10 days in...

I'm exhausted.

It's only two weeks in.

Open House was last week and I still haven't recovered.





In addition to ya know, teaching, I've sat in on a planning meeting for our upcoming Rodeo night, an ELL presentation, had a meeting about advanced students, had a grade level meeting, and gotten my room ready for Open House...by Wednesday.

Thursday morning I helped to lead a new teacher training, will teach all day, make a quick run to Sonic, and get ready for two hours of Open House.  

I've got amazing parents who brought me cookies for Open House:

 

Thank goodness Friday was already planned, next week is planned, and I've got a busy weekend ahead of me!

There were some late nights, but I've got this view:

 

In terms of long range plans and grade level plans, I'm already behind.  I was behind on day 2.  I'm not really sorry about it.

By no means have we wasted time in the classroom.  Instead, I'm in an adjustment period where I'm quickly realizing things in third grade take much longer than I'm used to...because they're 7 and 8 years old.  

In math, we've explored number talks, built problems with cubes, learned about arrays, and started making the connection between repeated addition and multiplication.  

I picked a student who was struggling to give me the number of items in each box.  That ownership and helping me make our reference guide was really important to that kiddo.

They've taken their first three "entrance tickets" (10% formative assessments) and are continuing to learn about math discourse.  Two of them went into the grade book.

In reading, we've built up our independent reading stamina, read several picture books,  taken our STAR test for beginning of the year benchmarks, reviewed fiction and nonfiction, completed sorts, and I've begun benchmarking for AIMSweb oral reading fluency.

In writing we've covered nouns (common vs. proper), friendly letters, and brainstormed ideas for our letter to ourselves at the end of the year. 

(The post-its were a spur of the moment decision but I like how the notebooks turned out.  Students wrote their own examples underneath the post-its.  We also got up and labeled different nouns around the classroom.)

I also used the post-its on the anchor chart:

  

Last week we began drafting our three paragraph essays and revised/edited with partners.  Final drafts are due Monday, but it's not for a grade. I'm using their first papers as a benchmark so I can make a list of mini-lessons the class needs.  We've also been doing morning journals (available {here}) and I'm slowly incorporating mini language lessons about restating the question in the answer, capitalizing proper nouns, and using evidence to explain our thinking.

They also built up their writing stamina and enjoyed free choice seating:

They've learned about summaries and practiced whole group (to My Mouth is a Volcano and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day), in table teams (to Thank You Mr. Falker), and individually with their books.

We've reviewed fiction and nonfiction writing. They also cut up extra book orders to sort into F and NF, which allowed me to go over procedures for gluing, cutting, and using class supplies.

We spent a few hours doing activities on Monday's solar eclipse and have most of our classroom routines down.  

We've already changed seats, know where our privacy folders are kept, and have our graduation count down board ready. 

We've established our sentence frames for talking to one another:

We've done some get to know you activities and brain breaks as well.  We've practiced gallery walks and structured movement in the classroom.  We've taken pictures, celebrated a birthday, practiced routines, and taken pictures in our class photo booth. We've reviewed assembly procedures and learned about our first fundraiser for the school in a popcorn assembly.

I'm not a sit quietly and do worksheets kind of teacher.  So while I may technically be behind 10 days in, I think we've done some quality learning.  That's what makes this worth while. 

First Week of Third Grade

There has truly been no greater meme then the one above.

I survived the first day of school.  More importantly, I did it without the aid of coffee or Mountain Dew.  That's right folks, you're looking at a teacher who went caffeine free the first week of the school year. Granted, a nap happened after school.  To be totally fair, a nap happened most of the first week.

I had every intention of coming home each day and blogging about what happened.  But those good intentions didn't get fulfilled.  I'll do my best to recap the whole week at once.

Monday, August 14th

Without an alarm, I woke up at 12:18 ready to start the day.  However, there was still a good five hours before I actually needed to be up and luckily I was able to get a little more rest.

I left early to grab Starbucks on the way to school.  Last week the front of the school and the nearby roundabout were torn up with construction, so I gave myself extra time.

