Raw

Below is a link to my very raw emotions. If you have time please check out the link to my most resent post on my other blog. I hope I can be a positive influence in your life and encourage you all to take steps and to dream! 

*I had a dream....

Please remember . . .

Mission Complete!

I put in some very long hours this week but I think it was all worth it!!! Parent Teacher Conferences were last night. School dismissed at 1pm and parents started coming at 2. While 1 hour sounds like a lot of time it really wasn't. I had so much going on during the 1/2 day of school I just needed a moment to collect my thoughts. I think yesterdays half day with students was one of the more stressful day's I have had this school year. NOTHING seemed to be going in my direction. One student spent quite a bit of time in the office, I had 4 safe seats, lunch duty and recess duty. It just didn't seem like it would ever end. After a little melt down from the day I was ready to greet and talk with 15 parents!

The conferences went great! I was finished with my last conference at 7:40pm, 12 hours and 40 minutes after I had arrived! It was one LONG day! By the time I packed up my stuff it was 8pm before I left school and I returned to my house exactly 14 hours after my departure time.

I had 100% attendance and all the conferences went amazing! I have some really great kids and parents at my school. The entire evening I kept thinking about last years experience at parent teacher conferences and how much I have grown as a teacher. I really feel I am in the right school for me. I am able to grow as a teacher, I get constant feed back from my principal, and the parents are supportive.

I hope your parent teacher conferences went well or will go well! I am now off to enjoy this very long 4 day break from students. It couldn't have came at a better time!

It's my favorite time of the year....

I think the title might be a HUGE lie! lol I am preparing for Parent Teacher Conferences and trying my hardest to get all grades up and into the online gradebook.

No mater how long you have been teaching, when you move to a different school you have a NEW computer program to learn....ugh! I think I might have it all figured out but sometimes I wonder if all that hard work isn't in the program the correct way.

I have my 1st conference on Wednesday and then 15 on Thursday between 1 and 8pm. I think I can handle my 2nd year of PTC but I am still nervous about the parent meetings. I know my students have been working hard so I shouldn't have much to worry about. Today I put in a 12 hour workday at school. I felt like I had so much to get done/prepare that I just didn't get out of school until 7pm! I am sure all this crazy work will pay off on Friday!!! Friday I get a nice rewarding break which will involve sleeping in! awwww!

Tomorrow my goal is to get ALL the grades entered online and then begin to fill out the oh-so important grade cards!  I hope you all are getting ready for your favorite time of the year! :)

A Few of my Favorite Things!

I am really starting to feel at home in the 4th grade classroom. I love my job even with the challenges that are thrown my way daily. Here are some of my FAVORITE items in my classroom.

WARNING!

If you don't have a magnetic white board/chalk board please do not read all of it. I promise you will be extremely jealous (and I don't want that to happen). Don't worry, I was once that teacher that didn't have a magnetic whiteboard and it was not my favorite.

 

These 3 items (up close on the right) are the best things ever created! I think I would be lost without those things. As you can see they are magnetic and stay right on my whiteboard beside my Smartboard. So what are these amazing items?

 

1) Magnetic eraser! I use this a lot throughout the day because I love writing on the white board and it very convenient to grab the eraser.

 

2) Timer! I use this at least 12 times a day. It is magnetic and stays in place. I know exactly where it is located and my kids know where to look if the need to know how much time is left for them to work. I also love that is will count up and down!

 

3) Recycled container that holds the sticks with the kids names on them. I just made this item and it has proven to be a life saver!

 

 The calendar is all ready for the upcoming events in October! Look at the 3 very important dates (green and pink sticky notes).

This is Stan the 4th grade skeleton. He is the official meter stick and yard stick holder! This skeleton was found in my closet the first time I went to my classroom. Stan goes great for Halloween decorations and my closet can actually close now that Stan is out!

Marcia Tate

On Monday we had professional development the entire district went to Northwest to see Marcia Tate speak. She was amazing!!! I learned so much and when I left I was fired up about teaching. I had never been to an outside of school professional development speaker, so it was a wonderful 1st time experience.

10 things I learned on Monday...

