Sunday Smorgasbord

 

 

I'm linking up with Michelle from Fabulous in First for a Sunday Smorgasbord! I know that I’m just in time this evening!

I am about half way through summer and have been trying not to think too much about school and my classroom.  Summer Rec is happening in my room this summer and I have no hope of getting in for 2 more weeks!  The idea of setting up a new classroom is both exciting and daunting!  I have a bit of a wish list going:

IKEA Stools – I was going to make the bucket stools after my ottomans from Big Lots died a quick death last year, but realized that it would be worth the money to order IKEA stools and have them delivered.  I started making the bucket stools and it would take days! I’m planning to buy these stools and paint them in bright colors to match my room.

Classroom Carpet – I didn’t have a carpet last year with my third graders, but I still feel like second graders need a defined meeting space.  This is the one I am thinking of:

Chevron Borders – I have the Dots on Turquoise theme that was all the rage last year, but I am thinking of adding chevron to my decorations, using the same colors. These are from Creative Teaching Press – but there must be very popular, because they are all out of stock!

Budgeting!

I don’t know about you, but I know that my spending habits when it comes to school related items has gone cra-zay! (Bad, bad Pinterest! Bad, bad Dollar Spot…need I go on???) One of my fav fashion/style bloggers, Franish, has a “Budgeting Bloggers” feature. 

What do folks think of doing a monthly link-up on teacher budgets – you know, those Dollar Spot cutesies, TPT items, and great decor items that you just can’t resist? The idea behind it is that you establish a budget and show what you buy each month. Who will join me?

Book Study Anyone?

Yes, a book study!  I completely spaced on the amazing books studies this summer.  Packing my 7th classroom and moving to my 8th, followed by the most challenging college course I have ever taken, I just couldn’t bring myself to do anything more than necessary the last few weeks.

So, I was thinking of reading Spaces and Places by Debbie Diller.  I bought it several years ago and never really read it.  I thought moving into that 8th classroom might provide me with an opportunity. There are 5 Chapters – anyone interested in hosting one?

Speaking of professional books, what do you do with all the books you don’t use?  I have been purging and Amazon ad Ebay just don’t seem like they would be worth my time. Some fashion bloggers do “Shop My Closet”, maybe I could do “Shop My Bookshelf.”  Or do you think TPT would be a good place to put collection of books (i.e. a set of sight word resources, a social studies collections, etc.)?

Please email me if you are interested in working on this book study!

Well, that was certainly a smorgasbord of topics!  Like up with Fabulous in First and share your randomness!

Don’t forget to follow me on Bloglovin’! Click below to follow!

Building Mathematical Comprehension–Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Increasing Comprehension By Asking Questions

I am one of the bloggers hosting! So excited!

I guess this post is more of a reflection on the specific topics/concepts the author develops.  Since I am moving to a new grade, I am rethinking how I teach math and how to apply some of these ideas in second grade.

I was really interested in this chapter because my district advocates for an Inquiry Based Teaching Method.  However, I am finding, at least at this point with the CORE Standards and a new math series, we are not as focused on inquiry .  In the last year we have really implemented the CORE full time and the focus was overwhelmingly on building basic fact fluency and content skills. In the long run, I think my students struggled with applying content to problem solving requirements on the state test.  I know that I want to work more on applying the content next year.

We \split our students across the grad level into more heterogeneous classes fro math and we have 55 minutes a day.  It has drastically changed the way I teach because I only have these students for 55 minutes and most of them are not in my homeroom. It puts a lot of pressure on to use the time wisely and efficiently.  It does not promote inquiry based teaching and that is really disappointing to me. I think some of the ideas in this book will really help me to make math more connected to the rest of the day for the kids, despite the fact that we form different classes for this subject.

Here are the concepts presented and my reflections:

Math as a Social Process

On page 119, Laney Sammons refers to math as a “social process”.  I guess I have never seen math as a social process. I think I do need to have my students interact with each other more frequently during math.  Maybe next year, since I  will not be in a testing grade, I will be able to have a little bit of freedom to mix it up.

Asking questions before, during, and after working with a math problem. 

Of course I think of this in reading, but not in math.  It refines what I had been trying to do with my students this year and will help me support my students in developing thinking skills in math with more consistency. 

