Currently November

Mamma Mia, it's already November!  My poor, poor, neglected blog.  Another challenging year, another challenging class, and not a lot of time leftover for my sweet little blog.  The good news is that I am trying lots of new things in my classroom this year; I just haven't left myself much time to blog about them.

Anyway, I'm stopping by to link up with Farley for Currently November and pay a small homage to my favorite holiday month.  

Listening: As a present to myself, I took Amazon up on their kind offer to try a month of Prime for free.  Prior to that though, I made an order for some school things, and needed to get my total up to $35 so I could get free shipping.  So I indulged my guilty pleasure and purchased the 4th season of Rookie Blue.  SO GOOD!!!

Loving: I'm taking my dad up to OU next weekend to watch the OU/Baylor game.  SO excited!!!  Boomer Sooner!!!

Thinking: Don't they all?  I'm all for being social and enjoying myself, but I also put a lot of pressure on myself to get some schoolwork done (grading lesson plans, etc.).  Having just finished fall conferences and the first round of report cards, I could really go for a weekend of sitting at home and doing nothing.  Can anyone relate?  

Wanting: Even though it kind of bugs me that the Christmas Mania starts before Halloween has even come and gone, I can ALWAYS go for a peppermint mocha from Starbucks.  Plus, they built a new location a few months ago that's on my way to work.  Love it!!!

Needing: About a week ago, the middle of my back on the righthand side started hurting.  I didn't do anything to aggravate it, and it pretty much throbs all the time, despite my preventative Tylenol regimen that I'm on (see above about the challenging year.  Note also that the regimen includes previously unheard of amounts of caffeine for me.)  If anyone has any advice/stretches for me, let me know.

Reading: Not much right now, since school and my social weekends are keeping me busy, but I'm in the middle of: 

Reading for Fun (If you haven't read Me Before You, you SHOULD (even though it's a bit of a bummer, it's really good).)

AND

Reading for Professional Growth.  Next Up: Building Mathematical Comprehension, also by Laney Sammons)

My current classroom challenge (other than differentiating everything for everyone due to the wide range of ability/readiness levels in my classroom) is vocabulary instruction for learners that are really struggling.  So that's up next for my research.  Anybody have any tried and true tricks?  

Thanks for reading!  I'm off to watch more delightfully crummy TV and grade papers while icing my back.  :-)

Oh my! It's Currently August!

Wow!  Where has all of the time gone?  This summer, in addition to vacation, a baby shower, a wedding reception, and the obligatory R&R, I have been busy working on my house (I didn't give it much attention during the school year.  My house got a new roof (hail damage, always fun!) and has been getting a major painting face lift (ALL of the doors/trim, though I'm not quite done yet).

Anyway, I'm back (a day late and a dollar short) to share my contribution to Farley's Currently August linky.  Check it out below:

Really, my answers are pretty self-explanatory.  I must, however, emphasize my response to "Needing."  I DESPERATELY need some back-to-school clothes.  I've got nothing!  How did that happen?  Where do you like to shop for back-to-school clothes?  I like to shop at Ann Taylor LOFT along with a few other places.  

In other news, I'm slowly, but surely getting over my fear of creating things a la TPT.  :-)  I'm trying to create some things that are immediately useful for my classroom.  I've chosen some big projects that have been fairly time-consuming.  Hopefully, I'll have something new to share next time.  I'm starting to get a bit quicker with creating, but it probably takes me WAY longer than the seasoned TPT professional.  :-)  If you have any tips and/or tricks for me, I'd love to hear 'em.  

Until next time,

  

My First Five for Friday

Hey everyone!

I'm trying something new today, and participating in the Five for Friday linky with Doodle Bugs.  If you have any tips for me about this linky, please let me know.  (Please note, it was a CRAZY busy week, so only a few pictures will be featured.  The rest are all from Google Images.)  

1) We are continuing to work through our math Investigations curriculum.  We have been working with 100, adding up to it and subtracting from it.  Here you can see one of the games the kids played this week.  

