November Currently

Time to link up with Farley over at

for November's Currently post.

So here goes...

Listening: I'm loving the new crop of shows this season.  They're all pretty good.  If you haven't seen Mysteries of Laura, you should think about it.  It's a cop dramedy with Debra Messing and Josh Lucas.

Loving: It's actually cold in the panhandle.  Well, for this weekend anyway.  :-P

Thinking: I need/want to rearrange some of my groups.  I'm up to 20 staffed ESE students, so the other ESE teacher is going to start helping me pull groups (she only has 7 staffed students right now).  I need to rearrange my groups and email some teachers.  I just have to think through some of the changes so they make sense and are effective.

Wanting: My wanting is always the same...money!

Needing: I should be working on work-related things.  Instead I'm on here, posting (which is much needed).  But then again, if I'm on here, then I should be catching up on the 3 (or 4) weeks of posts that I need to read.  We'll see what happens.

Reading: I get my 4th graders for an hour for reading.  So I start every day with a read aloud.  Right now we're in the middle of Love That Dog.  It is a book of poems that are all written by the same "author", Jack.  If you haven't read it yet, please do.  I really want to get the sequel - Hate That Cat.

Can't wait to learn more about you!

Sunday Scoop (number 2?)

I'm trying really hard to get on here and read posts and write posts and it's just not working for me.  I'm actually still trying to get caught up on reading posts from September.  :-/

 I'm so embarrassed.

Anyway, linking up again for Sunday Scoop with Teaching Trio.

So here goes...

 

They all kind of speak for themselves, but for real, if anyone has suggestions on how to teach analytical writing to fourth graders who can't read sight words PLEASE let me know!

Working on Time

I can't seem to get it together.  I had grand plans of blogging more this year.  I've made it a point to take pictures of the fun things we're doing.  I'm trying really hard to use my planning time at school effectively.  It's just not happening.  I would love to know how those bloggers who also have kids find time for all of this.  So, if one of my followers would like to share the secret to regular blog posts...well I'd be forever grateful.  :-)

Anyway, for the past 2ish weeks my 3rd graders have been working on time.  I just wanted to share some of the fun things we've been doing with time.

First, is the ever-popular paper plate clocks.  Did you ever do this as a student?  I did, and loved it.  So anytime I teach time, we always make a clock.  It helps solidify the hour hand and the minute hand.  Plus it's just fun.

 

Also, since I'm juggling the standards of 3 different grade levels, I am all about finding products on TPT and using them.  Thank you to that wonderful invention!  Anyway, Nesli over at Second Grade with the Teacher Wears Prada (or at TPT here) created this wonderful cut-and-paste clock activity.  My kiddos LOVED it!  We forget how much fun it is to just bust out the scissors and glue.  So I've made a promise to myself to try for more educational, and rigorous, cut-and-paste activities.

And our last activity was a Time Scavenger Hunt (thanks Christen Stowers!).  I didn't hide the clocks, so much as tape them in random spots around the room.  It got my kiddos up and moving though.  It was just what we needed and a wonderful way for me to get a quick assessment of what we actually know.

Thanks for sticking out this long post!  I have already started planning my next ones in my head, so hopefully the come to fruition soon!

50th Post...well, sort of

So, I realized, rather belatedly, that I was rapidly approaching my 50th post.  And by rapidly, I mean, I hit it and didn't even notice.  :-(

I just so happened to look at my homepage and see that I had reached 50 posts.  I was going to do something special for my 50th.  Maybe a giveaway or something.  But...you know...back to school budget is incredibly tight right now.  Maybe I'll do something for my 100th.

Anyway, I just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you who have stuck with me for my first 50 posts.  I promise that it won't take me another entire year to hit 50 posts again.  I am making it a point to blog more this school year.  

I will.

Promise.

My first Sunday Scoop

So I am linking up with Teaching Trio for their Sunday Scoop Linky Party!

The Sunday Scoop linky is to just give you a quick glimpse into my upcoming week.  So, here goes.

My three things I have to do are pretty self-explanatory.  Laundry, cutting Brag Tags.  Since I switched from 3rd to ESE 3-5, I don't know the 4th and 5th grade math standards.  I need to get them memorized (or at least semi-memorized) so I can make sure I'm hitting my standards.

