Getting back into the swing of things

We're in the middle of our back to school planning session and quite frankly, I'm really excited about next year.  It's been a while since I've felt energized about my job, so this is a positive move.  I think the combination of having a long summer (to recharge and meditate) and some changes (co-teaching with the GATE teacher, being a peer coach) have left me feeling empowered and valued.

Our first week plans at a glance:

We're treating our day in two separate parts.  First is ELA, which includes reading, writing, foundational skills, science, social studies, and technology.  We also put procedures and back to school activities in the top box.  Math is very difficult to imbed (because we're following Engage NY's curriculum), so that's a separate entity.

We've got our first week pretty well planned and have the first unit (next 6 weeks) mapped out.  The whole grade level hasn't been involved with the planning, but it was their summer break so #nojudgment.


I had a long, relaxing summer and am ready to get back into a routine.  However, someone in the house feels differently about back to school...

(the poster did say First Week at the top until Waffles found it...)


Mrs. H and I have spoken with our admin about our long range plans (thematic units) and voiced our excitement.  They're both on board and are eager to see the implementation.

I'm working on a new writing sort (coming soon), revising "no way Jose & that's a fact, Jack" (true/false statements, also coming soon), and notebooking activities.  I also made a new welcome banner, with Chloe's help of course:

I'm taking it in tomorrow to laminate and then will post pictures.  I hope to have my bulletin boards finalized tomorrow as well!

Inspired by a fellow TpT creator's project, I made my own thought bubbles for student notebooks:

In addition to reviewing cutting, gluing, and listening to directions, it provides students the chance to brainstorm before sharing their ideas out in table teams.  There are ten different questions and I've made it available {here} for free!

#Year8Can'tWait

Skypin' it up

We wanted to ease into the concept of mystery skype,

So we set up a skype chat with Ms. G, our former technology guru who has since moved on to a position at Ohio State University.

Our students had previously learned about the Midwest region with our {geography unit} and this was a fun review before we gave our {unit test}.  We prepped them with what is appropriate and what is not appropriate to say, then crammed eighty of them into one classroom.  (Okay, eighty is a bit of an exaggeration.  The actual number is closer to seventy three...but there were three teachers, it's okay!)

Before calling with the students, we did a test run...and boy am I glad!  We didn't have a working webcam, so we:

1) Tried with the iPads, but didn't have the password for the app store.  We could hear her, but she couldn't see us or hear us. She'd ask a question and we'd type a response.

2) Admin didn't have the password for the app store.

3) The person who did wasn't at our school that day, so Ms. G called him to have him email me the password.

4) Facetime didn't work.

After about an hour of problem solving (plus one iPad, one iPhone, one desk top, one Android, four adults, and two administrators...), we got it to work.  

The kids loved it!  She showed them various sites around OSU and we got to virtually meet her coworkers.  They asked thoughtful questions about the differences between Las Vegas and Ohio as well as which Disney princess is her favorite (obviously!)  The whole call took about twenty minutes.

Of course, I rocked a Michigan hoodie out of protest.

We appreciate you Ms. G!

Our next skype call will be to Ms. V after we learn about New York.  We've got a guest speaker for upstate NY (the neighboring kinder teacher), so Ms. V will be representing downstate New York!

Try it Tuesday: Inviting in the experts

For this next edition of Try it Tuesday, we're going to zoom in on something that's a little scary...

Today's topic is inviting in the experts.

Since fifth grade is in the midst of our great map project to learn about the fifty states, I've been doing lots of research on interesting facts about the fifty states to embed into our social studies and science units.  I'm including land forms and trying to hit every possible learning standard, so it takes a bit of planning.  Lucky for you, they're available {here}.  

(As a side bar, one of the great things about TpT is that when I update a product, previous buyers get the latest addition for free.  After teaching the first unit on the Intermountain Region, my grade level and I discussed strengths and weaknesses, so there are some things I want to improve for when we teach this unit again next year.  I love that for the most part, I have a team that is honest enough to engage in the tricky conversations about resources that are being used and how to improve them without it becoming a personal attack.)

However, I am humble enough to know that I don't know everything and ask for help...in the form of guest speakers.

Since Las Vegas is such a diverse place, I have teachers at my school from all over the country.  I've been inviting in these teachers to talk about their home states and it's been a great success.  My students are loving getting to hear from experts (and in some cases, their former teachers!)