1) A person needs 12 positive interactions each day (kids who come from difficult homes may only get those 12 positives while at school so make their day worth it!)

2) Playing music as your students come in each morning is a great way to get the day started.

3) Natural colors work best in a classroom (brown, blue, and tan)

4) EVERYONE needs a purpose - make sure your students have a purpose each day.

5) Brains in today's schools are different so you need to find ways to connect to the "new" brain.

6) Students can only focus for 1 minute for their age (example 12 years old = 12 minutes of focus) so you need to have a variety of different activities planned so students don't loose focus while in the lesson.

7) Having a peer greet students at the door with the teacher can reduce bulling (I am starting this one next week!)

8) Self-helplessness is a condition not a disorder but you can work with a student and parents to help create a better attitude towards learning.

9) Laughter is good in the classroom as long is it is not sarcasm young minds don't understand and accept sarcasm well.

10) Yelling doesn't grow dendrites.

If you want to know more about Marcia Tate check out her website! If you ever have a chance to hear her speak you should take it! Monday was such a great day!!!

Awww how I love teaching.

Things in the 4th grade world are going very well. Today (Monday) we had no school. While I would like to say that I was able to enjoy it however I pleased this is not the case. We had professional development and listened to the amazing Marsha Tate speak! I felt so empowered and energized from her speaking. I think I could take on the the worlds problems!

She had some great insight and really gave valuable tips for making your classroom function. She is very similar to Harry Wong. Both of them are my heroes! SON has been going very well in 4th grade. Last week was one of the best weeks I have had since starting 4th grade. I have constant reminders that I have put the procedures in place and that my expectation are achievable! I keep  working and soon my 4th graders will be independent people ready for success in 5th grade (that's my goal!)

A student who is currently using the MotiVator is doing very well. He completed a math test in 45 minutes on Thursday without his timer. That is a HUGE accomplishment for him. A student who has visited the principals office many times is starting to coop himself and using the techniques that his councilor is giving him. This is also a huge accomplishment. He has not had to visit the office for 2 weeks (we are working in the right direction). I also have eliminated many "time wasters" and started to time my students on small tasks. It has become a competition and goes extremely well for my group of kidos!

I am extremely proud of myself and my students. I am seeing improvement in the class behavior, their ability to be on task and their desire to talk when I am talking. I am excited for the month of October and to see what great things are waiting for my 4th graders! :) I know that I will be putting in place many things that Marsha discussed today and I know that my students will love them!!!!! :)

4th grade update

I have a very unique class this year. They are really teaching me how to be patient, strict, use resources, when to let things go, and how to ask for help. And I thought I was the teacher! haha This summer I read the book First Days of School by Harry Wong. In the book he explains how important it is to create procedures for your classroom and how high expectations are a must! With a lot of help from Harry and many of my co-workers I have created quite a routine for the 4^th grade class. Even with the procedures I have created I still have many issues going on in my classroom.

My entire class LOVES to talk, is continuously making distracting noises, are often off task, don’t follow direction, very dependent and most enjoy being the boss. With all these factors it is difficult to get my 2 cents in at times. After almost giving up, I decided I need to just focus on a FEW main issues and not the BIG picture. While the few issues I have picked do contribute to the BIGGER PICTURE there are many more where they came from! haha

In 4^th grade we are changing the “focus”. The goal is to add 3 more focus issues every 2 weeks until we have them all under control…I am being optimistic!

The three focus issues this week are:

-Sitting up

-On task

-No distractions

My kids have already nick-named it SON. I just say "SON" and they all automatically know what it means! We also have started using the saying "Look Smart, Act Smart, Be Smart" These two things combined really get the whole groups attention and bring them back to focusing on their 3 tasks.

These 3 things are printed on a bright yellow rectangle of paper. Each item has 3 squares after it. Each time I see the students not doing one of the items listed they get a tally in the box it correlates with. In 4^th grade we have a 3 strikes you’re OUT, rule! Once you have 3 squares filled in an area any tally after that results in 1 minute of sitting out during recess. So if you have 5 tallies under sitting up, the student sits at recess for 2 minutes. The first 3 are warnings (or better known as MY tolerance.) I feel that 3 warnings are PLENTY of notice and a heads up to what behavior they need to change.