To play this game, students first covered the game board with 100 cubes.  They rolled 2 dice or number cubes to determine how many cubes to take away.  After each turn, students said how many cubes were still on the board.

2) We have been studying weather and seasons in science.  Students made a poster this week that illustrated what each season looks like outdoors, which months fell in each season, what a person might wear in each season, and a typical activity for each season.  My girls made me laugh because we decided that they could wear "tasteful" swimsuits for their summer pictures.  

  

3)  With all of this beautiful spring weather in Texas, the only drawback has made its appearance.  Seasonal allergies.  When I have what I fondly refer to as a "sinus eye-graine" (that delightful headache you get right behind your eyeball), I find that there's only one cure (especially when I'm at school):

Needless to say, it's a good thing that our vending machine now takes credit and debit cards.  

4) This month at school, we are promoting Autism awareness, so we all wore blue today.  We also have been given ribbons like the one below that we are wearing each day this month.  

  

5) Tomorrow, my dad and I are finally going to go see Divergent.  I've read the entire series, and I remember Insurgent was a bit difficult to get through (not unlike Mockingjay from the Hunger Games series).  Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to seeing the movie.  The guy who plays Four (Theo James) is ADORABLE!!!  I know I'll enjoy watching the movie for that reason alone, if nothing else.  

  

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my first attempt at the Five for Friday linky.  Head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to link up and join the fun. 

Until next time,

January Currently

Hey everyone, I'm back again to link up with Farley for some January Currently.

Listening: While I am a Sooner alum and HUGE fan, I'm watching this game today for my dad who is busy working and unable to watch.  Plus, as you'll see below, I really wanted to try out football-watching on my new HUGE TV.

Loving: Guys, I got a HUGE (50 ") TV for Christmas.  Not only is this a gift for my family room, but it's a gift for my bedroom as well.  I moved the old TV from the family room in there, so I finally have a TV in my bedroom.

Thinking: I received an LL Bean gift card from my grandparents for Christmas, and I have decided to put it towards a quilt for my guest bedroom.  The guest bathroom has blue and green towels, so I think it will coordinate beautifully.  

Check it out here-it's also reversible :-)  

Wanting: I've alluded to a few things, but I have also recently purchased dining room furniture, some of which is being delivered on Saturday.  Plus ALL of the paint in my house needs a touch-up, and I'm excited to say I am SUPER CLOSE to deciding on a paint color for all of the trim/doors.  

Needing: Pretty self-explanatory.  Just know that I consistently try to put this off as long as possible since it is one of my least favorite places to go.

Memory/Tradition: Again, self-explanatory.  I think this tradition was born because younger versions of ourselves simply couldn't make it to Christmas morning without opening something.  We were also those stereotypical kids who spent days leading up to Christmas shaking our presents and trying to guess what they were.  

This was a particularly fun Currently for me.  This month's version has shown me that I have a lot to look forward to as I celebrate the new year.  Many positive things are happening in my life.  What are you up to this month?  

Currently December

Hey blog world.  Today, I'm just speeding through the blog lane to join the December Currently linky.  However, I have approximately 5 billion blog posts written in my brain right now, so I'll be back lots (hopefully this week) to catch up on those posts.  I hope you all had a terrific Thanksgiving holiday.  Clearly, I did, and I utterly neglected work and all work-related things (including my lovely blog).

Without further ado, my edition of Currently December:

See you soon (I hope!!!).  :-)

My Truth Monday

Okay, I'm going go get right to it.

I'm linking up again with Denise.  I'm so proud of myself for sticking with this linky somewhat consistently.

This week's "My Truth" entry pretty much speaks for itself.  Those eyes!!!  Hello Handsome!  

This morning, as I'm sure many of your schools did, my school put on a lovely Veterans Day program.  It's always so nice to host the veterans at our campus and thank them for their service.  It's also really cute seeing them with their elementary school students.  :-)

I know that I've promised a post about our work we've been doing in 2nd grade on American celebrations, and it's coming.  Today, my students presented their products to me.  I could not be more proud.  Now that I've assessed them, we will take it a step further and present to a kindergarten class later this week.  After that, I'll be able to fill you in on what they did, complete with pictures of their work.  I didn't have time to watch presentations, ask questions of my students, AND take pictures of their work today...it just couldn't be done.  