It started with our lovely school counselor, Mrs. G, coming in to discuss her home state of Wyoming.  She purposefully wore a Wyoming shirt and put together a slide show of pictures from her home town, because she's awesome like that.

Next, our assistant principal, Mrs. B, gave up part of her very busy schedule to share all about California.  They loved asking questions and hearing all about amusement parks.  I must say, I was quite jealous to hear that she was off to Disneyland with her family over this long Nevada day weekend!

Our most recent visitor was one of the great fourth grade teachers, Ms. H.  

She came in to talk about her beloved Hawaii and fill the students in on Hawaii's history. Several of my students had her last year, so it was great for them to see her again in a different role.

I also had her add some of the features to our map, which is an old FAO Schwarz design that was given to me by a previous teacher.  I've added velcro to the back of post cards to make the map interactive.

I'll admit, it's a little scary to hand over the reigns to another adult in the classroom.  I did choose speakers that I know personally because this education time is precious.  I'm not handing over the reigns to my classroom to some stranger off the street just because it's convenient.  I sought out fellow educators whom I trust and asked if they'd be willing to come in and talk to my students.  {Last year}, I had my friend Katie who is a local chemist come in and talk about making mixtures and solutions.  She took the whole day off of work and did a forty minute science lesson in each classroom. She sent me her power point before hand to make sure it matched our standards and went over her procedures with me.  After dealing with somewhat grumpy adults all day, I'm sure she loved coming to talk to very excited students who want to know absolutely everything about everything.  Sometimes having a guest speaker takes a little more work on the teacher's end in terms of planning and organizing the lesson.

 However, it's worth it.  My students love hearing from experts and I love that I get to learn something new.  It's a wonderful opportunity for them to see these adults in a new way and ask questions about the world.  To be fair, we have the ongoing conversation about thoughtful questions versus random questions, but they're ten year olds and they're still learning.  

The other teachers love talking about their homes and I always learn something new from their discussions.  It was a little strange asking other teachers at first to come into my classroom because I felt bad about asking my over-worked colleagues to give up their free time, but I'm fortunate enough to work with some amazing educators who will happily procrastinate paperwork to come talk with my students.

Having guest speakers in the classroom does take some prep work.  It takes some flexibility with the daily schedule because you most likely will have to accommodate  the other teacher's prep schedule.  I had to collaborate with the special ed teachers that I co-teach with to let them know our daily routine was shifting just a bit.

My students are really good about thanking the guest speakers at the end of the talk, which is about fifteen to twenty minutes.  I want to be respectful of other people's schedules and appreciative that they're giving up their free time to talk to my students.  I send a hand written thank you card a few days later and I've got other teachers volunteering to come talk about their home states.  Ms. M, who is one of my bridesmaids, will be coming in to talk about Pennsylvania.  Mrs. A, our speech pathologist, is ready to discuss Michigan and our spunky principal Mrs. W is ready when we get to the east coast.  I inform the guest speakers of what we've covered (state, capital, state symbols, major cities, major colleges, major land forms) and let them take it from there. 

For this week's try it Tuesday tip, think about what subjects you teach and if there is a local "expert" who can come in and share.  Is there another colleague in your building? A parent who has background in the subject?  You never know until you ask!

At a school site where no one will come talk to your class?  Try skype instead.

I know that when we get to Ohio, we'll be skyping one of my former colleagues who now works for OSU.  Surprise Ms. G, we're going to call you! Be ready! 


Still on the fence about it?  Here's some {background} on why guest speakers are great for students!

Take a deep breath, be brave, and invite in an expert to teach your students something new.  

All the Feelings

With the exception of last year, every one of my years in the classroom has involved co-teaching with the special education teacher(s).  

In a nutshell, this means that one or more of my students are in special education and qualify for services.  Since we advocate for the least restrictive environment for these students, most spend a majority of the day in the general education classroom with two teachers.  I am the general education teacher while another teacher (the special education teacher) comes into my classroom to co-teach with me.  This "push-in" model means that all my students benefit from having two teachers.  

This means that two teachers can pull intervention groups.  This means that one teacher can lead the lesson while the other pulls individuals or groups for remediation or extension (because this is sadly often overlooked).  This means that one teacher can deal with behavior issues privately in the hallway while the other continues instruction, so the rest of the class doesn't lose out on instruction time.