 Day 1: No one had to sit out but many did have 3 boxes in one area filled. They were very observant of what was going on. The students were aware of where they stood and really were focused on not getting 3 strikes!

**I did however learn that an overhead marker DOESN’T work for the policy. Day 2 I will be using a Sharpie and just erasing it with a magic rub eraser.

Today was a so much smoother than all the days of 4^th grade combined. It really made it easy. I didn’t let the “other” things distract me because I had already determined I was going to focus on the 3 above issues. That helped to take the pressure off of the kids and it also helped me to see which students have the most issues or cause me to get to my breaking point.

I am hoping that Day 2 will have similar results! J

Day 2: Great day for the entire class! I started the day off by reviewing the focuses and then we were off and running with the day's activities. The kids were a little concerned when I pulled out the Sharpie and not the overhead marker. I explained that I had a special way of removing the mark and it would not be with them all year (they were worried about that! haha). A few student had to sit out a few minutes.

Day 3: Difficult day! This week was homecoming so that had something to do with it. The kids were very squirly and that also had an affect on the management. I survived the day and I many kids had their yellow cards filled before the day was up. It wasnt' the best but I didn't give up. I ended the day and told them tomorrow was a new day and I knew we could do better.

Day 4: WONDERFUL! It was complete opposite from Wednesday (Thank God!). I was excited that we came back to normal. :) They were still dressed up for Homecoming but they had so many items sitting on my desk from the day before they had learned not to mess with their costume. We had indoor recess (which always sucks) but while at recess I was able to defuse a issue with a frequent office visitor! (That made my day!!!!!)

Day 5 aka Homecoming Friday: I was worried about this day and I was sure it was just going to throw my whole system into the fire. I came out of the barrel hott and I didn't stop. But I didn't need to! The kids were great! Very attentive and stayed on task for most of the morning. I was so impressed. After lunch and recess we piled on to the bus to go to the Homecoming activities at the High School. I had a few behavior issues at the school but other than that Friday was a great day!

So I made it 1 full week with my new plan. I think it is working great! My stress level is not as high and most of the class hasn't received a tally for sitting up since Wednesday (it's becoming a habit!).

Welcome to 4th grade!

Life in 4th grade is great! I have some friends (my students) that are pushing me to new limits. The 4th grade class is full of very high need personalities. I love all of my friends even when they have been to the safe seat 5 times and the office 3.

I am adjusting pretty well to the 4th grade curriculum and I am just as excited as the student to learn more about this great and wonderful state of Missouri!!! We get to go on our 1st field trip on Thursday! I have never been on an educational field trip as a teacher, so I am extremely excited! I went through all the steps with the principal and she gave me a list of things to bring/prepare for. I think I will be lugging a huge backpack around if I brought ALL the stuff she suggested, haha! Due to some of the behavior issues in my class the Title I Math teacher will be joining us for the trip. I am a little relieved there will be another adult with me. I handle the student all day by myself at school but there is the reassurance that I can push the call button and someone is there to assist. If I were to go by myself there wouldn't be that reassurance and it could be a bad situation.

The bus takes off at 8:45 and our first "session" at the lake starts at 9:30 sharp!  We are visiting a local lake where my friends will get to explore soil, river formations, and look closer at water creatures. I am very excited and so are my friends!!!

MotivAider

I have a wonderful accommodation for everyone to check out! I have one student in particular who is constantly off task, easily distracted and rarely completes a problem in the time that he is given. I try my best to keep on him, but with 14 other students in the classroom I can't keep on him as much as he needs. The second week of school I went and talked to the 3rd grade teacher she told me all the things she tried but didn't work for this student. I decided I would give it one more try before contacting his parents. So While I was trying to rack my brain I decided I would time him and let him see how often he is off task. That woke him up a bit...but not enough to complete something in a timely manner.