This post feels really rushed and scattered, and it is.  I'm really ready for bed.  However, I've continued working on my self-assigned book study, and I must say, I'm really starting to get into this book.  

Chapter 5: 

•   This chapter provided an overview of the management of guided reading.  I must say I was intrigued by the example of independent activities in a 2nd grade classroom that was provided at the beginning of the chapter.  (Students read a self-selected book, write a response in their journals, and then share their response with a friend.  Rinse.  Repeat.)  I feel like the appeal of this is that it lines up really well with the Daily 5 and The Book Whisperer's ideas.  
• Next, a variety of activities for students to engage in while the teacher meets with guided reading groups was presented.  I use the Daily 5 in my classroom, but I did find several of the options interesting.  I like the idea of browsing boxes.  These are basically like my book boxes right now, except in addition to good fit books, browsing boxes include guided reading books with which the student is familiar.  
• Other ideas I liked were buddy reading (like Read to Someone), reading journals, and literature circles.  
• The chapter ended with some possible schedules and an emphasis on teaching students management/routines so that they may be independent while the teacher meets with groups of students.  The one takeaway I have from this, as always, is that these professional books are quite utopian in their views of time available.  150 minute schedules, at least an hour of which is devoted to guided reading?!  What about tutoring?  What about make-up work for absent students?  What about re-teaching/re-testing?  How much time do you spend meeting with guided reading groups daily?  What does your ELA block schedule look like?  How do you find time for tutoring, make-up work, and the many other demands placed upon teachers while still fitting in guided reading daily?  

Okay, sorry to drop off in the middle of nowhere, but it's bedtime.  Tomorrow night, I'll be attending the PTA meeting at school, then participating in a Twitter chat, so things at this blog will probably be pretty quiet.  See you later this week!

My Truth...Thursday

Hi friends!

Yes, I'm late again, but I'm not as late as last week, so I'm going to go ahead and count that as a success in my book.  So here's my entry for My Truth Monday Thursday.  Go check out Denise's blog to see all of the posts and information.

Anyway, this week at school was the book fair (I got some great books), and my class got to participate in the coolest thing this Tuesday.  Maybe I'll make it back to my blog this weekend to share some of the new books I discovered/purchased and give everyone details about what my class did on Tuesday.  Now, I'm just exhausted, so I'm going to take it easy then head to bed early! 

Until next time!

The Book Whisperer and Currently November

Hello again!

After coming back from lunch and a shopping (browsing, I guess, since I didn't buy anything) excursion, I just had to pick up The Book Whisperer again.  I am LOVING this book.  I have now finished chapters 3 and 4 as well as the second "whisper." but I'm telling  you, it's a real possibility that I finish this book tonight.

I appreciate that Miller emphasizes the importance of providing time for reading.  I like the idea of independent reading replacing morning work, and I tried this last year.  I do not do it this year, however.  Instead, I reserve that time for our daily intentional problem solving math requirement.  Ultimately, though, I agree that it is vital to establish the importance of reading within the classroom.

I do not have the privilege of visiting the library with my students (it is part of their Fine Arts rotation), but I try to address this by communicating suggestions to them prior to visiting the library, maintaining constant contact with our terrific librarian, and showing interest in their book choices following their library visit.  My students are also aware that I always work with our librarian to check out books related to our content topics in class.  Right now, for example, I have all kinds of books about U.S. celebrations, which is our social studies focus.

Miller's comments about a place for reading made me feel better.  I do have several carpets, a special chair, etc. where students go to read each day.  Additionally, as part of launching the Daily 5 (specifically read to self and read to someone), we go over places in the room where students may read (pretty much anywhere they like as long as they have adequate personal space, I can see them, and they are not too close to the reading group I'm working with at my table).  I identify with Miller's assertion that her whole room is a place for reading, and I like to think my classroom has the same feel to it.