Asking Questions Before Working to:

• Activate Prior Knowledge
• Develop problem solving strategies

Asking Questions During Working to:

• Determining missing information

Asking Questions After Working:

• Determining if an answer makes sense
• If the problem has been solved

Reasons to Ask Questions in Math

I like the idea of brainstorming reasons for asking questions during math – page121-124. This would be a great chart to kick of the year in math next year.

QAR

I also love the QAR reference! I think this would be really helpful to teach students for supporting problem solving, especially when approaching word problems.

Right There:

• Conceptual Questions - Using resources
• Problem-solving Questions - Information from the problem

Think and Search

• Reasons for using/learning concept
• Gathering information to solve the problem.

On my own

• How to use in real life
• Determining strategies and if a solution works

Thick an Thin Questions

Quick answer versus “Why” questions - I think teaching students the difference between computation type questions and more concept based questions would be really helpful.  This would also help students to make more connections between what they are learning and to reflect on their thinking when problem solving.

Strategy Sessions

The idea of teaching small groups was a goal of my last year, but I never felt like I had the time. This will be a goal for me next year.

Wonder Walls

I use this idea in the other content areas, but need to open up my thinking to use it in math.  I can see having a wonder wall and giving my students post-its to add as class ends.

"What’s the Question"

Again, another great idea!  I think that teaching students how to create questions given a specific set of ideas or perimeters would really support test-taking skills.  If they learn to be in control of creating questions to answer, the kids may better understand how to approach a question on an assessment.

I created a little freebie with 2 general posters, 2 strategy posters, and student bookmarks.  I think they will be helpful for my students next year.  Leap on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers site for your download!

Check out my co-hosts at these lovely blogs!

Also – don’t forget to follow on Bloglovin’! Click below to follow!

Pirating and Room Décor Linky

 

So I’m back for Chapter 2 of the Teach Like a Pirate Book Study! Chapter 2 is titled: Immersion. 

It was a chapter that really caught my attention as I read it while inhaling my lunch after a four hour teaching morning (yes, 4 HOURS without a moment of down time to do anything!). It really captured my attention because it is all about being in the moment with your students.  I am soooo guilty of not being in the moment this year.  It has been creeping up on me – the multitasking monster! 

I find myself grading, filing, and answering emails rather than engaging with my students as much as I could because I would actually like to leave work and have a life outside of these cinderblock walls!  Plus, the flaming hoops that we now have to jump through (especially in NY right now), require us to do so much more work on our own time.  Part of me refuses to do that. If I am supposed to complete all of this paper work, I’m going to do it at work, during my work hours. Not to even mention the trickiness of having so many adults present in your classroom.  When I have a para or special education teacher, I feel like I am spending so much time trying to communicate with the other adult that I am not as into the teaching as I could be.

I think my passion for teaching has suffered.  I also think I have build fewer connections with my students and have not been as supportive as I would like. 

How do you balance the need to be immersed with your students, the professional expectations (that have literally quadrupled from 12 years ago when I did not file a darn thing other than to slap a photo on a cumulative file to spreadsheets, graphs, portfolios, and recoding data in multiple places.) And being human like people who do not teach?

Is more multi-tasking the answer?  My brain screams “No, I can’t do one more thing and stay sane!” Does something go? My brain screams “YES – STANDARDIZED TESTING AND EXTREME DATA COLLECTION!” Not likely, but in the mend time, how can we be more in the moment with our classes? I can’t wait to hear what others have to say!

---

Ahh!  Classroom décor! The Applicious Teacher is having a summer linky! This is such a great topic!  I had a blue and red colored classroom when I taught first grade.  No real theme, other than my frogs here and there.  I loved the bold colors.  It was a very striking color pallet. This year – new grade and new building – I decided to change it up! I went with “Dots on Turquoise” (with Dots on Black as a back up).  My goal was to be able to reuse some of the items I bought a few years ago when I had bright colors in my classroom (lime, turquoise, pink) and save some money. 

I grew to like it more than I thought I would and I think I will keep the color scheme.  Other than that, I am not much of a theme person.  I tried having a camping theme last year, but it was just too much for me.  I couldn’t keep the theme going and it just seemed to distract from the real learning in the classroom. Plus, it was costing a bunch to buy all the items to make it sure cute.  So, I think I will stick with the colors and not worry so much about a specific theme.

