had to just force myself to begin writing, regardless of the degree of importance I believed others might assign to my ideas.  No matter what anyone thought (although this was a mute point at the time, because no one was reading my blog yet), I simply began to write.  For all of you who are considering a blog, and wondering how you start, you just do.  You simply begin writing, about anything, and then bravely press "Publish."  

Be brave, dear teacher friends, and take the plunge if you feel like it's been put on your heart to venture into blogging.  And TRUST ME; it gets easier and easier with each subsequent click of that little orange button. Before you know it, you'll be like this: 

Creative to the Core: Tracing & Drawing with Carbon Paper

I learned some wonderful art techniques this summer at the Getty Center's Creative to the Core professional development workshop for educators. Here's one of many incredible ideas I took away from the class, on using carbon paper to recreate famous works of art. 

Directions:

Bottom Layer: Blank drawing paper (This will be the paper your final image is drawn on.)

Middle Layer: Carbon paper (Make sure the dark side of the paper facing down.)

Top Layer: The photograph or image you are transferring (Note that students will be tracing over this image with a ball point pen or pencil, so don't use originals that you want to keep perfect.)

You may want to consider stapling the three sheets together with several staples at the top, allowing students to flip the top two sheets as they monitor their progress, while preventing the papers from slipping or shifting (which would distort the final image).  

I practiced this myself using a color copy of a Franco de Sarto sketch (which is currently on exhibit at the Getty Center in Los Angeles).  I noticed that this brand of carbon paper is sensitive enough to distinguish varying levels of pencil pressure as I traced, allowing me to shade lightly in some areas, and darker in others as I followed the original artist's contours. 

The image on the left is a color copy of de Sarto's sketch that I used.  You can see where I drew over it with a black colored pencil. The image on the right is the result of the carbon paper imprints.

Students can then either sign their drawings and let them stand alone as their final product, or they can color their drawings with crayon, colored pencil, or watercolors to finish. 

I'm looking forward to trying this with my current class. (Just as soon as Amazon brings me the carbon paper I've ordered!)  And while I'm normally a fan of having students use color for everything, from art projects to math journals, in this case I'm planning on having students stop when they've finished drawing and shading with their pencils. Sometimes less really is more. 

Things I Realized About Me (During SCKC)

Southern California Kindergarten Conference 2015

I have just returned from two very long (but very productive and inspiring) days at the Southern California Kindergarten Conference in Pasadena, and I find myself reflecting on a few things that I've realized/newly remembered about myself over these past few days:

My chair during the last session,
with all my bags spread out
around me on the floor.

1. I like to spread out.  Like, literally.  I use up a lot of physical space.  Well, I'd like to think I'm not that huge, but all the junk I carry around with me certainly is.  From the two bags around my feet (my purse aka Mary Poppins' carpet bag, along with my bright red conference freebie tote) and my Staedtler 20 pack of marker pens, laptop, & Starbucks cup taking up the seat next to me, and my notebook filled with notes splayed across my lap as I wrote, my fellow conference-goers were tripping all over me and my stuff before and after every session!  It was a tinnnyy bit embarrassing.  
2. I heart handouts.  I just love, love, love them.  Even though I'm taking copious notes anyway, I want to see all the major points outlined in a clear way, and in an adorable font.  Handouts help me follow along with the presentation better, even if they're just bullet points on what's being discussed.  And if there's a teaching idea being shared that can be copied and put in the packet, I want that as well so I can remember it later.  Which brings me to my next point:
3. I have always been, and am still very much, a visual learner.  I must see it to learn it and to remember it.  If I just sat and listened to each session's presentation without taking any notes this weekend, I'm not sure how much I would retain by the time I got home.  I just don't remember things that I hear as well as things that I see or read.  (Which is probably one of the reasons I love handouts.  See how everything just fits together?)  I have to take notes so I can review them later and remind myself what I learned.  Which segues perfectly into point # four: 

   
   

   This photograph really covers bullet
   points 2, 3, and 4, doesn't it?

4. I am a fantastic note-taker.  Taking notes is my jam.  I love using all different colors, lines,  and boxes to separate ideas and outline my thoughts.  I really enjoy making each page look pretty, while still being useful.  {You could probably say I seek that in all areas of my life: to make things around me simultaneously beautiful and functional.}  
5. I'm really good at what I do.  Now, I'm most certainly not the best teacher I know, nor the most experienced.  I've learned from some incredible master teachers who still leave me in awe of their talent.  But I am certainly not the worst teacher I know either!  Hearing from some of the most renowned teacher-bloggers, and realizing that I'm already implementing a lot of the ideas they shared, was very encouraging for me and definitely gave me a self-esteem boost.  I don't mean this in a boastful way, but simply as a reminder that as teachers, we all need to remind ourselves of the things we're good at.  I had been feeling like I was in a bit of a teaching slump since returning from Christmas break, discouraged about how far along in the curriculum I've gotten with my current class (as compared to last year's class). But sometimes a day away from school, with other teachers who also love to teach, is all it takes for me to become newly inspired and excited about my profession.  It's easy to forget that this is what I was put on earth to do.  

So on that positive note, it's time for me to begin writing 35 (yes, thirty-five!) report card comments.  Which are due on Tuesday.  And I haven't even started.  Not even a little.  And I have an enormous stack of assessments that also need to be graded and entered into the grade book.  What was I saying before about being excited and inspired???