There can be challenges in terms of planning and sharing responsibilities, but open communication and a shared sense of ownership (these are our students) goes a long way.  One of the biggest challenges can be IEP meetings, which are held yearly to update families on their child's progress at meeting individual education goals.  These meetings can be very difficult for parents, especially when they don't realize how much their child is struggling.  Tissues are always available and readily used.  I've been fortunate enough to have some amazing parents that know their child has educational struggles and are happy to work with the school to provide what's best for the child.  I've also been in situations where parents are in denial, blame educators, and threaten to sue me in the middle of meetings...but these parents are few and far between (thank goodness!).

Of all the things that randomly appear in my Facebook news feed, this one really hit home:

I'd love to start every single meeting with parents this way.  Yes, every single one.  This may be posted outside my door during parent teacher conferences and brought up in future IEP meetings.

This business of educating little ones is hard work, but so rewarding.

Puzzles

Our first two days back at work were amazing. We did some great ice breakers, dived into data, and talked about how to move forward as a staff to continue to be awesome.

Seriously, we had memes like this from our admin.

One of the activities we did in our grade level Olympics (yes, seriously) was building puzzles.

However, the pieces were mixed up.  So, being the loud problem solvers that we are, we freaked out then ran around swapping pieces with other groups.  

The point wasn't to build the puzzles.  The point was to see how the team dealt with challenges and worked together.

I loved the message, so I bought some dollar store puzzles and began making a version for my own classroom.  I lettered the pieces on the back of each puzzle piece and carefully mixed up the bags.  B looked at me like I was crazy, but he should be used to teacher antics in the name of team building.

I gave the task to my students:

They did amazing!  There was no yelling, running, or fighting about the pieces.  (Unlike the teachers...)  They simply thought there was a mistake and moved on.  

I was beyond impressed with their problem solving abilities and team work.  Way to go munchkins!

Try it Tuesday: In Kahoots with learning

I'm all about gallery walks and collaborative learning.  I've blogged about using cups as a response strategy and having students solve problems together for math review.  

However, I'm excited to take this to the next level with kahoot! 



I signed up for a free account and will create quizzes for my students.  They'll answer with the iPads and as a table group.  All they'll do is go to kahoot.it and log in with the code I give them (that I generate to go along with a specific set of questions.) 

It looks like this:

There is literally no way for them to mess it up other than typing in the code wrong.

From there, we'll make teams (usually the table teams since they're Kagan structured anyway).  From there, the game begins!  The quicker they answer will lead to more points for their team.    

Here's what a sample question looks like:

I'm also excited about using this to build metacognition for my students.  I can have them create questions for the class.  I can have them answer if the questions were too easy or too hard, and have them give feedback to me and to others.

In the fifteen minutes or so we played with kahoot, my brain began buzzing with possibilities.  This could be great for inspiring students to create really thoughtful, deep questions for one another about what they're learning.  They'll get to take charge of their own learning.

Will you be in kahoots with me this year to try something new to get your students excited about learning? 

DENSI, round two

Now that I've confirmed my place and told friends and family, I'm pleased to announce that I'll be headed to Washington DC this summer to participate in DENSI 2015!

DENSI, which is short for the Discovery Education Network Summer Institute, is a week long collaboration event that focuses on networking, technology, and learning from other teachers.  I went two years ago in Vermont and had a wonderful time.  I skipped last year's event because I'd just bought a home and was in the middle of an extensive kitchen remodel (refinishing nearly forty different cabinet doors) and unpacking a home.  

This year I'll be back to continue learning from other amazing educators. I can't wait to take the information I learn and share it with my colleagues (and here online).

It looks like my Leslie Knope dreams are coming true after all!

 

SKYPin' it up

One of the many social studies standards for our fifth graders is learning about the three branches of government.  While this has been one of my favorite teaching resources from Lakeshore, I have added to this kit over the years:

We read about the three branches, made a foldable, and did a 3D tour of Washington DC using Google Earth.  My partner teacher, Mrs. H, had a fantastic idea of contacting her cousin, Mrs. W who works for one of our nation's governors.

So, without telling our students, we enlisted the help of our school's digital coach to set up a Skype call with her.  It was a fairly easy process once we found all the proper cords and did a test run with the iPads.

