Image from www.whoisnobody.com

As a way of connecting classrooms within our school, Ms. Theis and I, along with our wonderful colleague Mrs. Abalos (who teaches Grade 1/2), have been excited to launch a collaborative project entitled "Who is Nobody?". While this project is based on a "kit," we have customized our intent to make it unique to our classrooms and current inquiries. In short, our "Who is Nobody?" collaborative project involves connecting our classrooms through an inquiry that not only illustrates a "bridging of the gap" between Full Day Kindergarten through to Grade 2, but its focus encompasses character building, kindness and appreciations for who we are and where we come from.

Presently, we are in Week 2 of our project and are thrilled to see our students making meaningful connections between their acts of kindness and our classes unique inquiries thus far! Even though our project is still young, our students are beginning to understand that they CAN make a difference in the world around us even through small acts! As we embark on this journey, we wonder...

How might we learn more about ourselves and our community by helping turn NOBODY into a SOMEBODY?

How can we make a difference in our school, community and in our world?

By teaching and learning alongside our students throughout this inquiry project, we decided to create a collaborate sharing space where both classes can connect:

http://whoisnobodycollaborativeproject.blogspot.ca

This blogspace is used to not only teach digital citizenship, but it is also a place where the students in both of our classrooms can communicate, ask questions, make comments, learn and showcase their ongoing discoveries! 

We invite you to follow along as we use this collaborative sharing space to learn from each other and connect our experiences! Similarly, the Full Day Kindergarten page will recount specific learning moments from the students in our class and likewise for Mrs. Abalos' class on the Grade 1/2 page, as each student gets a chance to take each class' Nobody doll home and perform an act of kindness to another person/family member, animal or for the environment.

We encourage you to visit our collaborative blog often and we also invite you to become an active participant in our journey by posing questions, comments and connections that we would be happy to respond too!

Here's to new learning as we begin to work together on making NOBODY a SOMEBODY and learn about our school, community, world and most importantly each other!

Feeling Grateful

With the start of a new year, and after taking a "pause" on social media for the holidays, I feel inspired to begin 2014 with new insights, exciting challenges and magical memories professionally and personally! This post has been brewing for a while and I thought it would be the perfect one to start off 2014 since I'd like to highlight and dedicate this post to my wonderful Designated Early Childhood Educator, Heidi Theis.

The reason why it has been hard for me to put down all that I feel into a blog post, is because it's impossible to capture and sum up the incredible relationship I have with my truly incredible partner. Over the past almost two years, Heidi and I have had the wonderful opportunity to showcase our learning publicly on the blog and professionally through our own learning network within the York Region District School Board. We have been honoured and humbled to have other teaching teams, administration, consultants and friends visit our learning space to learn about our program and how we have established such a wonderful foundation for teaching and learning together as a team. Within these visits, we often get a series of questions related to how we make our partnership and program work. For example, "How do you divide up the roles and responsibilities in your classroom?" "What does it look like when you're teaching?" "How do you plan/assess the learning? Who does what? What does that look like?" 

This is where I'd like to highlight where Heidi and I were at the beginning of our journey and where we are now in a series of four small points: 

1. Purposeful Talk: As a team from the beginning, our foundation has been built on communication. Sharing each other's strengths and weaknesses and having conversations around what each other are comfortable with taking the lead on has been an integral part of understanding each other, building chemistry, and establishing an effective and structured program for US as a teaching team. Communication has been at the forefront of our planning, setting up our learning environment every summer, gathering assessment and sharing the roles within our classroom. 
We ALWAYS teach as a TEAM and share responsibilities throughout the flow of our day (e.g. take turns doing the Read Aloud, leading our Morning Meeting, leading experiments, etc). 
We ALWAYS plan together and reflect daily through passing conversations throughout the day and/or before or after school.  
We ALWAYS take the time to talk about our personal lives which has helped us not only become strong partners but also wonderful friends.  