On Wednesday we had a visit from the outside councilor. She visits with a different student in my class once every 2 weeks. After her visit with my student I expressed my concerns about the child who is constantly off task. She lit up and came back with something so amazing! On Thursday I gave him his own personal timer. This timer clips onto his belt, pants or pocket. I control the minutes/seconds (example 2 minutes) when the timer goes off it vibrates. With every vibration he is to ask himself a question "Am I on task?" the vibration is a constant reminder for him to spring into action and do the task he was asked to do.

On Wednesday I had to gain his attention by calling his name, tapping him, asking him questions, or tapping on his desk at LEAST 60 times! (No MotivAider)

On Thursday I only had to gain his attention by calling his name, tapping him, asking him questions, or tapping on his desk 10 times!!! (With MotivAider)

Dramatic difference! I was amazed! When I went to ask him how he thought it was going on Thursday at lunch (only been doing it for 1/2 a day) a kid who sits right beside him said, "It's working great!" I look at the kid and said how do you know? The student look at me and said well he isn't drifting off into space and he is listening! The fact that a student who sits right beside him noticed a difference that is pretty wonderful! I we are only on day 2 of using the MotivAider, but this object will always earn my praise! If you have a student who you think this would work for I would highly suggest it. It has changed how my classroom looks and how much attention I can give to the other students in my class. Here is a link to the wonderful product! Even if you don't think this would be useful for you or a student you know please pass this tool on to others! I know it will make the a world of difference for the right students!

WOW! she know what she's talking about!

If you are a 1st year teacher or even a 2nd year teacher YOU NEED to read this! This amazing teacher has made a wonderful blog post about the roll-a-coaster that a 1st year teacher goes through. It is completely 100% the truth! I only wish she would make a graph for what a RIF and 1st year of teaching looks like I am sure she would need to add a couple more inches to the lower end of the graph! haha! I hope you enjoy her post and can gain a least 1 piece of advice! :)

Library . . .

Before I started work on my library I really took a good hard look at Pintrest and other teacher's blogs. I owe much of my library success to this blog.
1) I had to decided how I wanted to organize the books. I decided to go by categories/genre. While this task sounds easy it is very time consuming.

2) How to display the categories. I bought baskets at Dollar General 2 for $1.50 I started out with 20 but ended up having to buy more. I had no idea how many I was going to need.

3) I designed a fun way to label the baskets. This was my favorite part! I love the index card labels, the ribbon and the whole look of the book basket/library display.

I hope these little tips help!

My classroom library! Planet rug is in the area to help reading take you out of this world!



 All the baskets have a clear label of genre or author and a book basket number in the bottom corner.

 

To advertise Mark Twain books the library (very nice lady) gave me an extra poster! I thought it was the perfect thing to make may library look oh so cute!

My Classroom!

I thought it was time to share some school pictures!!! I love my new classroom and I am very very very excited for student to start coming in! I will be posting later to show off my library and door to my classroom (both are very impressive if I do say so myself!)

Writing Process poster!

Classroom guidelines

My very favorite clipboard hanging by the door.

Mailboxes I think they look great!

Parts of speech posters are all ready for the first day of school

My area....it still needs some work.

 Assignment board/objective area. The mini white boards are split in 2 parts the top is for the homework assignment and the bottom is the objective. I thought this would be a great way to display the days objectives and homework. Beside the mini boards are the spelling words for the 1st full week of school (yes! I am prepared!)

 Pencil bins! Puzzles are everywhere!

Safe seat. I thought it would be a great idea to put an attitude poster by the area to encourage student to think about their actions and attitude before joining again with the group.

How cute are these?? I know you can't really see the cuteness they have but they are balloons I cut out and put the students name and birthday's on. I feel this is a cute and not too large of a way to display birthdays in my classroom. Last year I didn't display birthday anywhere. Oh and they are color coded by month...thus the lack of a color variety.

(Orange = October, purple = May, dark green = December, light green = March, red = February, dark blue = July, and light blue = August)

A little creativity can go a long way!