We casually mentioned the upcoming Skype call to our students a few days before it happened.  Hey, we're calling Washington DC to chat about our nation's government.  No big deal, just a typical day in the fifth grade.

They brainstormed questions which ranged from incredibly thoughtful (Which branch of government is your favorite?) to a tad silly (Have you met the first dog? Mind you, the dog. Not the President or First Family, they were only concerned about the First Pets.)  Mrs. W was incredibly patient with them and answered all their questions.  They loved it!

Huge shout out to my partner teacher Mrs. H and her wonderful cousin for letting our fifth graders Skype it up and enhance their learning.

Math explorations

I am a huge advocate of the use of manipulatives and hands-on exploration.  Right before spring break we dived into volume.

Our first day was focused on exploring cubic volume with cubes.  It was such a great opportunity to watch them struggle through the challenge sheets and learn from one another with no pressure of assessment.  

Their task:

They had a great time exploring with cubes.  I also frequently allow them to work on the floor and move around.  They're ten and need to wiggle sometimes.  I might as well embrace this and provide these opportunities in the classroom.
 

They had a specific task sheet (for accountability).  I gave them ten minutes to explore, then they shared with a partner (Kagan hand up, stand up, pair up, and share).
 

One group was super excited that their blocks were ASU colored!

After a day of exploration, we dived into strategies, formulas, and problem solving.  We spent a few days on regular shapes before diving into the irregular ones.  I posed the problem as a challenge and let them struggle as a team.  Most groups figured out that they could find the volumes separately, then add them together.  

They had so much fun exploring volume.  Instead of just giving them the formula, I felt it was more important for them to have hands-on practice exploring exactly what volume means.

Who says math can't be fun?

Easing back into the school year

I return to work, for real, on Monday.  However, that didn't stop me from from going into work for a few hours this morning.  I had a bunch of copies to make and had to rearrange my room to fit the map.  A coworker and myself are going in tomorrow morning to crank out two weeks of math plans and finish getting ready for Monday. 

I've gotten some slack from other teachers for going in early.  Yes, I'm aware it's one of my last days for winter break.  However, I'm not willing to fight for copiers on Monday morning. I don't want to walk into work frazzled, especially since I'll have crosswalk duty.  I'm not being a martyr, I just know what I need for my sanity.  For me, that means I spend a little bit of my free time making sure Monday will run smoothly.  I want to spend my prep getting ready for Tuesday's lessons and leave shortly after the kids do.  More importantly, I want to feel relaxed and prepared because that will translate into my students feeling calm and welcomed back.

However, I did have this beast to tackle earlier in the week:

My pile is above, hers is below.  #teacherproblems

I had a teacher date with one of my best friends.  We went out to lunch, built a grading fortress, and tackled our work.  This, sadly, is a norm for weekends.  If you see a teacher, hug them.  Let them know they're appreciated.  There is no way this would ever get graded in a timely manner if I only worked during my contract hours!  It's a good thing I love my job, even the grading parts.

Division Day 1

As I previously blogged about, we've had some disagreements about math.  

Today was day 1 of division in my classroom and it went really well.  They really liked using manipulatives and working together.  We went over the vocabulary for the unit (dividend, divisor, quotient, remainder).  They worked on problems and generated their own strategies.  

It was nice to see them struggle and problem solve.  I did have to talk to a few students who immediately saw the connection between multiples and division. I pulled them into the hallway and shared that they need to observe, letting others make their own discoveries to take ownership.

I was pleased to hear how well the lesson went in other classrooms as well!

I think my students' favorite part was when I told them they could write on their desks with the expo marker.  

Detour

Sometimes the best teaching moments detour from the lesson plan.

We had this Engage NY activity sheet to give:

3 problems.  The time slated for this independent practice was ten minutes, then they were to go work independently in a textbook that's older than them.

That's not what we did.

I had them work collaboratively at their table teams.  I had them include written explanations of their thinking and justify their answers.  I had them show their work multiple ways.  It got a tad noisy, but they were all engaged.  It's amazing how the simple act of giving them markers and butcher paper turns an otherwise mundane activity into a lively discussion and collaborative activity.

When they were done, I had them do a gallery walk and critique the other groups' presentations, thus highlighting math practice #3.  

Did this activity take way longer than it was slated to? Yes (but it still fit within our math block).  Did they gain so much more from one another than they would have by silently working then going over the answers? Yes.  