I got to work and after finalizing my first day plans (which ended up taking three days to get through), I set up my photo booth:

We took a pod picture, but I spaced on getting a grade level one.  We ended up taking that picture on Tuesday. I also set out water bottles for their first day treats. 

Officially I have 23 third graders on my roster, but I have a push in student all day from the autism room.  24 is a great number.  Granted, I keep feeling like I've lost a good dozen students because I'm used to fifth grade numbers.  But nope, I just have two dozen kids to keep track of and it's a rather nice feeling.  (Right now, one of the fifth grade classes is sitting at 41 students.  I am so glad I switched.)

I went outside, met students and families, then we came inside to start our day.  Some teachers wanted to jump right in to teaching cursive and silent worksheets.  

We went a different route.  I explained breakfast procedures and had them write about how they were feeling.  We then watched {this Kid President} video to lighten the mood.

Afterwards, we talked about how we were going to help each other out and make this year awesome.

The first day was a combination of get to know you team builders and procedures.  We incorporated movement and practiced talking with one another.  One of  my favorites is "Find Someone Who":

Kids get up, introduce themselves to one another, and ask get to know you questions.  It incorporates movement in a controlled way, which they need after hearing about school procedures and class rules.

Lunch will be an adjustment this year.  I'm used to 12:15, but alas, lunch this year is at 11:25.  The kids get 20 minutes to eat and 20 minutes to play, but teachers are only contracted a 30 minute lunch.  I spend the first 10 minutes in the lunchroom on duty with my kids.  As a trade off, this means I no longer have morning crosswalk duty, which is a blessing.

For those of you who have never experienced the joy of lunchroom duty, it looks a little something like this:

And is best described in this {video}.

But in all seriousness, I spend half the time separating classes into two lines and walking around passing out sporks, napkins, and ketch up packets.  I often fight with sealed fruit cups and have spilled on myself every single day.  I have a new hatred for capri sun juice pouches.  

By the time my ten minutes of duty is up, I've lost most of my appetite.  Watching several hundred kids shovel food into their mouths will do that.  Still, I'd prefer the duty at the start of my lunch period because most of the other teachers have outdoor playground duty and well, it's hot outside.

We did read First Day Jitters on the first day of school and practiced procedures.  I allotted forty minutes for filling out agendas for the first time and going over back to school paperwork.  It was barely enough time.

There weren't any tears the first day, I got hugs goodbye, and as soon as the bell rang, I was ready for a nap.  

I stayed an hour and a half after school getting ready for the next day, grabbed take out (B had softball and I hate cooking for one), and was asleep by 8 pm.

Tuesday

I spent before school prepping these treats:

I ended up passing them out at the end of the day, but still. It's the thought that counts.  I'd also like to thank Costco for having the box of 54 rice krispies on sale for under $7.  Smaller class sizes means the hubs now has a lot of rice krispies to enjoy as a snack for softball.

We did a classroom scavenger hunt the second day (because we ran out of time on the first day of school).  It was a great opportunity to embed voice levels, team work, appropriate movement around the classroom, the location of extra clipboards (if they didn't bring their own from home), and challenges.  Plus involving students in this process means not only are they more likely to remember where something is because they discovered it, but also have a higher sense of shared responsibility and ownership in the classroom.  These feelings of ownership mean that (hopefully) they will take pride in our room and treat things with respect.

 They did a really good job with moving around the classroom appropriately:

They also worked quite well as a team:

To further practice team work, they learned how to do a sort with "No Way Jose! That's a Fact Jack!"

I created several dozen statements about third grade.  Some of them are true (that's a fact, Jack!) and some of them are false (no way Jose).  Students worked together to sort out the statements and explain their thinking.  The point of the activity was to dispel some myths about third grade and to practice team work.

After each table sorted their cards, they went to investigate how another group sorted theirs.  They couldn't touch the other team's cards, but had to practice complete sentence stems:

I agree with ___ because ____
I disagree with ____ because ____

We'll eventually post more, but for the first week, we're using just these two sentence stems.  I have a few kiddos that are ELL, so these sentence stems are a great way for them to practice and structure their responses.

