It’s Been a While

I love the idea of blogging. Taking the time to journal the things that are going on in life and looking back one day. How fun! It’s just that finding the time to do it is SO very hard. I manage to keep my life extremely busy. I don’t know why I don’t allow myself to slow down but I just don’t.

For example, as if teaching a new grade in a new school district wouldn’t keep me busy and crazy enough I decided to finally be serious about photography. So now I’ve got a little photography business going on the side. Which I absolutely LOVE but I wonder why I do that to myself. You know, get SO darn busy.

Tryp is learning so much and he’s becoming more literal and understanding sarcasm and holy smokes, he’s growing up. 

Audrey has a new love for Elmo and it’s SO stinking cute. She says “Eh Oh” for “Elmo”. She gives him lots of kissies and  has to have him everywhere we go now. She is dancing to music and becoming quite the little toddler. I love this age until the tantrums start.

For my birthday and Christmas I got a new lens. A Canon 100mm macro. It takes great pictures so far but I can’t wait to use it some more. I can’t believe that it’s almost 2013.  I seriously need to get better about documenting things and then of course printing my blog into books for us to read one day.

We have some other big changes happening in our family soon we hope and no it’s not another baby. :)

Mystery Unit

School has been flying and I keep praying that next year will be so much easier with all the work I’m putting in now.

Our district uses Lucy Calkins for reading and writing workshop. I’m not sold.

I think that Lucy has some great lessons but there are a lot of “fluff” lessons that do not explicitly teach the Common Core Standards. I have spent time looking through them and trying to align them and when I failed to succeed I went hunting for a plan that would work. I will definitely still pull some of Lucy’s lessons to tie into my units but Lucy is not the end all be all for teaching. Unfortunately there are several people in our district that think this way. My teaching style is NOTHING close to Lucy Calkins.

So, while I’m on my two week intersession break (Remember, I teach at a year round school) I have been  mapping out what the rest of the school year will look like in my classroom. For the last two weeks of October we will be doing a mystery unit that I am SUPER DUPER excited about.

I will be covering these reading standards: 3.RL.1 and 3.RL.9.

I really think the kids are going to enjoy it.

I pulled ideas from several resources to come up with this fun unit. I’m using a lot of Beth Newingham’s Mystery unit on Scholastic. I’m also getting some ideas from Amanda Madden at Teaching Maddeness.

The students will listen to me read aloud two different mystery books (same author, same characters) and we will compare and contrast the setting, theme, and plots.

The students will get to be a part of a detective duo (reading partners) where they read a mystery book together that is on their level. At the end of the 2 weeks the students will present a news report telling the class all about the solved mystery.

The students will also be reading a mystery book at home with their parents and will complete a story skeleton to bring in. :)

I am so excited!

Did I mention that I was excited?! I’m going to try to remember to take pictures and do a blog post when we are all finished with the unit. After the mystery unit we will do a characters unit on Sarah, Plain, and Tall during November.

Stick around because I hope to try to blog about all of these fun things! :)

 

 

The post where I tell you how life has taken over…

Hey blog friends. I couldn’t tell you the last time I blogged and I don’t even want to look because it will make me sad.

School has consumed my life which I knew it would. Which means that everything else is non-existent. Except my husband and kids and crossfit.

So the latest news is…

• Audrey is walking! Yay!
• Tryp is get smarter by the minute.
• Audrey has 7 teeth!
• Tryp has been having some behavior issues at school. Not at home. I hope these are normal.
• Audrey is a little pistol.
• Tryp can identified all letters, isn’t really new but now I’m asking him when we see letters so letters out of normal context.
• Hank is going hunting tonight. Opening day.
• I’m thankful that October is on the way. Two week break from school and War Eagle Fall Festival. :)
• Audrey loves playing patty cake.
• I can dead lift 165 lbs. Back squat 155 lbs. Front squat 140 lbs.

 

Classroom Sneak Peak

Hey friends!

I am finally going to give you a sneak peak into my classroom. I haven’t even had time to grab more shots but I’ll share with you the few I did shoot!

First up, my favorite stool! I found this stool at True Treasures. It was $15. I thought I was getting a good deal. I was not thinking clearly, obviously. A few days after I purchased the stool I saw that Wal-Mart sells BRAND NEW stools for…guess how much?! $15! Oh well. You live and learn right. So I took my “antique” stool and painted it blue and added my fun feathers and a cute design on top. The B is for Brockmeyer. :)

Then another picture I grabbed was of my Math Toolboxes and Writing Workshop boxes. The boxes have manipulatives for each group to work on solving word problems. The writing boxes include folders for each student along with pens and paper for producing writing and taking it through the writing process.