Ok so I have been looking at all the teacher websites for quite a while....but I haven't broken down and bought anything. Instead I decided to use my crucit and make something VERY similar to what I want!
So here is what I wanted: 

sorce



This is what I made: 

If you ask me I think it turned out perfectly and it was MUCH cheaper! I love making what I want with what I have! I didn't have to buy anything new for this project and I think it looks very close to what the stores are selling! 



In our class...

Look what I made!! This litte beauty is now hanging in my classroom (I will add pictures soon!) I am very impressed with how it turned out! I LOVE PINTRST! I have gained soooooooooo many ideas this summer and I have actually made quite  a bit of the stuff I see. I have been slowly working on my classroom to make it Puzzle Mainia! :) I love school!

NEW!

I will be teaching at a new school this year! It is a brand new year, new school, new kids, and new teachers to work with! Because of all the new I have a NEW theme! I am very excited and I have been putting a lot of time and effort into making my new classroom represent ME and the theme!

Tomorrow, Libby and I am going to work on fun school stuff! Oh how I will miss having Libby at school this year. I think it is really difficult leaving one phase of my life and moving to a new phase. I really didn't want to say good bye to the friends I made last year (and I actually haven't). Libby and I have made a really good effort to talk on the phone, text and even get together over the summer!

God really knows what he is doing. He put Libby in my life for a reason and we have continued to stay good friends. I know that God knew all this drama was going to happen during my first year of teaching. He gave me Libby so I could survive with a smile on my face! She helped encourage me when I was down, listened to my rants, looked at cover letters, covered my class when I had phone calls to make and was a true friend throughout the situation.

This weekend I went to the Hopkins Picnic and many people wanted to know the story and why I was a at a new school. I shared with a few but quite honestly I really want to put it behind me. I am at a new school. So what! People move jobs ALL the time so why can't I. I am starting a new phase of my teaching career and it just so happens to be at a different school district. I am going to embrace the new experience. One teacher told me that by moving to different districts/school buildings you gain more experience because each school has a different dynamic. My second year of teaching will be GREAT! I while I have only taught for 1 year I have technically worked at/in 6 different schools! HOW CRAZY! I don't know many people that can say that and go into their 2nd year of teaching. I am proud that I survived my situation and I know it only made me stronger and more dedicated.

Papers to grade!!

Last week I spend A LOT of time grading papers! I came home from school changed into some comfy clothes and made myself a gradig nest on the floor. Nothing goes better than a funny TV show and papers to grade.
Here is a photo of my "grading nest"...

The LARGE stack of papers I graded....

WOW I am never putting grading off like this again!

Hope you all have a great week!!!

Let’s talk books

So I came across this article and it made me mad! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/top-reading_n_1373680.html#s805920&title=20_Marked_A

I am not a big fan of No Child Left Behind but I am also not a big fan of one article telling the world that ALL high school kids are reading at a lower reading level. I think when a child picks up a book there are other factors that need to be considered not just the reading level.

At my school we use AR so I am very familiar with the book levels they are talking about in the article. As I scrolled through the most popular book list I noticed that at least 7 out of the 25 books, my students are currently reading or have read! That makes me feel good. J

Now there are some books on that list that I would NOT allow my 5^th grade student to read because it requires much taught and understanding of the subject to fully understand the storyline. In order for a student to get a full meaning out of a book there needs to be questions asked, discussion and comparing and contrasting it to another book. So maybe the reason a high school English teacher is choosing lower level books so they can help guide those conversations and questions that arise while reading some of the book on this list.

I know that Americans want someone they can point to finger too and say this is why we suck…but guess what I don’t think it is the teacher this time.

Another thing that burns me from this article is the fact that a good chunk of the book on the list are series including Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson….all of these book now have a movie to go along with them….and guess what if you were to survey the American population I can guarantee that you would find that MOST people over the reading level of 5.3 have indeed read these books! They are popular! Give me a break do you want the kids to read? Then why are we criticizing them for reading so low when the entire country is also doing it?

This article just made me mad! I am a teacher and I am trying with ALL my MIGHT to get my students interested in reading. Yes, my students are in 5^th grade so these more popular books do fit their reading level most of the time. But there are some instances where I think you need to step back and see it from a teacher’s perspective. Those popular books might be a part of the curriculum but I can assure you they are NOT the curriculum. Also you can read ALL you want but if you don’t understand and comprehend what you’re reading you are NOT a good reader….do we want our children to read just to read or do we want them to read and understand?