We also managed to take a grade level photo (since that slipped our minds day one):

This is the first time I've ever worked on a predominately male team. It's an adjustment. I've also taught all the men about a few different technology components, so that feels nice to be helpful.  

We've split up planning responsibilities this year and I'm really excited about it.  Almost everyone is on board.  Our two newest teachers are planning math because the Engage NY curriculum is already scripted.  It doesn't mean they get off easy because of how copy intensive this program can be, but rather they get to read the scripted lessons and narrow them down to create lesson plans for us to use.  Two others are planning writing and I'm planning reading with Ms. H.  We moved down from fifth together and are quite used to sharing the responsibilities.  Language will be shared between us and the writing team.  We haven't talked about science or social studies yet, but have a grade level meeting this week. 

We also did a few gallery walks, where students use markers to answer questions that I've prepared on big butcher paper.  I use this as an opportunity to practice using markers, whisper voices, sharing ideas, agreeing or disagreeing appropriately, and moving around the classroom.

After each group visits each question, we talk as a class and make our class norms.  

We used math manipulatives in the form of cubes to practice solving math problems in a hands-on way.  I gave them five minutes of free play to get it out of their systems, then we used the cubes to solve problems.  Ms. S happened to stop by during the five minutes of exploratory free play and was delighted to see their towers:

Three tables built towers, one table built fidget spinners. 

We did actually do some math with the cubes as well:

It was a great chance to embed Number Talk norms and quickly assess some of my students' background knowledge.

This problem was awesome:

It was nice to see how they worked with numbers.

I also had student helpers solve problems on the board:

I didn't know all of their strategies (the ribbon strategy?!) but got it after they explained their thinking.

The rest of the week was a blur.  I napped almost every day after school.  We read the following picture books:

Ms. Nelson is Missing  

This classic tells the tale of a teacher who brings out her alter-ego when the kids are misbehaving.  Not only did we practice coming to the carpet, answering questions, and being good listeners, we also did a gallery walk about how we should treat each other and our teacher.

My Mouth is a Volcano

 
This is newer find for me and quickly became one of my favorites.  It tells the story of Louis who has a problem interrupting (erupting) others.  The tables turn when he realizes how it feels and how being interrupted hurts feelings.  His mom helps him with strategies for not blurting out.

First Day Jitters

This book goes through the typical struggles of getting ready for school, not wanting to start at a new school, being anxious about making friends, and is quite relate-able for students.  But *spoiler alert*, the main character is actually the teacher!

Thank You Mr. Falker

It's always a struggle to not cry with this one.  Patricia Polacco tells of her own childhood struggles to learn to read while dealing with family deaths, a cross country move, and bullying.  We talk about perseverance, bullying, and asking for help.  We also used this book to learn about writing summaries, which we practiced as a class and with table teams.

We practiced fire drills, took a STAR test on the computer, worked on our reading stamina, set up our daily response journals, and had some talks about choices. We learned about Class Dojo and they helped me create the categories for positive and negative choices.  Granted, I already knew what categories I wanted, but they were so excited to participate in making classroom decisions.  That buy-in from students is important.

They got new book orders:

I always give a few weeks between passing these out and having the orders be due to allow for pay day and students to do extra chores to earn books.  I put our class code and the due date on the book orders to make it easy for families.  I also gave them time to explore and get excited about books.  It's important and I get to see what books are on the "must have" list so I can use Scholastic dollars to stock up on things they want to read. 

(For non-teachers, every order placed earns teachers points.  I think if I place a $25 order this month, I get $10 free to spend on books.  It's quite nice to help me build my library.  Plus Scholastic's prices are quite low to make books affordable for kids.  It's a great system.)

We talked about how to care for dry erase markers and set up classroom supplies.  I print their names on sticky labels and use packing tape to secure the labels.  I usually do this at home and can go through the class set during an episode of Friends.