I have a huge to-do list right now.  I'm hoping that I can get things crossed off as quickly as possible.  I also really need to start running again.  It is just terribly hot in Florida, and I have something going on every day after school this week.  :-(  I'm hoping to get at least one, or two, runs in this week.

And I'm SO HAPPY because Friday, at midnight, the wifey and I are getting in the car and driving to Disney World!  We didn't get to go anywhere over the summer, so I'm just gonna take a few days off.  We'll get into the hotel Saturday morning, see my grandparents for breakfast, and then hit the parks from Saturday til Tuesday.  We're also going to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party for the first time!  Ahh!  And then we come home on Wednesday.  :-(

I can't wait to see what all of you have going on this week!

Is your school hospitable?

So...I really don't know if every school does this, but every school in the county I teach in has a Hospitality committee.  It's done differently at every school, but the major similarity is that the committee puts together the Christmas activity (party, luncheon, whatever).

Anyway, for the second year in a row, I am the Hospitality Chair.  I love it.  I try to plan different events throughout the year to keep morale high in our teachers.  Our jobs are difficult, it's not easy being a teacher.  So anything we can do to bring some fun into our lives - I'm all for it!

One of the things we do is Birthday Club.  Every other month we meet (usually after school) to celebrate the birthdays of our staff.  Last year it was always cake, this year we're thinking about switching it up a little.

Also, we visit a restaurant (usually Chili's) on the First Friday of every month.  It's just a time to talk and see each other outside of school.  I LOVE it!  Spouses and kids are always invited.  Some months we're a small group, sometimes a big group.  It just depends.

Here are some pictures from our two events we've had so far this year:

These two ladies and I usually close out the First Friday fun.  This year we're allowed to leave at 3:15.  Which means we made it to Chili's at 3:30.  We didn't leave until 7.  Usually someone tells one of us that they were gonna come but they thought we would be gone.  We just laugh and tell them to text one of us next time...cause we're still probably there.  :-P

Are there any things your faculty does to raise morale and enjoy time outside of school?

Classroom Reveal...finally!

Monday starts the 4th week of school.  And I am just now revealing my classroom.  

*sigh*

It's partially because it took me forever to get it finished.

I couldn't go to the school over the summer...my school was a "host school" for summer school.  Which meant that even if our room wasn't being used, we weren't allowed up there.

And then they had to strip and re-wax the entire school after that.  And I was teaching summer camps and going to workshops and just...yeah.

So...pre-planning week was really my big time to get in there.  But, if you read one of my last posts, my room was a MESS.  And I had to move all of the ESE curriculum into the mess that already was my room (I never did take a picture of that).  And, of course, during pre-planning I went to WAY too many workshops/trainings.  Luckily my principal left the school open until 9 one night.  And since I wasn't pulling groups the first 2 weeks of school (my schedule is still semi-changing), getting my room together was the last thing on my mind.  But this week I started pulling groups...so it had to be ready.

So here it is...

I got rid of almost all of my student desks.  I won't need them.  I'll only be pulling small groups and don't need all of that mess in my room.

All of that was junk I pulled off of shelves and out of filing cabinet drawers.  I have WAY too much stuff and I'm trying to get rid of some of it.

 

I don't have a teacher desk.  So my small group table is my teacher space.  I love it though.

Have you seen those Teacher Toolbox posts and pins?  I LOVE mine!  They were blue, and I just spray painted them red to match my Disney theme.

 

I have 8 4th-graders that I have to pull all at once for math, and my small group table is not big enough...so we're going to meet here.  I kinda like it...we'll see how it works though.

We were told at the beginning of last week that the little hideaway where we all keep our filing cabinets is blocking a window that is going to be turned into an egress window.  Which means we can't put our filing cabinets there.  I really don't like this...but it'll work until I turn everything digital like I want.

I am also the Hospitality Chair for our school.  So I wanted a space in my room where I could keep track of everything I had planned for the year.

Since I don't need the bulletin board outside of my room for student work, I turned most of it into a birthday board for our faculty.  Those are faculty/staff birthdays!  Every student passes my room on the way to art and music.  So now they can see all of the birthdays for that month.  Plus we will be spotlighting a different faculty member every month.  It's just a way to get to know the members of our school.

I also wanted to share this bulletin board that I did in the front hallway of our school.  Thank you to Sarah over at Math Equals Love for sharing about this bulletin board (and where she got the idea from).

We're trying to change our mindsets at my school.  

It's going to be a great year.

Thanks for sticking out this long post.