Another thing I managed to take a picture of is my birthday chart and my brownie points pan. I wanted to do something super cute for my birthdays but I honestly didn’t have time and it wasn’t a necessity. I got the brownie points idea from What the Teacher Wants and I did it last year and it worked well for a whole class incentive program.

My daily schedule…I love my schedule cards. I got them from Ladybugs Teacher Files and had her custom make them to match my colors. I then printed blank clocks with times to match my schedule and I made the clock hands with permanent marker. I know I could have made the clock hands with arrows in PowerPoint or word and I TRIED. They weren’t lining up right so I just figured I would do it by hand. You can also see a glimpse of my cursive alphabet (letter A only) and I got them from the same link above. (Ladybugs Teacher Files)

I made Table signs to hang above my groups and I loved them unfortunately my students are awful chatty and aren’t quite ready for groups. Maybe a little later. We are still working on expectations. :)

And lastly, my favorite cabinet. :) If you haven’t ever decorated a cabinet, it’s so much fun and makes things so much brighter. On the left, my jobs and on the right is my behavior and I haven’t come up with a cute saying for it yet. Any suggestions? (yes…there have already been students on parent contact…) ;)

Things are honestly crazy right now and I’m trying to balance everything. I do love my job A LOT. I’m enjoying being so much closer and I’ve got a great group of 24 students! :) Thanks for still following and bearing with me as I try to juggle it all!

Broken promises and an update

I know I promised that I would post pictures of my classroom soon. And believe me y’all. I am super duper excited to post pictures to share but the beginning of the school year is crazy and it’s the LAST thing on my to do list.

It will come. Soon. No promising though. I don’t like breaking promises.

Update:

-My husband is amazing and has been so wonderful during this busy busy busy time of getting my classroom ready and starting the school year.

-Tryp has gotten to come to my classroom and couple times and I think he finally understands what I do. He likes coming to mommy’s work because of the playground. :) His understanding of things is definitely deepening. Especially with the asking “why” all the time.

-Audrey is working on her 5th tooth. She moves around the room quickly but not walking yet. She can say “mama”, “dada”, “bubba” and “hi” (when she feels like it).

-I have not been to CrossFit but ONE time in the past month. I miss it. A lot. But my family and job come first.

-I broke down and bought a carpet cleaner. Our carpets are so gross and I couldn’t take it any longer. I hope to share the before and after pics on that, one day. :)

I think that’s it…just a quick update. ;)

MIA

To all my sweet followers. I have not fallen of the face of the earth. I've simply fallen into my classroom and can't get up. Seriously. I've been working non-stop in there and I can't wait to show you pictures when it's complete. :) I'll return soon...

Newest Creations and Classroom Preparation

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my classroom and how I will have students in just 20 short days and I can’t even get into the school yet! AHHHHH! :) So I’ve been doing little things here and there. My newest creations are the absent student folders…

During my first year of teaching (6th grade Social Studies and Reading), my mentor teacher used a lot of Kagan strategies and one of the many things she gave me was a copy of a “We Missed You” sheet. I loved it so much that I used it all the time. During my second year of teaching (4th grade) I kind of forgot about that awesome “We Missed You” sheet and only used folders to keep up with assignments during the day while they were gone.

This year is a combination of the two. I made a very cute We Missed You sheet that you can download for FREE here. Why? Because I love y’all!

I also opened up a Teacher’s Notebook shop for those of you who weren’t already aware! I have two things available, Classroom Jobs Chart and Common Core Standards Posters. I haven’t really posted much about the standards posters but I most of the ones that other teachers were selling have kids and pictures on them and I want simple and no distractions. Then I thought, maybe other teachers out there want the same? So if you are interested you can go here to check out those items!

I finished laminating and cutting my schedule signs. Aren’t they SO cute!

I got these from Ladybugs Teacher Files. Kristen is AMAZING! She even customized them for me (for extra $$ of course!) and they now match my theme. I LOVE them so much!

I’m trying not to pay too close attention to the calendar but my baby girl turns 1 tomorrow. New teacher training starts in a week. Students in my classroom in 21 days. Oh my. Oh my.