Alas, I do not do these classroom chores alone.

We made a T chart about what constitutes a nurse visit:

 

We learned about stamina and practiced independent reading:

We had a busy, busy, busy week.  I've gotten two love notes so far and lots of hugs.  Third grade is off to a wonderful start!

...I was not ready

I wasn't ready for what this week brought in terms of classroom instruction.  Biggest Loser at work started, which meant a weigh in first thing Monday morning.  After eating like a queen for two weeks, that was a little devastating.  But there's only one way to go (and that's down in terms of weight loss!)  Going cold turkey on caffeine didn't help the week, but I'm just glad it's the weekend.

Monday

Almost every other teacher in the lounge spent Monday's lunch period praising how quiet their students were.  Mine? Mine came in noisy and we had to have not one, but three different reminder conversations to re-establish classroom norms.  The biggest struggle?  They wanted to talk over me when I was giving instructions.

I gave them catch up time with their tables after break.  We shared out as a group and welcomed one another back.  We spent Monday reviewing concepts learned before break.  We didn't start division with decimals until Tuesday, finished our novel The Lightning Thief,  made these adorable foldables for goal setting during writing time:

(A free download from a fellow TpT seller, available {here})  

Despite planning a relatively easy review day with fun activities, they were still extremely loud and a tad disrespectful.  I tried to shake it off and frame my thinking as they were having an adjustment period.  After two weeks without the classroom structure, some of them were a bit off in terms of behavior.

Monday ended with Battle of the Books and several more students dropping out.  I think they expected it to be easy...it's not.  They have 8 books (they have to read four) and will have to answer trivia questions.  It's a little disheartening that over half the students who initially signed up have quit.  

I'm also trying to be positive and keep in mind that it's the first year (in about eight) that we are competing.  Next year, hopefully, will be better.

Tuesday

Tuesday brought this surprise:

I requested a kit months ago and it finally arrived!  Inside is a teacher kit and enough track components to playfully test velocity, speed, force, and friction.  

Of course, my students wanted to play with it immediately.  I said we're finishing our social studies unit first, then will switch to science.  I explained that we needed to know science terms first and have some background because this wasn't for play time.  This was for science.  That explanation calmed them...to a degree.

Wednesday

Wednesday was rough in terms of student behaviors, so instead I'll share two positives:

This was the view Wednesday morning from the playground of my school.  My phone doesn't do it justice.

We also had an IEP meeting where we exited the student from special education.  She made enough growth this year and met all of her individual goals.  This doesn't happen often and it was quite the cause for celebration.  Her dad cried tears of joy.

Thursday

Surprisingly a super productive day, possibly due to afternoon prep.  I always seem to get so much crammed into the morning when I have three straight hours with them.  We conquer social studies, math, reading, and RTI block.

We also had a guest speaker, Ms. L, come in to talk about upstate New York.  She's a neighboring kinder teacher and my kiddos loved hearing about other places.  We'll have more guest speakers soon. I'm super blessed to be at a school where so many colleagues are willing to give up their prep periods to come talk to the fifth graders.  

 Half a dozen students stayed after school until 5 pm retaking summative assessments, since report cards are due next week.  That made for another long day, but I left when they did!

Friday

Friday morning, I learned some devastating news.  I thought I was at Masters +32, but I'm only at +29.  That means I need one more class by May for a substantial increase on the school district's pay scale.  Totally manageable.

Except...it's not.  We will be getting a new contract in March.  This does not count education credits the same way.  Since my previous 13 grad credits were completed before the new contract, they won't count toward advancement.  Since I didn't finish the last class before September of 2015 (because I had the goal of May, 2016, because that's when credits are due), I won't be earning the pay raise.  I was told "bummer" by the HR representative, that there's a tentative appeal process, but that I should be pleased the last class I'm taking will count as 15 hours on the new payscale.  15 of the 225 I'll need for salary advancement. 