While reading the fourth chapter, Reading Freedom, I realized that much of it would be beyond the reach of my second grade students.  However, the overarching idea is attractive to me.  My students choose their own books during Daily 5, and I'd love to transform my language arts whole-class instruction so that it incorporated or even emphasized student-selected books.  Are you able to accomplish this in your classroom?  How do you do it?

I have not read the Fountas and Pinnell book, Guiding Readers and Writers from which Miller draws inspiration for her reader's notebooks.  However, I love the idea.  I can picture how the notebooks would keep the students accountable and help replace a reading block format in which students complete the same written activities for the same books.  Do you use reader's notebooks in your classroom?  Is there a format that you use that is appropriate for young elementary students?  Do you grade them?

Anyway, I'm loving this book, as you can see.  I think I will put the Guided Reading book aside until I finish with The Book Whisperer.  I'll leave you with my contribution to the Currently November linky.

And here's my yummy pin.  

YUMMY, easy, and DIET-FRIENDLY pumpkin muffins.

   Gotta go guys.  I have some grading to do before work tomorrow.  But, realistically, I think I'm going to go make some pumpkin muffins, watch Pitch Perfect for the millionth time, and finish reading The Book Whisperer.  :-)  

Everything

Hi,

I'm so late with week 2 of the My Truth series from Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade that I might as well wait another 2 days and just do 2 at once, but I'm ready to blog, so I'm linking up very late just because.  However, that's not all that's on the agenda for this all over the place blog post today.  Buckle up, here we go!

1) My Truth Mondays (uhh...Saturdays?  Yikes!):

  

I'm really enjoying this linky, and I can't wait to see what Monday's topic will be.  Thanks to those of you that commented on my truth about fitness last week.  I appreciated it!  Last weekend, as I mentioned, I participated in the Color Me Rad 5K.  It was the perfect race to do while being sick (I've had allergies and a cough that I just can't shake for WEEKS).  It was a great time, and it made me motivated to do another race when I start to feel better.  Maybe I'll post a post-race picture in a future blog post.   

Next, let's move on to my self-assigned book studies/professional development.  

2) The Book Whisperer: 

This morning, I read chapter 2, Everybody is a Reader, as well as her first "whisper" in the book about student surveys.  Here are some takeaways, parts I liked, and thoughts I might have to modify what she does so that it is appropriate for my 2nd graders:

• I love the idea of starting with a "book frenzy" on the first day of school.  I totally identify with Miller's quest to put interesting and manageable books in the hands of each of her students as well as making it clear to them that the classroom library is not mine, but ours.  
• I also love how Donalyn Miller renames typical categories of readers to frame them in a positive light.  I think it terrific that she emphasizes reaching each type of reader and not making one type more of a priority than another.  Instead of struggling and reluctant readers, Miller discusses "developing readers", "dormant readers". and "underground readers".  I have a few "underground readers" in my class this year.  They love to read, but they read their own books rather than class books.  What's so wrong with that?
• The chapter ends with a discussion of Brian Cambourne's factors that contribute to successful learning that include: immersion, demonstrations, expectations, responsibility, employment, approximations, response, and engagement (p. 34-36).  To achieve engagement, reading must have personal value to students, be something students see themselves as capable of doing, be anxiety-free, and be modeled by someone students see as a role model.  
• Whisper about student surveys: I understand the use of these to determine students' interests so that we as teachers can put interesting books in the hands of our students.  I don't believe her versions are 2nd grade appropriate (that's a lot of text for the beginning of the year).  However, I think that conducting the surveys orally and/or engaging my students in conversation can help me make sure that my students are engaged in and motivated to spend time reading.  