What are your planning next year?

Teach Like A Pirate Book Study–Chapter 1

I am participating in the “Teach Like a Pirate” book study with Third Grade Tidbits and Rowdy in First Grade.

I LOVE this book!  I have to admit that I have lost a little…okay more than a little…passion for my job this year.  I have heard so many people say that the current climate has turned our profession into a job.  It almost makes me cry to think that a profession I have and still love so much is in such a sorry state right now.  I am hoping this book will help me to see the positives in what I love to do!  It is so needed right now!

Some things that resonated with me:

Content Passion – I love teaching literacy!  I have always loved it, especially reaching.  Writing, while I love it, has always been so challenging for me.  I love teaching social studies.  Math and science – not so much. However, I can make the connections and create passion for what I am teaching. 

I have been participating in book studies and reading a lot about areas outside my expertise – particularly math.  This was the wonderful benefit of having a yearly review system where we were observed every three years and on the off years, we set goals and built a "*small* portfolio to show our work.  This provided me with a wonderful year to study writing and another to study math. 

Now we need to be fantastic at everything and I can tell you, I at least, am stretched so thin that I don’t believe I have truly grown professional this year.  Unless you count playing to rubrics and teaching students how to fill out bubble sheets

Professional Passion – I love education!  I have come to that conclusion over a few not-so-easy years of teaching.  I love what I do, even though it is becoming a different type of challenge.  Teaching is no longer a challenge that helps you grow as a professional, it seems some days to be the same type of challenge as hitting your head on a cinderblock wall – nothing but frustrating.

I have found that returning to school has renewed my professional passion. It is not directly connected to my teaching, but it helps me to find perspective and renew my personal goals and philosophy that became lost somewhere along the way.

*I love the idea of focusing on LCLs (Life Changing Lessons) when the content is not one of your personal teaching passions.

Personal Passion – I often make connections to my personal life and the things I enjoy doing.  I think this may be a difference that pops up when reading this book because it was written by a high school teacher.  Primary/elementary teachers tend to share a lot more of themselves. My students know about my pets, that I love to read, garden, and quilt.  They know my plans for the summer and I know theirs because we talk about all this.  It is unavoidable with little ones.

I really love this idea of finding ways to become more passionate about what we do.  In these times, I think we are having a lot of that passion squeezed out of us and it is easy to become disheartened with the issues in our classroom, testing, and political issues.  I think this book may be a great way to refocus ourselves and think about what is really important and why we really love what we do. 

Join in this wonderful book study and link up!

June Currently

I'm linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for this month's Currently!

Listening – I love the signs of spring.  We live out in the country and I love listening to nothing but the birds calling.  At night, I love listening to the frog and other critters making noise!

Loving – I am SOOOOO ready for summer!  This year has been a challenge and I am ready for some time t relax and recharge.

Thinking – It’s that time of year.  The schedule gets more and more packed, I lose time with my students, and management gets so tough.  Plus my room is like a million degrees and some brilliant architect decided to add fire doors to the rooms and a window at the very top of the wall that tip in.  The results = no air flow!  Everyone is getting short tempered and the tone at the second home (school) isn’t always nice I’m trying to smile and remember to make these last few day the best,

Wanting – I am dying to start packing and moving my room.  It will be the third time I have packed and moved in my 6 years at this district.  It becomes old hat after awhile and I just want it to be done.  I am starting to think I should just teach out of plastic tubs so I don’t have to worry about packing any moving net year!

Needing – Yep!  report cards.  Again, I just want them to be done. 

Vacay essentials – Books!  I can’t wait to read, read, read!  I have three book studies I want to do and so many books waiting to read just for fun.  I love to drink iced tea in the summer.  I just bought some pineapple mint and I would like to experiment with making teas with it.  Sun!  Ahh – sun in NY!  Winter was not too bad, but it seemed to go on for-ev-er and I am enjoying the sun.  I am so much happier when it is sunny!

Join in and link up with Farley!

