A Peek at My Week Linky!

Have you heard about Mrs. Laffin Laughings' new linky?  It's all about looking at what we're doing next week!

This coming week is my first full week back with the kiddos.  We had them for 3 days this past week, and I am EXHAUSTED!!!  Five days will be an adventure, I think.  At least we'll be getting started on our normal routine.

Here's a few things we will be doing:

• Writing our Class Code.  We didn't get to it last week.  As a class, we brainstorm a whole bunch of rules/guidelines and then consolidate them (basically until we get to Be Safe, Respectful, and Responsible, which are our school-wide behavior expectations)
• Launching Daily 5 (Read to Self and Word Work are my goals for this week)
• Studying Place Value and learning about Math Workshop.  After the first two weeks of school, we rotate classes for math (we change about every month).  Like I did last year, I'm going to train my homeroom kiddos really well about Math Workshop so they can help the others learn my procedures during each rotation (since there will be a handful of mine in each class).
• Studying Maps - I'm still working on planning this.  If you have any ideas, please let me know!
• Building our working-time stamina.  Last week, they couldn't quietly work for more than about 10 minutes. 
• Saving Fred - check out my post here if you haven't heard about Fred (he's in the Teambuilding section)!

What are you up to this week?

Monday Made It - I Can! (Freebie)

Where, oh, where has this last month gone?  It has been a blur of wedding planning, family vacations (I met a ton of my fiancé's cousins that he hasn't seen since he was little or had never met), and general relaxing. 

I feel like I've hit school count down mode now - one month from today is the first day back with the kiddos!  Yikes!

I know I won't get everything done that I had hoped to this summer, but I've got a few things that I still really want to get done:

1. Organizing master copies (hard copies and digital files) - I know this will make my life easier.  Plus, I have two friends who are switching from kinder and first to 4th this year, plus two teammates new to 4th grade, and I want to be able to help them!
2. Map out Language Arts - I kind of hodge-podged language arts together last year.  With switching to common core, I don't think I can do that this year!  I need more structure.
3. Make behavior chart clips - see my post here
4. Make "I Can" objective statements for all four subject areas.

Yay! One thing crossed off of the To-Do list.  I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for her Monday Made It to share these with you!

I typed out all of the CA Common Core Language Arts, CA Common Core Math, CA Social Studies, and CA Science standards as "I can," "I know," or "I understand" (I tried to avoid these last two as much as possible because they aren't actions students can show, but the way some of the standards are written, I couldn't figure out how to get around it).  

As I read each standard, I tried to picture teaching it and what baby steps we'd have to take to get there. I put those on separate cards.

Once I can get back into my school, I am going to back each one with colored construction paper, laminate, and put a magnet on each one.  I'm not quite sure where I will display these, but it will most likely be on  the whiteboard.

                      

                       

                  

Do you want to use them too? Click on each subject you want:  ELA, Math, Social Studies, Science

Typing all of these up really helped me realize how much we teach in a year! Wow!

Where/how do you post standards/objectives?  How do you/students interact with them?  I'm going to try to post and use them much more this year than I have before, so I'd love your tips!

An Apple A Day - Whole Group Instruction

I'm here with another link up to The Applicious Teacher's An Apple A Day Linky.  This week's topic: Whole Group Instruction.

This past year (and continuing on into next year) my goal is to consistently make whole class lessons short - no more than 15 minutes.  This is really challenging for me for two reasons: (1) I usually have a lot of ideas (from the curriculum, from my teammates, and from myself) that I want to include, and (2) I want to make sure that they really get it (otherwise 25 hands go up the second they start working - something I'm going to work on with my class next year).

But here are some things that work really well for me:

1. Pair-Sharing - I try to have students talk with a partner every couple of minutes.  My desks are in groups of four, which gives us three easy pairings - elbow partners, face partners, and back partners (the kiddos on the ends have to get up for this one and go across the classroom).  Having three different pairing options keeps them engaged with pair-sharing.
2. Notes - Taking notes makes them know that they need to be doing something during the lesson and gives them a reference for later.  Bonus:  I can easily look out over the classroom and see who is paying attention.
3. Get Up Activities - At some point during each whole class lesson,  I try to do something that gets the kiddos out of their seats.  My two go-tos are: "Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up" for a pair share or "Corners" (I ask a question with four possible answers and designate each corner as an answer.  Students go to the corner they think is the correct answer).

What are you tips and tricks for whole group instruction?  Link up with Leigh at The Applicious Teacher and share!

My First Monday Made-It of Summer 2013

Today marks the start of my productive summer.  I've spent most of the time over the past three days watching movies (we went to see Man of Steel - I was SO bored for the second half of the movie), TV shows on Netflix (I'm a bit late to The Office), playing video games, reading blogs, and just generally being a bump on a log.

Well, no more!

Today starts my summer of:

• wedding planning
• exercising
• eating healthy
• working on school projects
• finally finishing setting up my apartment (almost two years into living here)

I did get started on the first of my Summer-To-Do-List for school - ORGANIZING MASTER COPIES.  That means I have something to link up to Tara's Monday Made-It!!!