2. Flexibility and Openness: Both Heidi and I come from various backgrounds with various experiences. As a team, we never hesitate to embrace each other's ideas, proposed learning experiences/opportunities for our students and for ourselves, questions and wonderings. Together, we work through the kinks through a LOT of trial and error and embrace change when our thinking shifts, when we gain new insights/understandings and when each other has new ways for teaching and learning. We are not afraid to confront challenges together nor are we closed-minded to reaching out to our professional learning network to gain new insights. Together, we seek new ways of teaching and learning as a team. 

3. Trust: As a teacher, my experiences in the past of working alone to now as working as a team has taught me the importance of "letting go" of control. While difficult at first, Heidi's strong background in child development and passion for the early years not only assured me that our program would be successful, but that by trusting in each other as educators, we could truly be the best WE could be for our students. 

4. Baby steps: Where Heidi and I started almost 2 and a half years ago was a completely different place and program then where we are now. As my Mom has always said, "Rome wasn't built in a day" and that rings true for the journey we've been on together as a teaching team. Each year, Heidi and I decide to focus on 1-2 small things that we'd like to change/accomplish for that year. With this mindset, we have been able to accomplish a lot in such a short amount of time and every year together we have built more on experiences and gained momentum for continued success. These goals have ranged from strengthening our documentation and assessment through the use of technology to revamping the way we "plan" for our learning each week. This all connects back to my first point around Purposeful Talk and taking the TIME as a team to sit down, recap, reflect, and rethink what's working and what's not to help set the bar for where the learning can go next! 

Without making this post too long, I just have to conclude by saying how truly grateful I am to come to work everyday and teach alongside such an inspiring, passionate, caring, open, and honest colleague and friend. Heidi has been my rock throughout this journey so far and she has taught me so much about myself not only as a teacher but also as a friend. Heidi's passion for the Early Years is undeniable and her dedication to the profession goes without question. Her desire to seek her own professional development opportunities outside our classroom through course enrolment, attending conferences and workshops and beyond, speaks volumes about the type of educator she is and aspires to be. I'd like to thank you Heidi for believing in me as your partner, for inspiring me as your colleague and for helping make me the teacher I am today! Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for the students in our classroom and for us as a team. I couldn't feel more lucky. 

A Professional Game of "Tag"

Ever since starting my professional blog, I have enjoyed showcasing the learning going on in our classroom, highlighting and celebrating professional and student accomplishments, connecting with the families of our students and expanding my professional learning network through social media! However, similar to many other colleagues and friends who blog, we never usually post anything personal. This is where this game of "tag" comes in...just last week, my wonderful friend and inspiring colleague Angie Harrison "tagged" me through Twitter and within her blog post: http://techieang.edublogs.org/2013/12/12/a-chain-blog-or-getting-to-know-you-better/. I had never heard of what Angie coined "a chain blog" before which essentially meant getting to know our professional learning network better through a dedicated blog post!

So here's how it works:

1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger.

2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.

3. Answer the questions the nominating blogger has created for you.

4. List 5 bloggers.

5. Post 5 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. Don't nominate a blogger who has nominated you. 

*(I've adopted Angie's modifications to 5 people and 5 questions when it's usually 11 people and 11 questions)* 

Here we go.....

11 random facts about me:

1. Dance is my second passion. For 16 years (3/4 of which I danced competitively), I enjoyed every single style from tap, pointe/ballet, and contemporary to jazz and hip hop. I was also given the wonderful opportunity to teach dance at the young age of 16 at my family's studio (where I danced) which ignited my passion for education and the early years in particular. I enjoyed every minute teaching tap, jazz, hip hop and mini dance to girls and boys aged 3-8.


2. I used to dance for the Toronto Raptors Junior Dance "Pak" for 3 years and it was truly an incredible experience I will cherish forever!

3. I love scrapbooking! Whether it be traditional scrapbooking or digital, I love creating scrapbooks as gifts for family, friends and personal keepsakes. 

4. My incredible fiancé and I have been dating 8 wonderful years and we can't wait to get married in July 2014!

5. My Dad's family is Austrian and I've attempted to make my Oma's incredible schnitzel, palaschinkins (crepes), and famous cookies numerous time with little success. However, I do love to bake!

