It's been a while..

Hello everyone! It has been quite a while. I've been so busy with getting ready for the first day of school. Our first day of school was Monday! It went so well. My team and I have been practicing with students the rotation schedule amongst classes. If you remember from an earlier post, I'm responsible for teaching reading and writing. This week we have done fun, short, writing activities. I'll be taking some pictures today of a fun activity I did this week with my class.
I drew on a large poster paper, puzzle pieces. I then cut them up and placed them in a bag labeled CAYER'S CLASS. We created a wonderful anchor chart together about what the puzzle piece activity is about and what are some ideas of design we could put on our puzzle pieces. This puzzle piece is to represent them! They also did a small writing piece of what is on their puzzle piece and WHY they chose what they did. Some students felt comfortable reading their paper out loud (which I was really proud of considering it was the third day of school!) We then put the puzzle together on another piece of poster board and I pasted with a glue stick the puzzle. I then need to laminate it today at school. The students put together their puzzle in 10 minutes! It was a tough puzzle, I was so impressed with their cooperation and teamwork!! I'll post pictures later today of this project..very fun!! :)
-Happy Thursday Everyone!!!

I'm Back!

Well everyone, I've been MIA from the blogging world for over a week. This is due to me recovering from bronchitis and having a few splintered ribs (thank you uncontrollable coughing). I've been taking it easy. However, I am starting to feel like I'm turning a corner with all of this. It's about time! There is much to be done, I start work the 23rd...and the students come on the 27th!

Something BIG has changed since last time I've posted:
*My team and I decided to try "departmentalization" this year. I will be teaching Reading and Writing to all 5th grade students at my school. I couldn't be more thrilled. The literacy block during the day is my absolute favorite. I often wished it could last all day...well, now it will :).

A few things I need to do to prepare for this:
*Create 40+ more writers notebooks (I've already done them for my class)
*Create 3 big binders for each class, for running records and notes, each student has their own section.
*I need to work on color cordinating all materials for the three groups.  Our colors are: Green, Blue, and Purple!
*I need to plan for the first week, meet with my team, and decide when we want to introduce the process of rotating. This is something that will be new to many, and it was decided during the summer. None of the students know.
*I need to find an amazing book to start the year off. 

That's about it, the room is pretty much decorated and ready. :)

Any followers/readers out there that departmentalize in the elementary grade levels? Any advice? Ideas? 


 

Last Mini Vacation Of The Summer!

Well everyone, I'm feeling a little better with this bronchitis. It's still here a bit but hopefully gone soon. Thanks to everyone that has wished me well. The last time I posted I mentioned how I was going to read The Book Whisperer: Awakening The Inner Reader in Every Child, by Donnalyn Miller. Well, I'm just about finished with it and I am really impressed with this book. It's written very well and is a fun read.

Three Big Ideas From This Book:

*Reading should be fun and exciting!

*Students need choice!

*There are no "struggling" readers..just dormant, underground, and developing. 

(Loved these terms she used..she went into detail and examples of each of these types of readers, these three terms are much more positive!)

The BIG idea I agree with Donnalyn is students should have choice. They NEED choice! If a child feels as though reading is "work" there is no joy in that. She goes into examples of interest surveys that students complete at the beginning of the year to readers notebooks. Donnalyn also goes into how she as a child discovered the love of books. It was an enjoyable read and I reccomend it to anyone who is looking to revisit how they teach their reading workshop. Donnalyn teaches 6th grade, I teach 5th..I found it to be a great fit. I think any grade level would benefit from this.

The first day of school is approaching (the end of the month) so my fiance and I went on our last little mini vacation of the season! Maine is a large state, I'm from Western Maine and have never traveled too far East. Well, we went on a road trip....and four hours later we arrived in blueberry country! Check out some of the pictures: 

We then made it to Beals Island, a small lobstering village! It was so beautiful and fun to watch the boats. I enjoyed walking on the beach when the tide was out looking at shells. So beautiful!

 We also went to Boston, MA for two days.. I rode the T for the first time! 

Phew..after four days of road trips I am ready to do a little refocusing on the teaching front. Many of the blogs I follow have already started school. I have a few more weeks to go. I'm at an interesting place currently with my classroom...I'll be posting more soon! I'm glad to be back and to have 33 followers! Can't wait to reach 50..100..?? :)

Bronchitis...Yuck!

Bronchitis isn't a fun thing. I've been having this awful cough for over three weeks and I finally forced myself to visit the doctors office to have it checked. I thought for sure allergies or something. Nope, I have bronchitis to my surprise. Extremely random and yucky. Therefore I've been taking it pretty easy on the teaching front. I'm looking forward to doing a little reading from the couch tomorrow. I was given The Book Whisperer at the end of the school year by someone I work with. My colleague told me that Donalyn reminded him of ME! I have done a little reading on her, finding that she believes reading should come from..well, BOOKS. That we should read for enjoyment. All of these stations and cutting and pasting of "word work" can only go so far. Reading is where it's at. It's a life skill. I cannot wait to dive into it tomorrow, I have been putting it off too long. I'll give a little bit of a book synopsis once I'm done, which may be tomorrow..depending on how I'm feeling. :)
I wanted to also say, thank you so much, I have 28 followers now, I'd love to make it to 50...100! I cannot wait. Take care everyone, I look forward to catching up and reading all of your blogs tomorrow!