---

Here are the books I am planning to read this summer:

with (and others)

I was planning to do my own, but stumbled upon this book study today, so I think I will relax and just do the reading.  I was looking for a reading-based study and now I don’t have to create my own!  Lots of great bloggers are joining in!

with and

 

withand

There are a few others, but I have already read those books or they just aren’t ones that I am interested in.  Plus I am teaching two workshops and taking a doctoral class, so I guess I’ll be busy!

Summer Book Studies

OOOH!  I see a few book study ideas/plans popping up in blog land.  I have loved doing the book studies the past few years.

Third Grade Tidbits and Rowdy in First Grade are going to be hosting a summer book study on the book Teach Like a Pirate. This look slike a fun book about teaching in general.

We Read, We Blog, We Teach is going to host The Book Whisperer. I read that one last year.

Thinking About Teaching and Primarily Inspired are hosting a book study on Building Mathematical Comprehension by Laney Sammons. 

I am planning to read:

I always feel like I need to brush up on guided reading.  Now that I am shifting from third to second, I know I will need to adjust my plans and expectations.  It helps to keep the focus in mind each year.

I also want to think about how to arrange my room.  My new room will have the same layout, but I know there are things that worked well and things that didn’t this year.


Anyone interested in teaming up on either book to host a book study? Comment below or send an email to: leapingintoteaching@gmail.com if you are interesting in hosting a bloggy book study together!

Daily 5 Book Study – Chapter 5

This summer is so CRAZY for me!

• I finally got my things moved to my new building and am dying to go in to get the lay of the land and unpack some things.
• I had a mini-reunion with a few good friends from high school last week.
• This weekend is my in-laws 50th anniversary party - guess who the party planner is!!! If I can make it to Sunday, I will be having a very long nap!
• A friend is getting married next weekend and my class reunion in the last weekend in July.
• Also toss in a staff development for unit writing and two that I am teaching in early August.
• I am trying to make heads or tails of a curriculum I haven't taught in eight years too!
• Oh, did I mention that I start classes the week we go back to school - the last week in August? Am I crazy or what? I'm not sure how much I'll be posting, but I am hoping I will be able to keep up.

Without further ado, here is my post for the D5 Book Study! This post is HUGE!

I am linking up with Jess at Rambling about Reading, Mel at Suesstastic Class Inspirations, Nicole at Teaching with Style and Kelli at Castles and Crayons.

---

Read to Someone

I didn’t really use Read to Someone much last year.  I just wasn’t right for that particular class. 

• EEKK is a perfect way to teach students buddy reading behaviors.  I also took picture of my kids reading with their buddies and posted them on a board when we did buddy reading to remind them of what it looked like and how they worked as a team.
• With my first graders, I set up readers theatre folders – on play copied for enough students to read the play.  I limited the number of parts to 6 – the number of students who would potentially be in that center.  I kept all the plays in a basket.

• For third graders, I think that readers theatre angle will still work well, with plays for older kiddos. I also think that poetry will be really important, as it supports the new CORE standards.
• The "”You’ll Read to Me, I’ll Read to You” series by Mary Ann Hoberman would be great to put in for Read to Someone.

   

• There are also several great books and teacher resources that support partner reading of poetry.

      

Finally, I think that sometimes it is all about the gimmicks for the kids – the little things that make a task motivational.  For partner reading, I allowed my first graders to use ”reading glasses.”  These are just the cheapo classes from the dollar store with the lens popped out. They were all the rage!

---

Listening To Reading

The Computer

I love using my classroom computers for the Listening Center! We have 6 computers in our classrooms for student use and they are fantastic for setting up listening centers.

There are a few free sites out there with stories for children. Some that I have used in the past have added a subscription fee and others have so many ads that I am worried about using them in the classroom. Storyline Online is fantastic! However, I caution you about the Tooth Fairy story. Check it out and see if you want to use this site. I have used it more for a whole class listening activity rather than me reading a story aloud. The Magic Keys is also a good site, but a bit limited.StoryNory, Tumble Books, and Speakaboos have all gone to a fee-based format.

The Magic Keys  Children’s Storybooks Online

National Geographic Young Explorer gives children access to their past issues of National Geographic. This has been fantastic in my classroom. We subscribe to the magazine and put the issue on the Promethean Board for an interactive experience, but I also love that the kids can go on to read and listen later at centers.