6. I prefer sweets over salts.

7. Pillsbury cinnamon rolls are a Christmas morning tradition in our family. 

8. I've never been someone who does well with bugs (spiders, mosquitoes, bees - doesn't matter - I'm the one running!)

9. Since I was a kid, my favourite cottage "munchie" has been Cheetos Cheezies and to this day, it continues to be a staple food by the dock.

10. The Sound of Music is my all-time favourite movie. I was privileged to have gone on the "Official Sound of Music Tour" during our Christmas break last year in Salzburg, Austria. It was truly a wonderful way to follow and celebrate our engagement! 

Trip of a lifetime!

The house where they filmed Maria singing "I Have Confidence"
down the street before she met the Von Trapp family.

Mondsee Cathedral - the church where
Maria and Captain Von Trapp got married in!

In front of the famous "gazebo!"

11. My fiancé  and I have a 7 year old English Bulldog named "Zaz." We adopted her when she was 4 from a breeder and she has been the best addition to our little family of my fiancé and I. 

Here are the responses to the questions Angie asked me:

1. What is your favourite picture book?
It's definitely hard to pick just one, but I will choose the one that popped into my head first and it was a childhood favourite of mine, entitled "Four Fur Feet" by Margaret Wise Brown. This book is one that I remember reading over and over again with my family and by myself not only because the illustrations were beautifully done, but also because of the book's contagious rhyme! 

2. What is your favourite TV show and why?
Without question, I don't think I've ever missed an episode of Ellen. Her kindness, sense of humour, and compassion are contagious and I truly love watching her! I often find myself showing my fiancé YouTube clips from her shows and I love how she makes us laugh!

3. If you could recommend one professional book what would it be and why?
I would recommend Pearson's resource called "Exploration: Learning Through Inquiry and Play" because it truly is a fantastic Early Years resource that breaks down elements of a "play-based" environment while coupling in real-life examples, inquiries, cross-curricular connections, environmental design, home/school connections and beyond! It's full of beautiful coloured photos as well and is most certainly an easy read with lots to take away! (http://www.pearsoned.ca/school/product/explorations/ -- downloadable templates used and referenced throughout the book)

4. Provide a recipe for a great Christmas drink.
"Candy Cane Cocoa"

INGREDIENTS:
- 4 cups of milk
- 3 (1 ounce) squares of semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
- 4 peppermint candy canes crushed
- 1 cup of whipped cream
- 4 small peppermint candy canes

DIRECTIONS:
In a saucepan, heat milk until hot, but not boiling. Whisk in the chocolate and the crushed peppermint candies until melted and smooth. Pour hot cocoa into four mugs, and garnish with whipped cream. Serve each with a candy cane stirring stick. Enjoy!

5. What makes you tick?
I'd have to say not being organized and not being on time. Perhaps it's the perfectionist in me, but I have to stay organized and punctual for any occasion!  


Here are the people I would like to nominate to answer questions. Following suit with Angie, I have chosen 5 people and 5 questions. Please still provide 11 random facts about yourself. Feel free to post on your blogs or by replying to mine! 

1. Heather Jelley: http://teamjelleybean.blogspot.ca 

2. Diane King

3. Lisa Donohue: http://lisadonohue.wordpress.com

4. Tania Sterling: http://taniasterling.wordpress.com

5. Connie Lowe: http://www.room8-adventuresinkindergarten.blogspot.ca

Here are my 5 questions for you to answer in your response:

1. If you could have any superpower what would it be and why?

2. If you could be any animal in the world, what would you be and why?

3. If you could sum up your love for teaching in 3 words what would they be and why?

4. Share one of your favourite dessert recipes.

5. Chocolate, strawberry or vanilla ice cream? Why?

Thanks for taking the time to read up on a little bit about me and I hope you enjoyed all the random facts! Looking forward to seeing the response of those who I nominated and learning more about my professional learning network!