Was it worth detouring from my lesson plan? Absolutely.

But...that was intentional...

It's okay to disagree with a fellow teacher.  It's okay to not want to deliver a lesson the same way as another teacher. It's okay to put your own spin on things.  Some things should be the same (the assessments, the vocabulary, the definitions), but we aren't going to teach the same way.  That's okay. I have a difficult time following instructions or lesson plans verbatim, even when I'm the one who wrote them.  Don't get me wrong, I am always meticulously prepared for my day.  I just also take advantage of teachable moments.

However, I do get a little frustrated when it seems almost every instructional decision I make is questioned.  I've got a lot of background working with special ed kiddos and with the pacing of units.  Things are sequenced intentionally to help students make connections between background knowledge and new content.  The use of manipulatives (hands-on materials) during the first few days of a unit is quite necessary.  Students, even my fifth graders, need the concrete examples to investigate a concept.  They need experience in the concrete before moving to representational and abstract understandings of content.

We are starting division on Monday.  The standards quite explicitly state do not teach the standard long division algorithm. This is not to be introduced until sixth grade because students don't have the number sense nor mathematical understanding to reason through what is occurring.  

Here it is, straight from our professional development department:

I'm not really sure how much more clear this could be, but there were still debates about what it means.  

The first few days in our math unit has a lot of investigation by the students.  I'm giving them a bunch of paper clips to sort into smaller groups.  Some problems will divide evenly, some won't.  

I want them to tackle it. I want them to struggle.  Some kids will count those 48 paper clips into the groups one at a time, driving their partners bonkers in the process.  Some will make the connection to multiples and give away larger groups.  Some will use their multiplication facts to estimate the quotient.  Some will see division as repeated subtraction while others will see it as repeated addition up to the dividend.  

That's okay.

I want my students to understand what they're doing.  I want them to make connections.  I want them to discover how division is related to the other operations and take ownership over their strategies.

My math unit is scaffolded intentionally.  The first day is exploration.  The next introduces vocabulary terms, goes over making sense of the problems (hello math practices), and has student generated strategies.  Direct instruction doesn't begin until day 3 after students have had ample time to investigate sorting and making groups with paper clips and cubes.  From there, we'll move to hundreds grids and talk about regrouping.  We'll make the connection from the physical orange flats, rods, and cubes to the paper versions and drawings, thus moving from concrete to representational. From there, we'll move into number based strategies that build upon other operations, powers of ten, place value, and multiples.  Again, scaffolded from representational drawings and grids to strictly numbers (abstract).  There's a plan.  It took hours to design, but I'm really excited about it. The plan, which spans thirteen instructional days, scaffolds so students will feel successful and anticipates common misconceptions.

However, another teacher entirely disregarded the plan...and told me about it, gleefully.  She had them try one problem with manipulatives and then gave them the algorithm.  I'm so disappointed and feel sad for her students.  I'm sad they lost the opportunity to make their own discoveries. I'm sad they lost the chance to feel ownership over the concept. I'm sad they lost the opportunity to have a meaningful struggle with the tasks.

Her justification? They'll learn it next year and she's doing the sixth grade teachers a favor.  Besides, the standard algorithm is just faster.

I'm aware it's faster.  Faster yet? Whipping out my phone and using its calculator function.  But what's the point in that?  What do they learn when they're just handed the short cut?

I'm standing my ground on this one. My goal is not to teach math.  Yes, you read that correctly.  My goal is not to teach math.

My goal is to have my students understand math.  I want them to know what they're doing, why they're doing it, what happens to their numbers, and why their problem works out mathematically.

I'm making critical thinkers and problem solvers, not robots.  I'm aware it takes more time, but this mindset also encourages stronger students and that's my ultimate end goal.

Thankful?

I'm having a bit of a rough time finding positive things.  We are under a lot of pressure at work from a lot of different angles.  Granted, it's no where near the tear-inducing chaos of last year, but still.

We are under pressure to perform well on Reading Rangers.  My students are reading independently and quiz frequently.  However, there's a few boys that aren't following my expectations and do poorly.  They are lower readers and need to read books several times.  They need to conference with a peer about the book.  However, they'll sneak out to the pod or sneak an iPad to quiz and often score 60% or 80%, which brings down our class average.  I am then talked to about why I'm doing so poorly and it's really not fair.  I've had a few times I've been called out for the lowest scores and while some find it motivating, I'm mortified.