I promise I won’t get on my soap box for a while…this just really made me upset.

You've Been Sentenced!

So it has been a while. Quarter grades are due sometime soon and I have been a little preoccupied with school and my current job search.

Well I thought I better share something with you all. Have you ever heard of the game You've Been Sentenced? Well this is a great game for kids and adults! A fellow teacher let me use it last week while some kids were missing from my class due to sickness. My kids had a fantastic time playing this and they will now ask to play it with the down time we have. CRAZY!


This game helps them work on sentence structure and reasoning. Wonderful game. I can even say it would be fun to play with adults at a party. Everyone is involved and there are so many options on how funny the sentences could be. My kids have realized you don't want to play with me because I make GOOD sentences! haha!!

Have a good week!!
link to buy the game http://www.amazon.com/McNeill-Designs-5511848-Youve-Sentenced/dp/B000EVLZ9U

There are a few more left ....

I thought I saved this so you could see them the right way but I guess not.... These are 2 very unique ways to show the Solar System!

Here are a few more models....

More systems....

This model was very neat and the poles helped show the distance from the sun.

This model was smaller and used a shoe box as a base.

A solar system a day.....

This model is made of cake and ricecrispies!

Keeps the followers happy! I am going to be showing off the hard work of my students this week. They each had to made a model of the Solar System. I would have never expected thier work to be this wonderful. They all did a terrific job and I can tell they put alot of time into thier projects.

This model lights up!

Meteoroids, Meteorites, Meteors

Last Friday our classroom was on fire about the solar system and the objects in our system. 5th grade discover that there is more in our solar system than just planets. We learned about meteoroids, meteorites, and meteors along with asteroids. Before teaching this unit I really didn't know what these things were but now I have a full understanding of them all.
One question that really got my students thinking was; "Have you ever seen a shooting star?" Almost all of them had but they didn't know what it was. I was so excited to tell them. A shooting star is a meteor that is burning up in earth's atmosphere. (How cool is that)

So what is the next step in the learning process? (I have successfully had the students infer, now I have taught the material, next up is to do a hands on activity, right?)


I got out the stealwool, a lighter and away we went. As a class we created 3 meteor demonstarations. Here are a few pictures of our shooting star activity.

UP CLOSE

Make a wish!

Look at the ball of light.

Solar System

My students and I have been learning ALL about the solar system. This has been a really fun unit. The students are in charge of researching a planet and giving a planet presentation before the unit is over. So far the kids have learned so much about the planets on their own that I don’t know how I would ever teach the information.

Not only are the students responsible for making a power point explaining important details about their planet they are also working on a project at home. Each student is to make a solar system model. Because I wanted in on all the fun I made a solar system model for our classroom. No, mine is not 3-D but it is overly large and looks very neat hanging up in the room. The students love having it hang up because it is a constant reminder of what we are working on in science.

Here are some pictures of the solar system classroom model to scale!

The whole Solar System from a distance.

Close up of the sun (not to scale) and the first 6 planets.

The far 2 planets.

You probly noticed that the model is hanging over the windows. I don't think my classroom has a perfect design and there was not enough space unless I hung it over the windows. I think it fits great! I have to use problem solving skills just like my students!

I took the plunge

That's right I am now a proud owner of a new blog! I started this blog earlier (to use as a classroom blog to keep parents informed.) That really never took off with me. I only made one post and I never told the parents about it. I felt like I wouldn't be able to keep it updated with all the information the parents needed. Maybe that is something I will try later. But for now this blog is solely a classroom insight.

What is a classroom insight?

I will post picture of my classroom, fun things going on in 5th grade, ideas that I have, advice (if I find any good enough to share) and things like that. I recently started following another teacher and I REALLY enjoy her classroom insight so I thought I should maybe give it a shot. I am not promising ANYTHING. I am a 1st year teacher and I don't do things "right" all the time but I thought this might just be a cool idea.