The first step in making organization that you'll actually use is making something cute (or at least decently nice looking), right? 

 I have decided to use binders.  I'll go more into my reasons once this project is finished, and I can proudly present the final product.  Therefore, my first step was making covers and spine inserts for my binders.  Now, these aren't the cutest things in the world, but once they are printed on brightly colored paper and lined up in a neat row on my book case, I think they will look plenty pretty enough to make me happy.  I also made a page to put in the front of each binder that lists the standards covered in that binder and some of the bigger, overarching standards (especially those in Common Core).  I am really trying to focus on the standards rather than the curriculum, especially for the coming year with having to use our old curriculum to meet Common Core (plus, my team-mates and I found this year that the activities we come up with to meet the standards are almost always more fun for students than the curriculum's).

Here's the whole document - 71 pages!
Fonts: Oh {Photo} Shoot by Kevin and Amanda, Tekton Pro Bold, Tekton Pro BoldExt.Border :  From the Pond http://frompond.blogspot.com    

An example social studies binder - the front has the topic and the over -arching standard.
The next page is the full standard and the chapters in our textbook it relates to
(this will be the first thing in the binder) and the last page has Analysis Skills we
are supposed to teach all year long (it will be on the back of the standards page).
Social Studies and Science Binders have California State Standards.

An example for math.  I split these up by Common Core domain.
Down at the bottom of the last page are the 8 Mathematical Practices, just to keep them in my brain!
Math binders have California Common Core (so, Common Core plus CA's additions).

An example for Language Arts.  Again, the last page has the broader Common Core standards.
Language Arts binders have California Common Core

My Language Arts spine inserts.  I decided not to make them full
length because it is so hard to get a full length one in, am I right?!?!?

Would you like to use these?  

Click HERE to go to the PDF in Google Docs.  Click HERE to go to an editable Word Doc in Google Docs, so you can edit (though I'm not sure how well the formatting will transfer - make sure you have the fonts downloaded)!

Happy Monday!  

Summer Time and the Livin's Easy

Whew!  This has been a hectic seven months.  I can't believe it's been that long since I posted.  I bet most of you thought I was gone for good.

Now that the school year's over, I'm back.

Next year, I'll try blogging the whole year.  Wish me luck.

A quick recap of November - June (with more details likely to come in later posts):

1.  I got engaged!!!!!!  We aren't getting married until next summer, so I haven't started planning yet, but now that school is out, the planning is ON!

(nothing else on this list is going to come close to that level of exciting, at least to me, so hence the font size decrease)

2.  I successfully survived my second year of teaching, with me being the second most experienced with 4th grade on my team (and therefore having to step up to leadership roles) and having one team-member transferred mid-year (followed by a train of subs as they searched for a replacement).

3.  I finished BTSA.

4.  I didn't get a pink slip (hey, big deal for a second year teacher)

5.  I said good bye (making them promise to visit, of course) to an absolutely amazing group of kiddos. I think that this will be one of those groups that stands out as one of my favorites for my entire career. 

Now, for my summer plans ...

This year, I'm trying to keep my school summer to-do list shorter.  Last year, I was so overwhelmed by everything I wanted to do that I did very little of it.  That, and I have a wedding to plan! :)

• Organize master copies

• Make "I can" statement posters for all standards (especially Common Core Math and Language Arts, but also Social Studies and Science)

• Map out Language Arts (I meant to do this last summer.  It's even more important now that we are switching to Common Core this year)

• Make a Teacher Toolbox (yep, I didn't last summer)

I've seen SO many great ones.  This inspiration is from Mrs. Tina's Tots.

• Make a Copy, File, Laminate box (my take on the Copy, File, Grade box that's been all over lately)

Again, so many great ones.  This inspiration is from 4th Grade Frolics.

• Work on Social Studies Units (I completely re-did one social studies unit this school year, and the kids LOVED it.  They cheered for Social Studies time, rather than groaning.  WIN!)

• Make Behavior Chart colored clips

• Figure out how I'm going to organize myself next year (lesson plans, grading, student info, meeting notes, etc)

What's on your summer to-do list?  Any advice for any of mine?

Heads Down and Planning Difficulties

A quick positive and struggle from yesterday:

On the positive side ...
My students' behavior started slipping yesterday.  I had the whole class put their heads down and talked about how I know how respectful and responsible they can be.  I talked for about a minute about all the great things they usually do to help us learn.  When they lifted their heads, they were great again for the rest of the day!

And a struggle:
I'm really trying to plan earlier this year so that I don't spend my whole weekend planning.  I posted earlier this week about my plan.  I've been ok about following it so far.  Then we had a grade level meeting today and I found out a BUNCH of changes for next week.  Like, to the point that I might throw away the plan pages I started and start over.  I'm really disappointed because I was ahead of things and it just turns out I wasted time making those plans.  I know it won't happen every week, but it's really discouraging during my first week of trying to get ahead!

How far ahead do you get in planning?  What do you do to deal with those changes?