The Lost Art of Writing

As many of you know, I am a TOTAL bookworm. Reading is just a way for me to escape the real world even if it's for a little while. There are many favorites tucked away on my book shelves, but my all time favorite genre is classic literature. No one writes stories like Pride and Prejudice, Tale of Two Cities, or Great Expectations (just to name a few) anymore. There are so many layers to these stories which make them timeless pieces.

Right now I am reading Moby Dick.

This is a fantastic book! I may only be about 1/4 way into it, but I can already tell that I am getting lost in the story of Capitan Ahab! The way Melville uses the English language to form his story is just amazing. Why doesn't anyone speak or right like this anymore?!?!?! It's so beautiful.

This world is full of people that want everything handed to them. They don't want to think and discover.  The plainer the speak and writing the better.

Okay...enough of my soap box.....

What are you reading right now?

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Show Your Evidence and Morning Stations

With the new Common Core, third grade has to show text evidence in their responses to questions. This difficult for the little guys right now since they are not used to having use text evidence. With the help of a team member, we created a "show your evidence" board in our rooms. I was going to just make a poster to put it in their binders, but then I saw her board and fell in love with it. Please ignore my mistake....it happens ALL the time, ha ha.

They can use this board to help them to put text evidence in their writing. Of course I am going to show them how first;) You can see where the kids and I have started using evidence to answer questions. Hopefully, they will be able to do it on their own soon.

Next is using quotations to help support answers! I found a really neat "whole brain teaching" video of some 3rd graders finding quotations and stating them for the class. I can't wait to try this in my room!!!



Okay...RTI morning stations....This has been bothering me for a little while now. I believe I told y'all in my last post that a team member and I was trying to come up with a schedule. Well, we did! Yay!!!! It's super easy and self explanatory.

Wonders Anyone????

Well, we've been in school for 3 weeks now, and I do have to say that this year has been going wonderfully!! I am so greatful for a good class that tries so hard ;)

These past few weeks have been so busy, I have not had time or even thought about taking pictures of what we have been doing. I could tell you all about it, but I won't bore you with the details without the pictures :)

Thursday night was our first time to have "Teacher Talks" instead of a traditional Open House. It gave us a chance to talk to the parents about expectations and issues in the classroom. Also, parents were able to voice their opinions and ask questions. I loved it! I hope that the parents enjoyed it too. I think that this should be an annual thing.

I was thinking that the parents would ask questions about our new reading program McGraw-Hill's Wonders, but I was wrong. There is SO MUCH stuff to teach whole group, I have YET to get to small groups!! Another team member and I were talking after school about how we could use our RTI time for reading stations and leveled readers. Then if we go to a 6 day reading rotation, it would give us time to pull small groups to discuss their leveled reader.

Any of you use Wonders???? How do you all make it work with whole group and small group in your reading block?? I have 90 minutes, but it isn't enough most days....

The program is big on showing evidence. I think that I am going to "steal" an idea from a team member and make a "show your evidence" bulletin board as an aid. Once I get it together I will post pictures to show y'all.

Currently September

It's already September??? This is just too hard to believe. We are working on our 3rd week of school and fall is quickly approaching. Goodness!!

Since it's the beginning of the month, I figured that I would link up with Oh Boy Fourth Grade's Currently.

Listening: I love having the time to stay in my PJs all day and do nothing! Listening to the birds outside is just so relaxing! 

Loving: At the beginning of the year, I clean out my room and wanted to make my room a little bit more cheerful. Well, I came across this idea on Pinterest to use paper plates on my bulletin board. This was a great idea for my daily data. It gives it a nice finish that really brightened up my room, not to mention moving it to my daily data to the bulletin board helped too. Even my co-workers had to copy the idea! That is a huge deal since I am NOT a artsy-fartsy type person, ha ha ha. 

Here's the Pinterest picture

Here's my board

Thinking: As season begin to change, I want to try new recipes that reflect the change of seasons (weird, I know). I found two different gluten free/paleo recipe books that have some pretty good things in them. 

One of the books that I bought. Love it!

Wanting: I want to be able to wear my sweaters! Plain and simple! 

Needing: Yes, I did mention needing to do Christmas shopping. My family lives in Michigan and I am actually going to visit "home" this year. This means that I can't wait until the last minute to ship their presents from Amazon this year (horrible, I know). What to get, what to get......

Love Your Self: This was really hard to come up with some things..I don't know why. I really need to try and start hiking every weekend in order to be ready for my Spain trip that is coming up in eight months. I have a pile of books that I haven't gotten to yet. They need to get read before I can buy any more. Since I have finished grad school, I have more time to focus on work. However, there is a problem...I have been staying after school until about 5 each night! Why?!?!? I get there about 5:15 in the morning as it is...I don't need to stay after school. I just can't convince myself to leave.