3) Guided Reading (Fountas and Pinnell): 

I'm so looking forward to finishing this book.  I feel like I'm doing a better job with guided reading already, and I can't wait to get even better.  Chapter 2 of this book is titled Building on Early Learning.  While this chapter focuses on emeging literacy for very young students, there were some useful bits of information for me as a second grade teacher.  Here are some thoughts/takeaways from this chapter:    

• The chapter begins with a discussion of language.  I love their description of language as a "self-extending system" that "allows the learner to keep on learning by using it (p. 11).  
• Teachers can help develop students' awareness of literacy by reading aloud stories multiple times, then making them available to students in the classroom library.  
• Correcting readers encourages dependence, but helping students learn to check their own reading will foster independent, fluent readers.  
• Speaking of fluency, I appreciate how Fountas and Pinnell have explained its importance: "Good readers are fast, efficient problem solvers who use meaning and syntax as they quickly and efficiently decode unfamiliar words" (p. 18).  
• The goal of literacy, according to the authors is "independence and ongoing learning" (p. 18).  

That's all for now.  I'm looking forward to continuing to read The Book Whisperer and Guided Reading.  I'll be back soon with another My Truth post, more notes about what I'm reading, and possibly I'll jump back on the "Currently" bandwagon (again,  a little late).  In the mean time, leave me some comments about what creeps you out (your truth) and/or how guided reading works in your classroom.    

I'm Back (if anyone's still here)!!!

Hey blog buddies,

I know that I am a very unreliable blogger.  At this point, I'm just keeping this blog for me.  I feel like it is only appropriate as the majority of the professional development I'm getting is through the internet.  Anyway, in the spirit of networking, I'm linking up with Denise over at Sunny Days in Second Grade for her new 12 part series My Truth.  How motivating is it that at the conclusion of the series, we will be ready for the new year?!

I love this idea, and I'm so excited to discuss the first topic as I'm getting ready to run in my first Color Me Rad 5K.  I ran my first 5K last Thanksgiving, and I can't wait to run in another race.  Anyway, read about my fitness truth below.  I hope that some of you can relate-I find it so hard to get out there and MOVE after a 10 or 11 hour day at school.  What is your fitness truth?

Anyway, things at school have been simply loco, as I'm sure they've been for all of my readers.  However, I hope that by participating in this series, I will be able to maintain semi-regular posts on this sweet little blog.  

See you next Monday!

Trying So Many New Things-A First Day of School Linky

Hi,

I have really tried to stretch my blog knowledge in the last few weeks.  You all have been so sweet and supportive as I leap into the unknown.  I'm totally unsure if this will work, but I want to try hosting my own linky. 

The topic I am choosing is first day of school activities that we do with our students (as I move to a new grade level, from third to second, I know that I will really benefit from reading all of your ideas.).  One thing that I did last year (that I will definitely continue) is I allowed my students to decorate their writing journals (we use the composition books).  I brought in a supply of scrapbook paper, stickers, and sticker letters and let the kids go for it.  They were having so much fun that they didn't want to stop to go to lunch.  :-)  Having a personalized writing journal motivated them to write all year long. 

 

Of course, my first day of school with students, like all of yours, is filled with teaching all kinds of procedures including lining up, going to lunch, restroom breaks, packing up to go home, and much more.  I presented classroom rules through a video I had made using xtranormal.com, which the kids thought was hilarious!  (I will be sure to post about this fun resource later for those of you who are not familiar with it.) 



Do any of you have a favorite read-aloud that you read on the first day of school year after year?  What does your first day of school look like?  For those of you that are participating in the Guided Math book study, what math-related procedures and activities will you introduce right away?  Anyway, these questions were just some ideas/wonderings I had for your posts.  However, I welcome any and all ideas-the sky is the limit!  I can't wait to read about your first day of school.   



July Currently

I have to thank all of the authors of the blogs that I read: I am learning so much from all of you!!!  :-)

I am linking up with Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade and participating in July's "Currently."

I reeaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy want to go to Costa Rica after I finish grad school and get my principal's certificate.  So, that is the tentative plan for my first free summer.  :-)  Anyway, go check out the July Currently link up over at Oh Boy 4th Grade. 

Talk to you soon!