I don't like coming in last and I certainly don't like that publicly announced.

My students have between 45 and 60 minutes a day of silent independent reading time with our Reading Rangers program.  During that time I'm pulling small groups or individual conferences, they are writing about what they're reading, conferencing with a peer, taking an AR test, or silently reading.

Other teachers will sometimes skip other subject areas to allow for extra reading time to inflate their scores.  I'm not sorry that I refuse to skip math, writing, or whole group reading to give them silent reading time.  They need instruction in all subjects.

We've started some new positive reinforcements and it's helped.  We are in a race to 100 100%s with another class and it's quite motivating for them.  I also started using classroom dojo to reward them whenever they score 90%, 100%, or complete a badge.  They are quite excited about that.

We're all overwhelmed at work and it's showing.  The amount of effort and care I put into my portion of planning is not necessarily being matched by others and that's difficult.  Things aren't getting done in a timely manner.  There's been some miscommunication and that's difficult.

I think we're all just ready for a break and luckily, Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  I am thankful for that!

Thankful, Day 3

The thankfulness continues.

Day 3:

I am thankful to be in a profession where I have the opportunity to constantly learn new things and try new strategies.  I am thankful to be at a school where I can learn from others. I'm thankful for my grade level and for the support I receive from the other math chair.

Today I presented on math strategies for staff development.  It went fairly well and others were appreciative of new strategies and planning time.

Side note: I didn't teach math last year.  The two years prior to that? I taught stations in an inclusion classroom with the special ed kiddos.  Before that? A traditional classroom.

However, I've attended lots of math trainings over the past few years because I didn't want to fall out of practice.  I guess they've paid off!

As frustrating as these math trainings are, I do appreciate that I have the opportunity to attend them to learn more information (and be paid to learn).

The Raven, round 2

Last year, we did the Raven with students.  The lesson went fairly well, but I made some tweaks for round two.

This year, we did the entire lesson in 1 day instead of 3.  

In my district, Nevada day & Halloween fall on the same day, so the kids didn't have school on the 31st.  We celebrated on the 30th instead.  Those same lucky kids have off next Monday AND Tuesday because teachers have staff development.  I'd love a five day weekend too, but I'll settle for three.

Since the day before Halloween and their epic weekend can be a tad challenging behavior wise (and their costumes don't help!), I wanted a hands-on, engaging task before their costume parade.

I read the first stanza of the Raven after we reviewed elements of poetry.  They then did a close read on the rest of the poem with their neighbors and I think they did a great job!

We then watched two different video clips on Teacher tube.  We compared and contrasted the video clips before talking about the multimedia elements that contributed to the video's meaning.  

They had a great time doing this grade-appropriate Halloween activity!

Getting to Know My Munchkins

Since I'm starting at a new school, I'm coming in at a disadvantage.  I don't know these kids or their families.

So I pushed myself to try to learn as much as I could about my new bunch of munchkins.  I gave them several "about me" surveys and this year, actually took the time to read them.  I mean between all their beginning of the year forms, we're looking at five hundred pages or so...good thing it was a three day weekend!

It took a few hours, but I'm glad I did it.  I learned a lot about my new students (and their families).  I can easily name off ten fun facts about each kiddo, which is impressive considering I've known them for five days.  I also made notes about what I saw during their games of 20 wins and various first week sorts.

Here's a top ten list of things I've learned:

1) I've got some pretty eclectic kids.  Some told me they love Mean Girls, others are in Tae Kwon Do, some learned the difference between debit & credit cards this summer.

2) Almost every single one said they struggle with spelling and reading multisyllabic words, which only justifies my decision to spend 10 minutes a day doing phonics during whole group reading.

3) A few of them live around the block from me.  I've never had students live so close. I will probably see them out riding their bikes or have them visit on Halloween.

4) They are pretty vocal about their feelings on reading.  Some love Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, others hate the series with a passion...and weren't afraid to show it!

5) I've got supportive families.  Some filled me in on situations at home, some voiced their concerns about where their kids fall academically, but most want to be involved which is a welcome change.

6) Some already listed me as their favorite teacher, which is adorable. It also makes me worry about their previous teachers...but we'll have a great year.

