Spelling City

One way I've been trying to have my students practice thier spelling & vocabulary words is through this great site, Spelling City.  The kids can play games, practice their words, and hopefully find new ways to use their new words. 

CAFE Board Makeover

So, since I've been working on using the Daily 3 & following CAFE in my room, I've been making changes as I go to make the system work as best as I can for our class.  I started out with my CAFE board in the front of the room on a small bulletin board, because I felt like I had nowhere else to put it.  It looked like this:

It's a terrible picture...but again, it was kind of a terrible board!

My friend Monica noticing me agonizing over the lack of creativity & space with the booard, and suggested I go outside the actual bulletin board onto my whiteboard.  Brilliant.  Totally brilliant.  I found these insanely cute strategy posters FOR FREE and went to town. 
Now it looks like this:

And here are some close ups of the actual board:

I also found these super cute magnets to use on the board.  They go with my cofeehouse/bake shop theme perfectly! I love the Target Dollar Spot more than I probably should. 

So, I guess my room is on its way to being finished?  No better time than mid-late September, no?  The sprucing up continues and hopefully I can do a tour-of-my-room post soon!

Killing Them Softly

This week was a really tough week.  For the kids, I mean-not for me.  It was essentially a break week for me, but my students are probably ready to jump off of a bridge.  Sure, we were off on Monday for Labor Day, but Tuesday-Friday was just one big assessment.  Tuesday & Wednesday our students had to take a Pro-Ohio Baseline test in Reading & Math.  Pro-Ohio is an online test-prep program that gives the students practice for our state-test, the OAA.  Then Thursday & Friday, we had the kids take an actual OAA practice test, again in Reading & Math.

Oh, did I mention that it was close to 100* in our rooms all week?  By Friday afternoon, the kids looked like overheated zombies.  I brought in popsicles to congratulate them for making it through such a miserable week, which they were excited about, but I think they were just grateful to be done with tests!

I think next week we'll actually start with real "school".  My plans include an actual launch of Reader's Workshop as well as some real, live Writing!  I'm excited to do something besides monitor test-taking, and I think my kids are excited to do something besides bubble in answer documents.  Stay tuned for an update!

Week One...Done!

The first week of school has come & gone already-I can't hardly believe it.  Our first week was filled with procedures, routines, & familiarizing ourselves with one another.  I didn't focus too much on the Daily 3 this first week-I mostly focused on putting routines in place and making sure these big, bad 6th graders were comfortable in their new digs. 

I started the year with my favorite read aloud, The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch.  When I was 12, my aunt gave me a copy of this book to remind me that even though I might not look like a real princess, I could still save the day.  I try really hard to emphasize this same lesson with every 6th grader, because who didn't struggle with self-image at that age?!

One component of the Daily 3 that I did accomplish is their book baskets.  I decided to go the shoebox route, and spent the last weeks of summer collecting 40+ shoeboxes from everyone I've ever met.  I may end up regretting that choice, but it seemed to be the best one at the time thanks to the Great IKEA Scramble over the summer :)

My intervention specialist & I cut wrapping paper for each child's box, then they each decorated their boxes to suit themselves.  They were pretty proud of their work, and so am I. 

These baskets will be filled with "Just Right" books and will hopefully help to smooth the transition into the Daily 3, since this will be the first experience with it for these kids.  Stay tuned for more excitement from our room!

Day 1

Tomorrow is the first day of school!  I'm actually so excited to start this year.  Of course I'm sad to say good-bye to summer, but since it's inevitable, I'd rather just get started!

We started this week with 2 inservice days:  Monday was full of meetings, looking at data, and reviewing last year's practices.  It was a celebration (kind of) because of the projected rating our school and district will receive on the state report card.  Unfortunately, official results are delayed because of some "questionable tactics" used by districts elsewhere in the state (not us!!).  Still, everyone is excited about the gains we've made in the past year and we know our kids did the best they could do.

Tuesday was a day for teachers to work in their rooms and get all the last minute details together.  One of my favorite parts of these pre-kid days is getting to go out to lunch with my colleagues.  Normally, our 28-minute lunch period doesn't allow for much more than inhaling some food and running back to the classroom, so it's nice to experience a "leisurely" hour-long lunch at a local restaurant.

We also had Meet the Teacher this afternoon.  By 6th grade, most of the kids and parents are so familiar with the school and procedures that they end up skipping this time.  But it's always fun to meet the students & parents who stop in, especially those students who are new to our building.  I like starting to put a face to the names on my list and familiarizing the parents with our 6th grade procedures.  Plus, it helps me to be sure that I'm prepared for the first day-materials, copies, classroom supplies, etc.  With attempting to implement my version of the Daily 5 (or 3, actually), I've made some changes to my room & procedures, which take some getting used to.  But really, it's one more reason that I'm excited to head back to school.  And with that, summer's done and we're off & running on our new school year!

Daily Schedule

I essentially have a week left until we return to school. This morning we finally received an email detailing our daily schedules (lunch & recess times, planning periods, duty schedules, etc.). I am really excited about my schedule this year! We have 2 sections of 6th grade in my building. Because I'll be teaching both Language Arts & Social Studies, it'll be nice to have an uninterrupted block to get everything finished for both classes. Here's what my daily schedule looks like:
8:30-8:45...Homeroom/Lockers
8:45-11:10...AM class
11:10-11:55...lunch/recess
11:55-2:30...PM class
2:30-3:10...specials
3:10-3:20...lockers/dismissal
Yes, in my building the 6th grade students still have recess. To be honest, a lot of times I feel like it's unnecessary, but other times I am glad to have a tiny bit of leverage that they have a chance to burn off some excess energy.
I think this is the first time that I'll have complete blocks of uninterrupted teaching time for both of my classes. It's also the first time in many years that my planning period has been at the end of the day. I can see this going one of two ways: either I'll be so exhausted that I'll get nothing done during that 40-minute block, or I'll be really motivated to get everything done so I am ready for the following day. Considering I'll eat lunch at 11:10...my money is on Choice A.

The Daily 5

I'm currently in the middle of The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades. I'm dying to get through it and attempting to adapt it to my 6th grade class. I've been following "We Read, We Blog, We Teach" for the book study and cannot get over how many great ideas people have about using this for the upper grades. While this isn't the first time I've taken an introspective look at my teaching, it is the first time that I've really wanted to revamp EVERYTHING in my Language Arts world. As I enter my 14th (!) year of teaching, I feel like a first-year teacher all over again, wondering how exactly I'm going to make this work. Here's hoping I can figure it out in the next 3 1/2 weeks.