Five for Friday: Birthday Bliss and Books!

Hello and Happy Friday!

I'm thrilled to join Doodle Bugs Teaching for another wonderful week of Five for Friday! Be sure to hop back over and check out the other posts!

First up this week, I should mention that it's my birthday!

This photo is from a birthday long ago; this year, I'm officially turning 29 for the third time, and I couldn't be happier. I'm so blessed to have a loving husband and family, a job that I adore, my health, a wonderful home, and I am incredibly grateful.

Next, I have a problem. A book problem.

I may have ordered several of the books recommended for teaching the 6 Traits of Writing by Vicki Spandel in Creating Young Writers, along with some new back-to-school read-alouds! Any favorites in there? Share in the comments!

I'm particularly excited for Lulu and the Brontosaurus as a read-aloud chapter book--I've heard great things! There may or may not be a few more on the way...don't tell Mr. Cronin.

I am super proud to have posted my replacement for Morning Work and Work on Writing in Daily 5 on Teachers Pay Teachers this week!

It's 20% off today, so you'll pay a whopping $2.40 for over a month of writing journal prompts! There's also a growing bundle that is pretty deeply discounted, which will include each month of the school year. Read more about changes to my schedule this year and how I plan to use this HERE.

My classroom is officially unpacked and ready for any and all decor additions/changes I want to make!

There used to be a desk over there!

This is my little check-in area--I plan to make a checklist on that whiteboard in vinyl, put our Paw Count (school-wide PBIS tool) on the little chalkboard, and all incoming notes, etc. go in those bins...all from Target, obvi. :)

We report officially on August 29, and kiddos show up the 31st. I plan to move around my word walls (getting rid of my teacher desk has freed up a lot of space, so I was able to move my standing desk!), add some vinyl to the walls and whatnot (if I can figure out my Cameo...), and finish my decor with picture #5...

I made my first official purchase from School Girl Style, which is somewhat unbelievable! I ordered just pom poms and lanterns to start, but I have a feeling this will become an addiction.

Any decor changes to your classroom this year?! Leave them in the comments!

Have a wonderful weekend!
- Lisa

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Five For Friday: Five Changes to My Classroom This Year!

Hello, Friends!

All week I've been meaning to do a post about 5 changes I'm planning to make in my classroom this year...but, alas life has gotten in the way! I'm helping to write and pilot a new science curriculum to match the NGSS for our district, so I've been at school doing that a bunch, and I've been working on finishing a class that I'm taking through Learner's Edge about the 6 + 1 Traits writing model. So, since photos of me working on my computer are NOT exciting, I'll take you through 5 changes I plan to make to my teaching practice this fall. Here we go--two freebies ahead!

I'm actually using a Word Collector this year: Let's start with a little resource I put together this week. When I read the Daily 5 text for the first time a couple of years ago, I set up a giant sticky note as a word collector in my classroom. We referred to it consistently for about 3 weeks, and then...I'm not sure we ever added to it again. But I LOVED the idea, and have had it in the back of my brain these past few years to find a way to bring it back in a way that was practical. Then, when reading Vicki Spandel's text, Creating Young Writers, for this course, I got the kick in the pants that I needed to find a way to put this practice back into action. Spandel suggested having a word collector where you add interesting words as you find them while reading the multitude of rich children's books we read each year. Makes perfect sense. This is then a great word choice resource for students to refer back to in their own writing--of course! However, in my class, I have a range of writers, and I wanted to make something more personal.

So, I created this simple system:

Page 1 gets stapled to the "front" of the file folder...

...and pages 2 and 3 get stapled inside!

First off, I wanted to make sure that there was actually room for kids to write words, because, Lord knows, they don't always write small! Second, I wanted the size of the boxes to match how many words kids might add to the box. And finally, I wanted a simple format in which they could add to it, reference it, and put it away easily. I imagine that I will have a large version of this in our room, and will add to it as we encounter words that we love in the books we read throughout the day. During writing time, I'll make sure to begin at least a couple times a week with students adding any words to their word collectors from our class chart that they would like to add to their writing. Easy peasy!

Last but not least, where will it live? In their writing folders! I want them to refer to this during writing time, so I will be having students keep it in the "Ideas" pocket (which will be on the left side) of their writing folders. For that reason, I turned the file folder so that it would fit nicely in that pocket, but you could turn the folder any way you want, or even use construction paper instead. :) If you'd like this simple but hopefully practical tool, you can get it HERE.

This isn't one of our writing folders, but at least you can see how it fits!

I'm getting rid of my teacher desk: You heard me. Getting. Rid. Of. It. I don't know about yours, but mine is an oversized shelf that collects dust and junk. I don't sit at it. It's ugly. I can't push it up against a wall...so why do I have it?

Check out the upper right corner (don't mind the STEM challenge boats and smoothie toppings..)--it's a cluttered mess!

Left corner this time--the closet door behind it is what prevents me from being able to push it against the wall.

So, I emptied it this week, moved all of my office supplies into my nifty new toolbox (see last week's post), placed any filing supplies in a filing cabinet I acquired, and tossed quite a bit of junk (e.g., ancient Advil and chocolate stashes), and voila! No need for a teacher desk. Will post pictures of the happy void once I have them, but the hall outside my room got waxed on Tuesday, so I don't have pictures yet.