I tried to keep back the tears because nothing is set in stone.  Still, it's hard to feel valued as a teacher when I'm so completely screwed over by my employer.  Let me make that clear: my school is amazing.  My school district is disappointing.

Behaviors escalated.  I wrote two citations on Friday.  One student did nothing during math time, then when confronted, tried to say it was my fault because he didn't have a pencil.  He didn't ask to sharpen a pencil, nor did he ask to borrow one.  He just decided to assume I'd so no and that it was better to sit and do nothing, then try to say it was my fault.  This nonsensical back talk is not needed.  I flat out told him it was his fault, to accept responsibility, and stop trying to place blame on others.  He then continued to be rude and argumentative.  After lunch (and the fourth hallway conversation), he once again tried to tell me it was my fault he was talking to another student because I wasn't clear with my directions.  Holding back laughter, I flat out asked how "separate, find a different partner, and stop talking when I'm talking" could possibly be misunderstood.  Again, instead of apologizing, he spat arguments and attitude, so  was removed to another classroom.   A second student, who'd tried to pull the fire alarm earlier in the week, wrote "thug life" all over the thank you card I wrote his mom, and was absent two days, decided to back talk our new paraprofessional (support staff, or teacher's aide).  They were outside reading and she shushed him because it was reading time.  He shushed her right back and when confronted, claimed she started it and refused to apologize.  

Needless to say, I left school at the bell on Friday.

The weekend

I cranked out a 41 page report in a little over twenty four hours.  I worked for two hours on Friday and wrote the rest this morning.  It's being peer reviewed before being sent into the district.  I also finished my report card comments (27 pages)...all without the help of caffeine.  If I could bottle that type of productivity and have it constantly, I'd be unstopable.  When I needed a break, I turned to chores.  The Christmas tree is now un-decorated and put away, along with all the other winter decor.  Laundry also got folded and put away, in addition to making a new crockpot meal and cleaning the house.

Then I took a well deserved nap.

Tomorrow brings family pictures with B's side, working on a regions powerpoint, and finishing grading retakes.  This week brings a lot of different activities...but I'm counting down until Thursday night when my mom arrives for the weekend!

How was your first week back? Hopefully less traumatic than mine!

"Beautiful Anchor Charts" updated

I updated the "beautiful anchor charts" tab at the top of the blog!

Many images are repeats of what I blogged throughout the year, but I find it helpful to have all of my anchor chart images stored in one place.

Hopefully you agree :)

A Year in Reading Anchor Charts

I was *really* bad at uploading pictures of anchor charts this year (sorry guys).

As a result, y'all get the mega post with all of them! I took pictures so I'd remember for next year.  We make the charts with the students, so we don't reuse them over and over again.  I'll also upload the images to the "anchor charts" page with the blog.

Most of my anchor charts use multiple colors.  The black part is the part I read during a choral review on the carpet, the colorful words (key words) are what students read.  It's too overwhelming for them to read the whole poster together, but it's too boring if I read all of it.  It's our compromise!

Also, for the most part, my anchor charts are color coded.  This strategy helped my ELL students.  

My reading ones are blue.

Metacognition and Annotating for Close Reads

RI 5.2

RI 5.3

This standard focuses on relationships between people, events, and ideas.  We modeled with Dr. King, Rosa Parks, civil rights, and the bus boycotts.  They had a lot of fun with this standard!

RI 5.5

The large poster in the middle is a copy of the graphic organizer that was in their notebooks.

RI 5.6

RI 5.8

This standard focuses on evidence, so I like the acronym.

Writing

Narrative Writing

Some of these ideas are borrowed from Being a Writer, which is one of the resources at our school site.

Expository Writing

 
Word Parts

This technically fall sunder reading, but I chose to make all my RF (Reading Foundation) standards yellow.

I made this with my RTI group.  We also used magnetic word parts to compose and decompose words.

Oreo Reader

One of our strategies was teaching kiddos to be an "oreo" reader.  Basically we spent a lot of time modeling what it means to savor the text and really examine all the parts of a tasty book.

Inferences

Enjoy!