Four Days Left of School!

There are four days left of school and I'm so excited! I can't WAIT to be able to read books, work out whenever I like, take time to PLAN lessons and find materials for them, and travel! I really enjoyed teaching through themes this year, so this summer I plan on making folders that have all the lessons, materials, and pre-made examples in them. LAST summer I had done this for all the novels I had hoped to teach to the Fourth Graders, but that all changed 4 days before school started, right? I suppose if I ever teach Fourth Grade again I can use them!

On another note, I LOVE teaching a small group! During the day I catch myself smiling from ear to ear while observing the students working so quietly, every single student engaged and lost in their work. Just imagine how much more students can learn and reach their potential in classrooms with smaller numbers of students. But, we just continue to get more and more students in the classroom. Oh well! More love to be spread! Have a wonderful day!

Professional Development

I LOVE going to professional development and can't wait for the summer so I can go to some workshops and learn so much stuff! So far I've signed up for a Reader's Workshop and Differentiated Reading Instruction. At our local teacher supply store, Jacque's, they're offering a whole bunch of development opportunities in July for a cheap price! Does anyone know of any other workshops that are worth it that's offered in Texas?

Classroom Clean-up!

I FINALLY bought Debbie Diller's Spaces & Places and have been moved to TAKE DOWN MY CRAZINESS on my walls! A parent from another class walked in and said, "Woa! This classroom is busy!" (and she wasn't commenting about the kids per say) So I started taking stuff down. At the beginning of the year when I was informed I would no longer be teaching 4th grade, I had less than 24 hours to move and set up a whole new classroom so I LITERALLY THREW things up and stuffed things in different nooks and crannies. SO, it's safe to say that I needed to give my classroom a serious cleaning and take the time to PLAN it out for effective student learning. All year I've wanted a wordwall that didn't look cluttered and was interactive. So, I moved it to an old chalkboard in the classroom, bought all new sight words, painfully cut every single word, and put magnet tape on the back! And now.....

IT's AWESOME! The kids were SO excited to be able to take the words down and use them during journal time!

Next book: The Daily 5 by The Sisters...which I've already started implementing during FYP!

I Got an IPAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got an IPAD for my CLASROOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited about it!!!!!!!!! OHHHHH dear! I've been praying to be able to use one for a year! And I LOVE it! We're doing a dinosaur unit for FYP and the kids have been playing dinosaur themed games! Also, I taught them how to record themselves reading because YES! Ipad 2 has a camera!!!!!!! And the kids understand everything to do and how to use it! Oh so much fun! They can watch themselves read and realize that they need to read with more expression or a little bit louder or even which words they miss every time! They love it! Here are some pics.

It's Been Way Too Long!

Whew! I've almost made it to the end of my first year in First Grade!!!!! Looking back, the year FLEW by! Although the next week seems to be coming very slowly! I haven't been posting because my class and I have been working our tails off getting our fluency up and preparing for Second Grade! Bryan ISD has an extended year for those students who did not pass some subjects. So, I have six students staying an extra to weeks and it's been GLORIOUS!!!! I'm SO SAD when the school bell rings and they have to leave! And believe me, these are some of the students that made me run out of the room with a scared look on my face! Their demeanor is different, they're willing to SIT and Listen, and it's amazing! Much more posts to come with pictures of more activities we've been doing for the past 2 months!

Keep Your Chin Up!

During a really hard period of my teenage years, one of my best friends told me to, "keep my chin up." Such a simple phrase that has helped me through ups and downs. I was blog-stalking and found this AWESOME little anecdote about teachers that gave me goose bumps and reminded me WHY I chose TEACHING over Petroleum Engineering. Have you ever been told that people become teachers because they are not capable of doing anything else? Or that the people who are intellectually incapable of doing different fields of work, such as engineering or business, teach? Does it make anybody else angry too??  Looking around at all the cuts and hardships the education system is going through, I noticed how high some friends' salaries were for them. And I became slightly jealous. The majority of the working world leaves their jobs at 5 o'clock and that's it. They leave. When teaching, we take home papers to grade, go to EXTRA meetings and trainings outside of our work day, prepare for lessons, call parents and lend an empathetic, listening ear. And we get paid....well I get paid enough to live :) This anecdote helped warm my heart!

What do Teachers Make?

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education.

He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.'

To emphasize his point he said to another guest; 'You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest, what do you make?'

(She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.

I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an IPod, Game Cube, or movie rental.

You want to know what I make?" (She paused again and looked at each person at the table.)

"I make kids wonder.

I make them question.

I make them apologize and mean it.

I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.

I teach them to write and then I make them write... Keyboarding isn't everything.

I make them read, read, read.

I make them show all their work in math. They use their God-given brain, not the man-made calculator.

I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know in English while preserving their unique cultural identity.

I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.

I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we live in the United States of America.

I make them understand that if they use the gives they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life."

(Bonnie paused one last time, then continued.)

"Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant... You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

What do you make Mr. CEO?"

His jaw dropped, and he went silent.

Morning Message

Every morning, I start my morning meeting by writing a morning message. Normally I'll let the kids know what we're doing that day or week. I'll start it with a greeting in a foreign language, normally followed by a cute name for the students using alliteration. At the very end I'll write a yes or no question. I read it to the students to model and go over any tricky words, then have the kids read it by themselves with LOTS of expression! For every capital letter, they do firework flashes with their hands, every comma they click their tongue and make a hooking motion with a finger, every period is one clap, exclamation point is two claps, and for a question mark, the students raise their shoulders and hands as if saying, "I don't know." A chosen student will ask the rest of the class the question, take a poll, and write the numbers by practicing writing tally marks. Another student will correct any misspelled words, another uses editing marks to underline capital letters and punctuation marks.

Normally I write on chart paper, and once I've used all the pages I'll put it in the Brain Bags Center so the kids can read it. However, I've run out of chart paper. But, the kids love using the dry erase markers on my teacher board because they feel special like the teacher!