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. 

First week is over!

We have been in school for a week now, and my class is wonderful!! They are so sweet. My boys are ALL boy, but that's okay with me...I can handle that.

Over the week we have been doing various activities to get to know one another. Here are a few things that we did.....

We designed T-shirts to represent our interests.

We completed a graphic organizer to tell about ourselves.

We wrote numbers that told something about ourselves then drew pictures. It was so cute watching them explain their numbers to the class.

(Confession: This picture is from another 3rd grade room, I let my kiddos take their home, ha ha)

They had a chance to answer some questions about school. After those questions, they were able to ask me any two questions. Well, that was interesting. One of my favorites was asking me if I knew how to sing the "Star Spangled Banner". They tried to get me to sing it.

On Thursday, I decided to have my students participate in a team building activity with spaghetti noodles and marshmallows. Thank you Pinterest for this great idea! The goal was to build the biggest tower as a group. In order to create a tall structure, they had to work as a team. It really should me who is a team player and who wasn't. They had a blast! They learned that working with as a team is very important to get things done. Lets just say there were groups that worked more as a team cleaning up than building their tower.

 

 

My classroom...Finally

I have been so behind on the "back to school" linky. I have been diligently trying to get my classroom together and plans together for the kiddos. They come trampling in on Monday, and I am NOT ready. I haven't gone to the school on a Saturday in a long time, but I had to go in order to be totally ready. It only took about 4 hours for me to have everything putting together. Other teachers came to work too, so I wasn't the only "loser" going to work on a "non-work" day :)

I did remember to take pictures for ya'll

                      Here are pictures from a couple of different angels

My library

My daily data board.

Homeworkopoly board (my kids LOVE playing) and our morning rountine

Lunch choice board

I know that the cabinet is a little dirty, but I have tried EVERYTHING trying to get it clean.

My door

Getting to Know Me

10 things that you might not know about me!

1. I am a huge nerd! If it has to do with science, math, or literature, I am all about it. There are many times when my teacher friends just give me looks of confusion about things that I think are normal to know, ha ha. I was excited when I found my periodic element magnets at Target and my chemical name labels for my crayons. 

2. I love classic literature. When Barnes and Nobles runs a "buy 2, get one free" on their classic literature, I get super excited! How can someone not go into a bookstore without books anyway?? It's a mystery to me. Those free baskets at Second and Charles are frequently visited by me for those "how could you throw this away" books. 

3. Documentaries are awesome. Over half of my cue on Netflix is documentaries. I have watched everything from pieces about board games and diseases to historical events. It's amazing the amount of information that you can learn from one documentary. I did tell you that I'm a huge nerd. 

4. I love the smell of books. To walk into Second and Charles and take a deep breathe to smell the books is just wonderful. It just puts me in a good mood. One day, I hope that have a room filled with books to be able to capture that old book smell (well...maybe to read them too). Plus, just having a huge library like that is just plain impressive and cool. 

5. I love trying new dishes of food. I am all the time looking at sites for new recipes. There have been some failures, but there also has been a lot of successes too. 

6. I hate painting my toe nails. I know that it's completely random, but I absolutely hate doing it. After I pain those toes, you never know when the next time you'll see them again with color. Also, I don't take it off either. Meaning that there could possibly be a dot of color on my big toe from a year ago. My co-workers have tried to get me to pain them, but it doesn't happen. It's just a big pain in the hinny!!

7. After living in the South for 15 years (wow, I can't believe that it's been that long), I still say "pop". There are just some things that you can't take out of a northern girl. None of my students have ever questioned me the meaning of "pop"...

8. I am deeply involved at my home church. Being a part of the family of God is just so wonderful! 

9. I am NOT a morning person. When I get up, I don't want anyone talking to me or even looking at me. It takes me a good while to wake up in the mornings. Maybe this is why I get to work so early....so I don't have to be bothered by those pesky perky morning people. 

10. I am going to Spain for a month! I can't wait!!!!! I am going to be doing the El Camino de Santiago (aka, The Way) after school is out!

What Kind of Teacher Are You?

I wanted to show you this video of an incredible teacher today. Most of us teach elementary school, but that doesn't change the fact that we want to change children's lives. Here is an example of a teacher that lives this out. As we are getting ready to enter into a new school year, just keep this video in mind. Maybe it will inspire us to take the time to build those relationships with our students and do more than teach them academics. What kind of teacher are you going to be this year? I hope that I will be one that gives God glory every day in my classroom, showing the character of Christ to my students each day.

It's Been a While...

Boy, I feel like I have neglected my poor little blog this summer--with good reasons too. This was my last semester of grad school! Now that I am FINISHED, I have time to work in my classroom and blog a little more. Also, I took a summer job at the Boys and Girls Club to help with their summer learning program. Who doesn't like a little extra cash??

I was able to get into my classroom last week. YAY!! I want to start the year with a nice CLEAN room that is inviting to my kiddos. When I got into my room, I wasn't really prepared to see all my JUNK that I have been hoarding for years. Teachers are so bad about keeping things that they might use, which is really code for "I am just going to let this collect dust with my other piles of junk". Now I know that I am one of those people.

Number 1 mission--clean out all the junk. It took me all week to get tons and tons of stuff that I haven't used in years out of my room. There were even things I never knew that I had that were stuff all over the place. I didn't think about taking a "before" picture, but believe me it was really, really messy. I'm not ready to put my "after" picture up yet since I do have a lot of work to do still. Maybe by Friday I will have everything together.

Number 2 mission--decorate the room. This is not my strong suit, but I am going to try my best.

I do have to say that if feels good to be back, ready to rock-n-rock with a new school year without having to do my own school work!