I plan to start our day with a song: In case you weren't aware, Hope King of Elementary Shenanigans is amazing. I saw her at the I Teach Second! conference, and was SO inspired by her energy and enthusiasm.

One thing that she does in her room is start the day with a song. Now, I've always started my day with some soothing classical music that plays while my students do their morning work with half the lights in our classroom off. Hope? High-energy students bouncing in, and drumbeats pounding out the rhythm to their class song as everyone sings along to start their day.

This year, I'm determined to give that a try (minus the drums, I'm guessing), even though it makes me uncomfortable. As teachers, if we aren't feeling uncomfortable at least once a day, we're probably not doing our jobs right. :) So, I've composed a song to the tune of Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop the Feeling!," and I've got the lyrics for you right HERE! Enjoy!

I want to commend my colleagues!: Another inspiration that came out of the I Teach Second! conference was from Adam Dovico's session called Rolling Out the Red Carpet. He talked about many amazing ideas to make your school community that much more wonderful, but one thing he mentioned really struck me because of its simplicity. At faculty meetings, pass along some kind of object--a crown, a stuffed animal, a cape--and commend one of your colleagues. Pass on the good juju! The next meeting, that person will pass the object on, and commend someone else! So....

...I found this adorable guy on Etsy and snatched him up! I plan to pass him along at our first faculty meeting, and I hope he's a little morale booster for our fabulous faculty. Taking name suggestions in the comments!

No more morning work!: I don't have a picture to accompany this one, sadly, but I wanted to share it anyway. I plan to get rid of morning work this year, which is something that had been popping around in my brain for a while. For me, I couldn't really answer the question, "Why do I do this?," and knowing the answer to that is important to me. Every second in my classroom counts, and this felt like wasted time to me.

Now, my student begin entering the classroom at 8:20, but some may not arrive until 8:30, so I can't just roll right into instruction. However, I've decided to do literacy instruction first this year, so I plan to have those first 10-15 minutes be a daily journaling time. I promise to share more about this as I create the product that I plan to use for it, but the objective is to include more free writing/prompt-based writing in my day, without taking any Writer's Workshop time to do it. Will update you when I have more to share! Has anyone else gotten rid of morning work?

Happy Teaching!
- Lisa

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Five for Friday, a Day Late!

Happy Saturday!

So this is my first-ever venture into the Five for Friday foray, and of course, I’m also a day late! I know a Teeny Tiny Teacher regularly posts a Five for Fraturday, so hopefully it’s okay if I follow her lead! Here we go...

 

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Mr. Cronin and I started the week in Las Vegas, where he joined me towards the end of the SDE I Teach Second! Conference. Funny story—it’s HOT there. 111°, to be precise. We had a lovely evening on Friday trying happy hour apps at a couple of lovely restaurants, and although we had beverages along with the food, I was very much focused on making sure to drink plenty of water. We were headed off to the High Roller, the grown-up Ferris wheel, for a lovely nighttime view of the Strip, and I wasn’t feeling great. At first I thought I might have eaten something that didn’t agree, but turns out—I was dehydrated! And I had just been drinking water! Anyways, I was fine once I had some more water, but Mr. Cronin wouldn’t let me go on the High Roller that night. Luckily, we had one more day (we checked out the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor—pretty cool!) and night in Vegas, so we did finally get on there Saturday night, and the view, as you can see, was quite spectacular.

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Sunday we headed out for the Hoover Dam, and that view is also totally spectacular. It is still HOT there, and guess who got woozy after our leisurely walk from the car snapping photos? (I’ll give you a hint—it wasn’t me this time!) Luckily, we still enjoyed our tour once we upped the water consumption, and learning about dams turned out to be very interesting. For example, I didn’t realize that the arched shape distributes pressure evenly across the dam, and also forces the sides of the dam into the canyon walls. We’re planning on doing some work in the classroom with dams this year as we start implementing the new Science standards, so I’m looking forward to applying my new learning!

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We headed up to the Grand Canyon after that, and saw a beautiful sunset Sunday night. Monday morning we hiked around the Canyon rim some more, and then we headed off for our helicopter tour! I thought I might be scared, but I really wasn’t. It is such an incredible way to see the Canyon, and really gives you perspective on the different climates at each rim. Unfortunately, because you’re taking pictures through the helicopter glass, my pictures from the ride aren’t as clear as my others, but definitely offer incredible views!

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Three times on our way out of the park, we got to see some up-close wildlife. Twice, we saw these beautiful mule deer (I think...), which are way less skittish than the deer we have out east. They were very content to munch grass by the side of the road, and I was able to get this picture. Once we saw elk just off the road in the woods, but the rule-following teacher in me refused to get out of the car and snap photos like so many others because the park guides say to stay SIX car lengths away from the wildlife, and I wanted to respect that rule...but others did not. So sadly, I don’t have a photo of the beautiful elk. :(

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One teacher-related photo here—my Prime Day splurge arrived! I have pulled it out of the box so far...and that's about it. I'm not sure what I'll be doing with it, how to use it, or even where to start, but I'm very excited to have joined the Cameo-owning world. I'll be posting about my journey from newbie to novice as I go!

Thanks for joining me today! 

 -Lisa

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