Kim Adsit in OKC!!!

Look who I met this week!!!! Yep that’s me, Ms Delighted my bestest buddy, AND Kim Adsitfrom Kinder Gals! She had a two day conference in OKC that Delighted, my kindergarten teacher friend Terri, and I all attended. It was soooooooo fun and informative! I loved her sweet funny accent and her energy, she made me want to be a better teacher.  

The theme was Destination Common Core. Kim asked first off if anyone in the room had a blog. Yep Ms. Delighted and I raised our hands, and then scanned the rooms. WE WERE THE ONLY ONES! I couldn’t believe it! The room was packed and there were only TWO of us bloggers (well 3 with Kim). What is up with these Okie teachers? They need to get up with the times! LOL. Of course some of them had principals with them and may not have wanted to admit to having a blog!

Kim was great! She was engaging and funny, but mostly she was real. I love that she knows and acknowledges the real aspects of teaching life.

My favorite part of the workshop was of course when she talked about writing workshop. She makes “How To” books almost every week. WOWSER!   

Some of my favorite things she said (other than her hilarious stories) were “What I like about the common core is that it puts the ball back in our (teachers) court.” That’s what I have always said!

And “don’t do handwriting practice, show kids how to write through authentic writing.” Ditto that!

She talked about Sarah Cooley’s (First Grader at Last) Sticky Note Research unit. Love it! We are using parts of it right now with our informational writing. I thought it was cool that she promoted it even though it wasn't hers.  You should check it out too.

I like that she said you should start your mini lessons with the phrase “remember yesterday when we…” and then “let me show you what I mean…” Love that!

Writing and reading filled up the first day, along with laughter and great ideas.

Math was next. Kim started out by explaining much of the vocab and terms in common core, things we all think we know…but do we really? For instance, do you know what subitize, unitize, cardinality, number benchmark, concrete, abstract, and representational mean? Or what five frames, ten frames and a rekenrek is, or how to use them? Well I have to say I thought I knew most of the terms and how to teach them, but I didn't know diddly compared to Kim. In the coming weeks I’ll share more of what I learned and how they are working in my classroom. I’m anxious to try them out!

A few things I discovered Kim I have in common are that we each have a son and daughter. She is about to become a grandma and wants to be called “Gammy,” I want to be called Gammy someday too (like Betty White on the Proposal) not TOO soon though! Gammy Tammy sounds too cute.

I thoroughly loved Kim’s conference. If she is coming close to your town you should do your best to get there!