Next, I have 2 sites that are subscription sites. Our library has subscribed to both sites for classroom use and they are indispensible for most of our classroom teachers. They are great to use with the Promethean Board. Pebble Go is a non-fiction database on animals and the world around us. The kids love to read and listen during centers. It is great for research. Bookflix is another site that I have mentioned before. It has a fantastic collection of fiction and non-fiction books for students to listen to and read.

     

Listening Center Board for the Promethean

The Promethean Board allows the create of pages where you can lock in a link and an image on a page. For example, I have a Listening Center Chart that is anchored to my student desktops. Students click on the chart and it opens a page with all of the links students are allowed to access during centers. That way, I can give them access to a few choices and it limits what they can do – no Legoland allowed!

MP3s or iPods

I also have a listening center that is not computer-based. I struggled with the old tape-deck players and cd players for years and finally decided to go with MP3 players when I saw a good deal through Scholastic. There are a few great MP3 players out there for children, but they can be pretty pricey. I have seen some good deals on Ebay, but have stuck with my old players at this point. They were $8 on clearance at one point and I bought 8 with my bonus points. I can’t find my picture of them right now.

iPods would also be a great option, if they are available to you.  I work in an area where we can access them through a regional loan program, I just have not been able to get them yet.

I have gradually acquired books with cds through Scholastic. This is a nice system because I only need one copy of the book and students have their own listening tools. I load the cds into my computer and transfer one story to each MP3. With 8 players, that gives each child 2 centers for 4 weeks. So, I have them use the MP3s twice a week and the computer twice a week. I store the MP3 player and the book in a baggie and put the stories in a basket. This gives my students a bit of choice during this center.

I bought earphones from the dollar store a few years ago, one for each student. They are stored in baggies with student numbers on them. I have toyed with the idea of putting them on a supply list too, because mine are starting to break at this point. The earphones are stored in a Sterlite container with magic numbers 1-7 in the top drawer, 8-14, and 15-21 in the next two.

I store my listening books in a crate with a hanging file for each month. They are filed by month so I can pull appropriate theme and content books for the month. Once the books are loaded onto my computer from the cd, I organize them the same as the crate so they are easy to transfer to the MPs when it is time. Once the system is set up, it takes 15-20 minutes to switch them out each month.

I love this system because it allows students to work independently and make choices. It also cuts down on the behavior issues that occur when students don’t know how to use the players and argue over things – you know how that goes.

CD Players

You can also break out the old cd players.  The nice part about this is that you can pick up cheap players at thrift stores or families can donate used ones to the classroom.  The other nice feature is that you can check out cds and book from your local library.  Again, I live in an area where 4 counties have teamed up to loan items from any of the libraries and they are transported to your local library. Awesome resource when you are on a budget!

Online Resources for Audio Books

There are a few places that you can access books for the computer, MP3s, or iPods.  Amazon, Audible.com, and iTunes have books that you can purchase and download for a fee.  I have not gotten into these for the classroom yet.  It is just too much money for me to spend.

Free options are author sites and your local library.  Some authors, such as Robert Munsch, read their books on their websites.  Others, like Todd Parr, read their books on YouTube.  My library system also have a nice selection of kids books that can be downloaded for listening.  They can be used on a pc or some can be burned onto cds.  The collections are growing very quickly!

To find out more about books read on You Tube, check out my past post: You Tube to the Rescue!

Mystery Readers!

A couple years ago, I created a program for my classroom where I had adults in the school system read a book and record themselves.  I pulled several books that matched themes, had people sign-up and choose a book, then record themselves reading on my computer. We have a microphone available through our library, but there are some really inexpensive choices on Amazon.com.  I had the teachers record using Audacity and could then save their reading for the MP3s.  The kids loved trying to figure out who was reading!

    

Leap Pads

Last year I began to incorporate Leap Pads into my classroom. Now that the prices have gone down, I found 3 on Ebay and have found the books and cartridges on Ebay and at thrift stores and garage sales. I put these in as a listening center once a week. The books are not always pure listening, but it works. I store the Leap Pads in a Sterlite file box – 3 fit nicely. The games go in a second one.

Whew!  That was a lot of typing!!!