Liebster Award!

I was surprised and thrilled to learn that Chris from The Scoop in Second Grade had nominated me for the Liebster Award.

 It is such a rewarding feeling to know that others are actually reading (and liking!) what you post.  So, without further adieu, here are the questions I was presented with:

Why and how long ago did you start blogging?
   - I actually started this blog back in 2011 for a Masters course in educational technology (and boy has it changed since then!). I used it during the course to communicate with colleagues and reflect on assigned texts. It wasn't until the start of this school year that Smocus Smocus became what it is today. I was inspired to start blogging and selling on TpT by a student in my class last year. Her mother is also a teacher so she knew all about TpT and suggested that I start selling the worksheets I'd made. I started on TpT first, then worked on building this blog. I'm proud of the work I've put into it and I can't wait to see where my blogging adventure takes me!

What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?
  - INSPIRATION! Inspiration is what drives everything. My biggest inspirations are my three little boys. Their imaginations and enthusiasm can be seen in all that I do. In fact, one of my more recent products "What Does the Text Say" was inspired by their relentless singing of the hit song.

Is there something that you learned late in your blogging journey that you wish you had known before?
   - I feel like I am constantly learning about the blogging world since I'm still relatively new to this scene. One thing I learned just the other day was how to add your link into a blog comment. I had seen everyone else do it but couldn't figure it out for myself. So off to the Google gods I went where I found this handy piece of code:

<a href="www.google.com">Home</a>  

Just change the website to your blog's and change "Home" to the name of your blog.

What's your favorite pastime other than blogging?
  - Hands down reading and writing! I love discovering new books and authors and getting lost in a novel. Right now I'm reading The Killing Sea, by Richard Lewis. It is a gripping story of survival as children try to reunite with their families in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. It's realistic fiction based on the author's firsthand experiences. It is dramatic, heart-wrenching, and inspiring all at the same time. I read a passage to my class this year during a unit in our ELA texts which focused on natural disasters from an informational text point of view. I felt that it was important for my students to understand the effects a tsunami has on the people involved. A few students were misty-eyed at the end... I think they got it.

How many hours per week do you dedicate to your blog?
  - I would probably say 4ish, but if you asked my husband I bet he would say a lot more! Sometimes blogging, lessons planning, and resource creating all blend together.

What category of blog posts do you enjoy the most?
  - I love discovering new literacy resources and I'm a sucker for a good classroom DIY.

Where does your blog inspiration come from?
  - These little guys:

Which post that you've written are you most proud of?
  - So far my favorite post would be the one about Long Division. Math is not my strong suit, so I was really proud of myself when I found a successful way to engage students. Their how-to videos came out great! I can't wait to use them as a resource for next year's 4th graders!

Is there any post that you've been planning to do but you've been postponing?
  - There is a series of posts coming up on my classroom book blog, Dempsey's Donuts, that I'm super excited about! This week we are starting Battle of the Books, a sports bracket style favorite book competition. I can't wait to see how it plays out! My goal is to get students excited about books and having meaningful discussions about the texts. I hope everyone following this blog will join us and grab my free resources for this event on TpT!

What is your favorite aspect of blogging?
  - I love connecting and collaborating with other teachers from around the country. There are so many great resources out there!! I have "met" some great educators so far :)

Which recipe, project, or idea form my blog would you like to try yourself?
  - I like your recent post about daily expectations. The books you created for your students are a great way to keep the communication flowing between home and school!

I now nominate the following 11 bloggers for the Liebster Award:
Jessica @ Butterflies and Daydreams
Lynn @ Camping Teacher
Lucy @ Beyond Imagination
Kim @ English, Oh My!
Erin @ Mrs. Beer's Language Arts Class
Kay @ Teaching on the Sunny Side
Chandra @ Teaching with Crayons and Curls
Melody @ Polka Dot Thoughts
Tiffany @ Two Techie Teachers
Brittany @ Two Techie Teachers
Megan @ A Bird In Hand Designs (I know she technically has a few too many followers for a Liebster award, but her designs are awesome and need to be shared! She designed this blog!)

Now that you've been nominated, you must do the following to receive your award:

1. In your post, link back to me, the blogger who nominated you, as a thank you and a 'shout out.'.
2. Answer the 11 questions I answered above.
3. Nominate 11 bloggers that have less than 200 followers. You may give them 11 questions or they can answer the same questions you did.
4. Let your nominees know they've been nominated and provide them with a link back to your post so that they can accept.
5. Send your nominator a link to your post so (s)he can learn more about you as well. (You can just put your post link in the comments below.)

Whew, that's it! The hardest part of this post was finding new bloggers to nominate. There are so many great blogs out there! Thanks again to Chris @ The Scoop In Second for the nomination.

Watch our class do long division!

Today I'm doubling my tech link up with Techie Turtle Teacher for Tech Tip Tuesday and Teaching Trio for Tech Thursday to share my love for educreations! Educreations is an iPad app that is basically a virtual white board. You can draw/write on the board and add images and text as it records your voice. I have used it in the past to create video math lessons that I post on my class blog for parents. (Check them out here!) During fall conferences parents expressed concern that they were unable to help their children on math homework using new common core strategies. Educreations helped me take care of that problem!

My class has been working on long division for some time and they are still struggling to remember the steps to solving the problem. I was about to post an educreations lesson so parents could help out at home when it dawned on me... Why not have the kids create their own video lessons!!! So today I brought in the iPads, gave the kids a quick tutorial, and sent them on their merry way. The results were nothing short of epic!

Here is the video lesson we created as whole class example:



And here is a video two of my students created:
(They used the mnemonic device learned in class Dangerous Monkeys Swipe Bananas to remind them to Divide, Multiply, Subtract, and Bring down.)

I feel that after completing this project my students have a better grasp on long division. However, we still have some work to do... I played the videos back for the class and students saw a few mistakes they had made. Usually when we are working with pencil and paper I find it difficult for some students to show their work. But, by narrating each step as they created their video lessons they were able to see exactly where the mistake was.

Accounts on educreations are free (though there are a few features only available with a pro plan starting at $11.99/month). I'm working with my class on the basic free plan. If your interested in trying this out in your own classroom, here are a few pointers:

And here is just one more cool resource for long division. This video comes from PBS Learning Media, which has a wealth of digital resources for just about any topic you can imagine. This video is part of the Math at the Core: Middle School collection. It highlights both the standard form of long division the more common core way using place value.

I hope you find these tools useful in your classroom! Have a great end to your week :)