7) Quite a few want to learn how to use the dictionary.  I don't know if their third grade teachers skipped that standard, but we'll be sure to cover both traditional and electronic dictionaries this year. (Ninjawords.com is my favorite!)

8) They're really good at coaching one another.  I don't know if I should give their previous teachers credit for this (or perhaps their parents), but during our math games they were helping one another.  Yes, there was friendly competition but they were genuinely wanting one another to grasp the concept at hand.

9) They work well together.  Some of them said their best friends are in the class.  I've only had to move one child in the first week.  Very few needed a gentle nudge about participating with the group and I'm thinking it was because they already knew the answers and didn't want to give it away. I'm pleased they want to talk to one another.

10)  They are full of joy.  They're inquisitive.  They want to learn.  This is the best possible scenario I could ask for as a teacher.

It's going to be a great year. 

Day 5

I made it to Friday!  

I did start my morning with duty...I'm not a fan of the gate.  I picked up my kiddos, took them off to Art, then planned math with another teacher in my grade level.  We had a grade level meeting yesterday and split up who is planning what subject.  This is an adjustment for me. Instead of planning everything, I'm planning one subject, writing up super explicit lesson plans, and making the copies for the grade level.  So far, I'm liking it!  I still read over their lesson plans and put my own flair on them, but it's nice that collaboration and team work is the norm for my grade level.

After I picked my kiddos up from specials, we jumped right into math.  For our number talk, it's "fact Fridays" where I gave them their first timed multiplication test.  

Last year my grade level split up multiplication and division facts into "easy", "medium", and "hard" facts.  We made 3 different versions of each test and would give them a chance every other week.  Today they had 3 minutes to do the easy multiplication ones.

Easy facts: 1, 2, 5, 10

Medium: 3, 4, 9, 11

Hard: 6, 7, 8, 12

Of those, about 6 of my students passed their easy facts on the first round.  I'll be making a tracker to glue in their notebooks and a brag wall similar to this:

For them to sign off when they pass each level.  Granted, this is a third grade standard, but many of my students don't have these facts mastered (yet!).  We'll alternate testing and practice weeks.

From there, I had them compare notes on what a good mathematician is before adding their thoughts (on post-its) to our chart:

 

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We also went over the first math practice (make sense of problems and persevere in solving them).  I had them record it in their math notebooks with sticky labels and added the chart to the wall.  I didn't want to put up all 8 without going over them because then students have no connection to what's on the wall.

I also raided another teacher's classroom and found the rods I was looking for!  I modeled that the rods and units represent tens and ones in this case, but made it clear this won't always be the situation.

I had the table teams model 43-29 for me using the manipulatives and they did a pretty good job.  I think most of our math this year will be hands-on because there are some major gaps to fill.  However, after talking with my grade level, I'm not the only one who feels this way so that's nice we're all wanting to give them meaningful practice to help make sense of numbers.

In science, they finished exploring the mystery bags and we had a conversation about all the skills they practiced.  They did a really good job with their team building task.

In writing, they finished their final drafts (which I accidentally left at school...Wednesday problem).  In reading, they took their STAR test to place them for AR and worked on building their stamina in silent reading until everyone was done with writing.

From there, I modeled the importance of previewing a text, again using The Lightning Thief as my mentor text.  I jumped right in and read, without modeling metacognition or stopping to think aloud parts.  A few pages in, they were confused (as they're supposed to be).

We talked about strategies that good readers use, one of them being to preview the text.  What this means is they need to look at the front and back covers, as well as the table of contents, to formulate an idea of what the text is about.  

I then had them practice with a book of their choosing, modeling on a post-it.

We reviewed phrasing and went over rate, adding to our charts in our notebooks.  We'll go over expression and accuracy next week.  We'll also go over buddy coaching and have some fluency practice before we take our beginning of the year Aimsweb benchmarks.

With the bell approaching, they did their classroom jobs and I sent them on their way with this:

They o-fish-ally survived their first week! It's Labor Day weekend and we have a staff development day Tuesday, so I won't see them again until Wednesday.  

One week down!

(On a side note, I did have to write my first citations and lock myself out of my room on Friday. I also forgot to send home last year's CRT scores, so I stapled apology notes to parents and those scores will go home Wednesday.  There were definitely moments of frustration on Friday, mainly due to me forgetting things...so a nice relaxing birthday dinner with B at Red Robin was so deserved!)