October, where did you come from?

I had to change my classroom calendar.

It's October. Monday starts week 8 of school.  I don't know where the days have gone!

Oh wait, yes I do.  Devoted to learning.  Devoted to place value, powers of ten, rounding, and comparing decimals.  Devoted to reading the Lightning Thief.  Devoted to their Native American Indian research projects and writing extension projects.  Devoted to maintaining a positive classroom culture and celebrating successes.  

It's been a busy start to the year!

While B is out having a boys night, I'm enjoying a lazy evening with the DRV, playing with the kittens, crafting, and a tiny bit of grading.  I'm such a list maker, so let's make some October goals!

Professionally:

-Implementing another game day for my students to allow them to play with decimals and multiplication, allowing me time to reteach in a smaller group setting.

-Continue to have students be excited about The Lightning Thief. They are so invested in the story and keep trying to sneak the sequel, The Sea of Monsters off the shelf.  Sneaky wanna-be half-bloods!

-Continue to build positive relationships with my coworkers, admin, and parents.  

My assistant principal popped in today to share that a third grade teacher was struggling with math games and that she recommended he come see me.  She wanted to make sure that her suggestion was okay, and obviously it's fine! I'm excited that she sees me as a go-to person on making the classroom environment fun while still standards-based.

I've had some really positive conversations with parents lately and I hope it continues.  I had one mom come in after school to learn about the math organizer we're using in math.  We had a 20 minute conversation and afterward, both mom and daughter felt better. I sent them home with math games (because that's a way that the student will actually want to practice) and she had her retest today.  Guess what? She got a B. Progress!

-Stay ahead of my grading and math planning!  

-Add a few more products on TpT.  I have a few students that are finishing up novels that I've read, but haven't made chronological order sorts for.  When they skip  the sort, they tend to get around 80% on their AR tests...which doesn't count for badges.  However, when they do the sort, they earn 100%.  For me, it's worth a few extra hours to help them be successful.

-Continue to network for Jamberry.  I just got my business cards and am excited to pass out pretty samples to friends and family.  I love having pretty nails :)

Personally: 

-Finish the wreath I started for our front door.  Right now it's a styrafoam circle wrapped in burlap. I want to add some embellishments, but I'm not quite sure what.  Our door is navy, so perhaps something white or maroon.  

-Continue to organize books to take into my classroom...and get a handle on the guest bedroom.

-Finish Christmas shopping.  I've got my brother's girlfriend totally done and my mom mostly done...so baby steps!

-Be better at blogging!

-Finish The House of Hades.

What are your October goals?

Happy Birthday Percy!

August 18th is Percy Jackson's birthday and that calls for a celebration!  So bust out some blue cupcakes and head on over to my TpT store for 15% off all Percy (and co) products.  Teacher guides, sorts, and chronological order sorts are included for The Lightning Thief, the Sea of Monsters, the Titan's Curse, the Battle of the Labryinth, the Last Olympian, the Lost Hero, the Son of Neptune, the Mark of Athena, the Red Pyramid, the Throne of Fire, and The Serpent's Shadow!

Important Conversations

I had a very important conversation with one of my small groups this week.

It's one of my higher groups (DRA 60) and they're in the middle of Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games.  They're mature enough for it and they picked it because it sounded interesting.

At our first discussion, they set up their notebooks to keep track of characters, settings, vocabulary words, etc.  They were excited.

But slowly over the course of our next few meetings, their enthusiasm for the book changed.  They could answer the comprehension questions, analyze characters and were fully participating...but they weren't enjoying it.

So we had the conversation about how we were truly feeling about the book.  I gave them each a post-it to respond on and sent them away from one another.  I stressed the importance of honestly giving feedback about the book.

When I collected back the post its, three of them didn't want to read it anymore because they simply weren't enjoying it.  One still wanted to finish the novel.

So I pulled them back together and we had the important conversation: it's okay not to love every book you read.  It's also okay not to finish every book you start.

They looked at me completely bewildered.  I went on to explain that sometimes there will be books that you have to read the whole text, even if you don't like it. I went on to explain that our small groups were different.  I wanted them to enjoy reading and to interact with literature.  I wanted them to fall so in love with these characters that when we were done, they would miss them like old friends.  I wanted them to become entranced with the author's word choice, to be so absorbed in their books that they simply don't hear the timer when it goes off and it's time to clean up. I want them to love reading and want to discuss literature.

For that to happen, they have to be making connections with the book they're reading.

As an adult, if I'm not feeling strongly with a book and I'm over half way through, I'll stop because I'm just not that into it.  I wanted my students to know that it's okay to do the same.

I told them they gave it an honest effort (13 chapters).  I told the one who wanted to finish that he would keep it until he was done and let him know what students would love to discuss the ending with him.

We are meeting again on Monday for our final conversation about the differences in the tributes' attitudes toward the Games and what it means before we switch to our new novel:

As a grade level, we ran out of time with reading The Lightning Thief.  So I'm going to start my group toward the end of the novel.  That will be a tad strange for me, jumping right into the end of the book but I think they'll be okay.

From there, we'll continue on through the rest of Rick Riordian's mythological series.  

I haven't done the Percy Jackson with a small group yet and I'm excited for this new opportunity! I know they loved reading it out loud, so I'm hoping we have the same great conversations in our small groups :)

After our conversation, the look on their faces was priceless: relief.  I told them I wish they would have addressed their concerns earlier because I don't want them to struggle to like a book they simply don't.  That's not my goal for small groups.

I want them to love reading. I want to mold them into life long readers.

97!

Now that it's Winter Break, I have the time (sort of) to catch up on movies.

So I decided to check out the new(ish) film Sea of Monsters.

Like it's predecessor The Lightning Thief, I didn't love it.  It was cute, but I feel strays too far from Rick Riordian's novel to make me gush.  Granted, this director seemed to do a better job than the first one so that's a positive move.

However, due to the differences between film and novel, my students should be able to engage in great conversations about the similarities and differences between the novel and the film adaptation.

So I created a sort for them and you can snag it too here!

Just like my first one, this center has students sort task cards into categories:film only, novel only and both.

An answer key is included!

Happy reading :)

Oh Percy!

We are almost done with The Lightning Thief as a grade level, which means my small groups will be starting The Sea of Monsters in January!  I'm so excited to get to continue discussing Greek mythology and watching my students fall in love with Percy's adventures.

We just got some of these great books at our school:

I'm using them as rewards for students who turn in their reading logs :)  They get to check them out for the week!

I've also posted chronological order sorts for the Sea of Monsters and The Titan's Curse on my TpT store!  My students love the other chronological order sorts and will need to finish the novels before playing these ones :)

Snag yours here!

Upcoming Products

I'm in the process of reformatting some centers based on my students' feedback and they should be available on TpT by the end of the year!

Chronological Order Sorts:
The Miserable Mill (#4 in the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket)
Gossamer by Lois Lowry (posted 12/08)
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordian (posted 12/10)
The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordian (posted 12/10)
Steal Away Home by Lois Ruby

Novel Units:
Harry Potter novels (1-6)

Quote Sorts:
Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games trilogy

Other various stations:
Tuck Everlasting character analysis 

Be sure to follow me on TpT to see the latest products and check out sales!