One of the best things about being an elementary school teacher is that I get to read books and legitimately call it "work".
I gave myself the goal of reading all eight books for our battle of the books competition:
Rooftoppers
Words With Wings
Ava and Pip
The Crossover
Wild Born
Binny for Short
A Snicker of Magic
The Right Word
The competition is in April, so I've got roughly a book a month.
I checked out Ava and Pip for my next read because my students were enjoying it.
I'm also conquering Text-Dependent Questions by Fisher and Frey for graduate school, so that takes top priority (seeing how class ends November 22nd).
Also on my list of books to read:
Love and Logic (professional book)
Wonder
The Lemonade War
What else should I read?!
Since it's October 31st, I should probably revisit my {October goals} that I set earlier this month.
1) For the love of all things holy, I need to finish this dang book:
Um....nope. I did read The Crossover for Battle of the Books though!
2) Purchase and start this highly anticipated book:
In the middle, must finish by Wednesday because of a {competition with a student}!
3) Work on our wedding website.
4) Buy a new computer. We just need to order a case for it.
5) Make the second {DEN ambassador meeting} even more awesome than the first! I've already got a few more teachers interested in attending, which is great. I have to upload some videos and complete homework by December, but I've got time!
6) Attend a cultural event. We're actually going to Greek Fest tonight, so this one will be easily accomplished! One of the great things about Vegas is that there are lots of fun things like this.
7) Visit the {Bellagio gardens}.
Nope.
8) Make something with apples. It might be an apple pie. It might be apple cinnamon sangria. Okay, it will probably be the sangria. A friend just sent me a video of a new recipe and it looks fairly easy.
Nope.
9) Have a girls day. We had a {Jamberry} and {Younique} make up party, so I'm counting it!
10) Catch up with old friends. Yes and no. I have some calls to make.
11) Start Battle of the Books! We've had our first few meetings, we got the kids notebooks, we've got our system structure set, we've got our first fun activity (Paper Slide videos) planned, and I've read my first book {The Crossover}. The goal is to read all 8 by April.
12) Catch up on grading (almost done), finish the next two regions for social studies (the West Region is part way done), and maybe even get ahead in terms of planning (a girl can dream).
I have 33 essays left to grade and enter. The West Region and Great Plains regions are done, I'm just working on the Midwest.
13) Continue to be extra patient with my students. Some of them have a lot going on at home and act out in school because they're having trouble coping. This is totally understandable, it's just taking some additional patience on my end. Patience that I quickly feel I'm running out of. It's hard with 34 students. It's hard when some of them are able to focus for thirty seconds at a time and constantly shout out. It's hard to continue to be patient when I have ten different private hallway conversations with a student on a daily basis about class norms. But...it's necessary.
Yes. I even added another, putting me at 35.
14) Figure out my school costume. We're doing a theme for fifth grade...and the theme is balls. We're not the most appropriate ones, I know. It's more of a joke for the adults. I'm thinking of being a disco ball or a bowling ball. Totally fine costume by itself, but then when the teachers realize that all of the fifth grade teachers have something to do with balls...hilarity will ensue. The kids won't get it. But it makes us giggle.
I was fantasy football. I wore UNLV grad robes and carried a wand and a football. Mrs. H wore a jersey, pink witch hat, and carried a wand. Together we made sense to some. Not everyone got it, but we're so punny.
The rest of the grade level was a magic 8 ball, an eye ball, and a gumball machine.
So apparently my "top ten" got a little over zealous and I now have 14 goals for the month. But...overplanning is how I live my life.
Then life changed, goals changed, and I got only part of what I needed to accomplish. Good thing November starts tomorrow!
What did you accomplish this October?
Last night, instead of tackling the essays I have to grade, I typed up my notes for The Crossover into a handy, dandy {teacher's guide}.
One of the requirements for advisers for Battle of the Books is to read one of the eight novels and create 100 questions for the book. These questions are then used in the creation of powerpoints for the competition rounds (in March and April).
Since I was already taking notes, I figured I'd bundle them as a product to help other teachers.
Additionally, I created a matching {chronological order sort} for our Battle of the Books students to check themselves before quizzing. One of my favorite aspects of these sorts is that the answer key is included, so I'm not bothered when I'm working with a small group by questions of "is this right?". Students are able to be self-reliant and check their own work. This helps them to take responsibility for their own learning and self-assess their understanding of the text.
Up next? The Sword of Summer! (Obviously this is a much better task than tackling the pile of essays.)
My life in a nutshell:
I have broken the task into seemingly bite-sized pieces (six essays a day), but when each takes about ten minutes to grade, enter into the grade book, and make notes about in my conference journal, this doesn't seem all that manageable.
As I've previously shared, I'm doing Battle of the Books again with the fourth and fifth graders! This time around, not only do I have a better grasp of what I'm doing and how the competition works, but I also have the help of our school's librarian. Together, Mrs. H and I seem to have this under control.
We meet after school for an hour on Mondays with the students who are able to stay. Since many have sports or ride the bus, we can't force all students to stay. Plus it wouldn't be fun if we were forcing them to be there. We want students to want to read. The fourth graders will also check in with Mrs. H on their recess on Monday (because it coincides with her prep). The fifth graders will also check in with me weekly during independent reading. Since there are five fifth grade teachers, I'm just giving each teacher a different day.
The kids will come meet with me for a few minutes so we can touch base on their questions, the book, and their progress. The work is entirely on them, we just want to help keep them accountable by setting small, measurable goals and seeing how they progress with weekly check ins.
I'm going to try to read all eight books this year, but with all my grading, it does seem a tad daunting.
I tacked the first book, The Crossover, over the weekend.
This book is written as a series of connected poems, which was a new format for me. I was immediately hooked and found myself literally laughing out loud at certain parts. One particular moment, when the father is explaining to his son that talking to his twin (who has his first girlfriend) is futile at best, is written as:
Trying to talk to your brother right now is like trying to push water uphill with a rake.
Just let that mental image sink in.
What a gloriously wonderful way to describe the struggle to communicate with someone who is wrapped up in first love infatuation and resistant to any conversation.
The whole novel is filled with lines like that. Words that seize you and engulf you with passion. While I'll admit I had to do some googling for some of the basketball references, I was incredibly impressed with the ease at which the story flowed, mixing sports and real life situations.
It's not a surprise this novel won both the Newbery and the Coretta Scott King awards in 2015.
I was not prepared for the plot twist and had a very emotional reaction to this book. Fortunately, I was alone at home when I finished this up, so I was able to avoid the looks of strangers.
Part of my assignment as an adviser, I had to write fifty questions to use in the competition. Since I was writing anyway, I took notes throughout the whole book to turn it into a novel guide.
I'm working this for {TpT} and hope to have it available next week. Stay tuned!
