Reader's Workshop

Thanks to Ms. Wright's planning, my kids read and write in the workshop style. There is an article today about workshop in NYTimes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/books/30reading.html

Camoflauge and Mimicry Museum

We are studying animals this unit in science. Today is camo and mimicry day. To start this out, we are having a gallery walk in the classroom. Classical music is playing and there is a no talking rule as they peruse the "animal art" and take notes on how the animals are hiding and hypothesizing as to why they might be hiding. 

Admission is free if you're interested :) 

Sick..booo

I am home sick ALREADY! I was planning on trying not to miss nearly as many days as last year as a year two "vet." So much for that.

I had great reports about the kiddies today. They make me so proud! I have to thank my superstar TFA colleagues for taking on a few extra kids for the day as I didn't realize I was sick early enough this morning to get a sub. I don't know what I would do without all of their support. Half of my kids got to return to their 3rd or 2nd grade teachers which was a lot of fun for them. The majority went to Ms. Wright's class which is AWESOME as our classes are essentially identical so they didn't miss a thing!

YG called right after school to "check on me" and see if I would be at school tomorrow. She told me she would bring me soup if I would please come to school. I love them.

Even more books on my doorstep!

I cannot thank everyone enough!

PARTAY!

My class earned their first party today by earning compliments around campus.

The first party was a milk and cookies party that turned into a dance party extravaganza. We did the cha cha slide, cupid shuffle, and the electric slide. My kids have rhythm. I think they were shocked to learn their teacher actually does too.

LIBROS!

The kids are BEYOND excited that the first batch of biographies from my grandma came today.

Teachable moment...

One of our crickets has decided that today is a perfect day to molt. This is rather convenient for us teachers. What better way to describe an arthropod as a creature whose skeleton is OUTSIDE of their body. Currently, this cricket's skeleton is located about 5 inches away from the rest of his white, squishiness.

Now THAT is an EXOskeleton!

My kids are...freaked, excited, grossed out, confused.

Job: Cricket Wrestler

We are learning about animals in Science. More specifically, vertebrates vs. invertebrates. Even more specifically, today we are talking about how arthropods are different than other invertebrates.

Clearly, this means that I needed to bring in crickets and worms today for our scientists to observe. Mom was nice enough to make a Petsmart run last night and Ms. Wright and I had the lovely job of wrestling crickets into separate containers for each of our classes. The worms are just chillin' (literally) in the fridge.

I am a teacher.

Journals

My kids write in their journals each night for homework and once a week I collect them and respond. It is great to learn about what is going on in their lives and it allows you to gently correct errors in their writing by modeling correct things in your responses. At the same time, some of the things they write are terribly sad or troubling.

I wish doing well in school was the only thing these babes had to worry about.

Not a way to start the morning...

KH, a student from last year, came into my room and started telling me about school life in his non-TFA 5th grade classroom. They copy everything the teacher say all day. They do worksheets. His classmates are "losing their integrity" (one of our class values) because their teacher doesn't care what they do as long as their work is done. They don't get a chance to read "real" books. All they do for reading is recite passages over and over again. He misses book club and asked if he could borrow some of my books.

This is what they have to look forward to when they leave me at the end of the year?

Putting Michael Jackson into any lesson plan these days equals INSTANT engagement. 

Michael Jackson's record sales provide great numbers for working in the millions. 

I have official notice of my first donation of 20 books off of the Class of 2022 Wish List on amazon.com!!

Thank you so much, Professor Reiley! 

The first district reading test results

My first district reading test results show that all but 4 of my kids are on a 4th grade level at the BEGINNING of 4th grade. My challenge this year will be to push them even farther.

What a great responsibility.

And people say kids don't like to read and don't care about history...

I started allowing my kids to start checking books out of our classroom library this week. The most popular books turned out to be kid friendly biographies.

The absolute favorites come from the "Who Was" series.



RW, my class librarian, is going to be busy, busy, busy with this class!

Growing Our Brains

On Friday of the first week, we talked about our goals for the year and what we will need to do to accomplish them. One important thing we discussed is how we all have different brains that need different things to grow. After making a list of the things we would do over the course of this year to grow our brain, we grew sponge "brains" in cups.

My 4th graders took the small capsules that turn into sponge shapes and added knowledge and hard work to them (aka warm water). The knowledge and hard work magically morphed their 3rd grade brains (aka 99 cent expandable capsules) into end of year 4th grade brains.

After, the kids attached their grown "brains" to a note card they wrote all about their brains. Many of them included gems like, "I LOVE my brain!"

Probably the best part of this project is what Ms. Wright and I had to go through to pull it off. Buying the capsules was cheap and easy, getting the warm water at school...not so easy. Thankfully, I have befriended the cafeteria manager who was nice enough to boil some water for us. We then had to transport this pot of hot water to our classrooms across campus. Naturally we looked for a cart with wheels...what we weren't anticipating was that there would be a SHOPPING cart in our front office. We pushed the pot over every crack in the sidewalk to our classroom. Of course, our principal had to come out and look at us like we were nuts.



Oh, the things we do for our kids.

P.S. That is a certified awesome school polo I am rockin'

Welcome to Room 13 now home of the Class of 2022

Hey all!

I am back in action in Room 13 for year two of my Teach For America commitment. I currently have 17 students and am super excited to attack year 2 with all of the experience I gained from last year.

Something much different from my class last year is that the majority of my students are on grade level. Having had 2 Teach For America teachers before me seems to have really helped my students be prepared for the 4th grade. I still have my outliers that I need to address, but I am very much looking forward to pushing this year's students ABOVE grade level rather than helping to catch them up to grade level.

I hope you will check in to follow our adventure!