Book "Baskets"

     The library is an integral part of my classroom.  Whenever I have the chance (Dollar Tree, Target Dollar Spot, and points from Scholastic), I am buying books for the library.  I love fiction but am absolutely in love with non-fiction books.  Here are some articles from Scholastic and Teaching Monster on why non-fiction is important to reading and learning.  I know at my school, all the teachers would agree that vocabulary instruction is a weakness in our school.  We need to find effective ways to teach our children the vocabulary they need to know to succeed in & outside of the classroom.

     Anyway, I got off track which is easy for me.  Look at what I bought today at Dollar Tree.

They are nylon, drawstring bags and they were only $1.00!!!  I have used baskets in the past but I saw these and thought to myself that they are worth a try.  They seem to be indestructible but we are talking about 2nd graders.  I am not too sure about the orange and yellow ones.  They are BRIGHT!!!!!  I am going to hand them out at Meet the Teacher night for the students to put in their cubbies.  I will have to post pictures of them in action once school starts.

     Comment below and share how you have your students store their library books.  You can include pictures too.

BLOGS I Love!!!

I am a NOVICE blogger!  If there is a stage below novice, that would be me.  How do you get better at something?  ANSWER:  Practice, Practice, Practice....and that is what I'm doing.  Today, I want to talk about a few blogs that I feel are a MUST for you to follow.

1. Teaching Maddenness - I don't know what I did before I found this blog.  Amanda is truly a gifted person who loves sharing her talents with others.  What I admire most about her is the way she does her lesson plans.  She does not use a basal reader and teaches using Genre Studies!  Ask yourself this question:  How many of us want to ditch the basal but are too scared (of change) to do it??  Me, Me, Me!!!!!!!  I know it will not happen overnight or even this school year but....I PROMISE...it will happen and it will be the best thing I have ever done.  Oh...she is also on TPT and has her own website (Teacher's Clubhouse).
2. Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd - Ashley is so spunky and full of love for the teaching profession.  She loves what she does and it shows.  I have bought many things from her TPT store (more things than I want to admit).  She has also started using Periscope (app downloaded for your phone) with her Blogging BFF, Angie from Lucky Little Learners.  It is a video app for you phone.  They have written a list of 10 Must Knows for the Periscope Beginner.
3. Lucky Little Learners - Angie  is from Minnesota and teaches 2nd grade at the school she attended as a child.  I can't even imagine what that would feel like.  She LOVES using Interactive Notebooks and I have to say, I am learning to love them too!  You need to go and visit her TPT store to see it for yourself.  Who doesn't learn when they are interacting within the lesson instead of listening to the teacher teach??  

Believe me, there are MANY more blogs out there that are AWESOME!!!!!!!!  Only a little bit at a time!  How can I forget this one..................
Farrah Shipley!  I discovered Whole Brain Teaching in the Spring and attended their National Conference in Louisiana.  Anyway....there will be an ENTIRE post dedicated to her and WBT!!!

     

Get to Know You (Me)!

I know it has been a few weeks but I am still trying to get used to this blogging thing.  Well, I better get used to it pretty quickly because I have to be back at school on August 10th with the students returning on August 17th.  I think I will do a lot better because I will have a schedule.

We all know with back to school there are "Get to Know You" activities.  Here is a little get to know you activity that will be fun to participate in.  It is from The Tattooed Teacher.  Here goes :)

I know....  I could be a little bit more interesting.  Maybe tomorrow (when it is not 11:43 at night) I will create "10 Facts You Don't Know About Me".

NEW Blog Design!

I am super excited to be showing off my new blog design!!!!!!!  Thank you so much to Lindsey @ L. Paull Designs for All!  You will see her button at the bottom of this page.  She also has another website:  Miss Johnston's Journey (Thriving in 3rd).  Lindsey does AWESOME work and is very patient.  You need to go visit her.

I have had this blog for awhile but have NOT been diligent in posting.  I am thinking to myself "Why would anyone be interested in what is going on in my classroom?  I am not a pro?  Nothing I have to say would seem important.".  Set in.....  SELF DOUBT!  Well, that is going to stop here and now.  I never know who will read my blog and what they will get from it.

It is late at night and I need to go to bed but I was so excited to share this with you.  Good night!
~Blessings~

Teaching with Intention (by Debbie Miller) Book Study

Ok....I told myself I was going to get organized and start blogging more.  Well, I have organized my house (my classroom will be in July).  I had to focus on my house.  This is the place that I neglect most of the school year.

I shouldn't say start blogging more.  It should be to blog with intention! This is where I am going to start talking about & referring to "Teaching with Intention" by Debbie Miller.  Greg from "The Kindergarten Smorgasboard", Jessica from "Mrs. Plemons Kindergarten",  Stephany from "Primary Possibilities", and Keri from "Enchanted Kindergarten" hosted Chapter 1 of this book study.  There will be a discussion of each chapter on Wednesday.  

I need to be "thoughtful, reflective, and strategic" with what I do.  This should occur inside & outside of the classroom.  We do things for a purpose and have a specific reason behind that purpose.  This includes students as well as teachers.  Teachers need to know what they are doing and in turn, students will know what to expect & know what to do.  They will have learning with intention.

Chapter 1:  How Does Your Ideal Classroom Look, Sound, and Feel?

My ideal classroom (especially at the end of this last school year) feels like a fantasy right now.  To be truthful, that is all my fault!  According to Debbie, your ideal classroom needs

• to be "perfect".  You need to use all your senses and envision your dream.
• Once you do this, you can bring your vision to life.
• authentic interaction & and organized and accessible  classroom.  The students need to have access to everything.
• resources for background knowledge.  This is to understand the content of what they are learning.

All of this allows the teacher the ability to talk with the students and be more intentional with her teaching.  How are you going to teach without getting to know the students?  All students are experts and in charge of their own learning as a teacher is in charge of their teaching.

I was kind of hesitant to blog on this book study.  I mean....to be in the same category as all of these FABULOUS bloggers.  I have learned so much in the past few months "blogstalking".  There is one blog I did not mention above.  It is the AWESOME and AMAZING Ashley from "Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd".  

To show you how new I am to blogging, I can't figure out how to add everyone's blogger buttons to the bottom of this post.  If you happen to come across this post, I would greatly appreciate the help in how to add buttons to the bottom of posts.

~Susan~

SUMMER!!!!!!

Our last day of school with students was Friday, May 22nd.  The teachers have a workday tomorrow and then that is it until Aug. 10 -14.  That is when teachers return.  Students start back on Aug. 17th.  We all know that is not true.  My school brain will not turn off.  I have several things that I want to do this summer.

1. Start blogging regularly.
2. Create things for TPT.
3. Move away from using our Basal and do a more thematic approach using literature.  I got this idea from Amanda Madden.  She has several links in a series on lesson planning.  
• The first post is on "are teachers making more work for themselves"?.  
• The second post is on Starting with the Standards.
• The third post is on Creating Long Range Plans.
• The fourth post is on Writing Unit Plans.
• The last post in this series is on Differentiating Unit Plans.
4. ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE!!!!!!
• I have said this before but I really need to be serious this summer.  I plan on getting rid of my filing cabinets.
• I want to put things in binders.  I am thinking by months.  Let me know what you think or how you organize.
5. Rearrange my room!  
• I worked on my library last summer.  Now I want to find an arrangement that works well for me and will work for the students to work cooperatively.  
• This is the arrangement that I used this past year.  It was okay.  
• This is the arrangement that I want to use next year.  The only thing is buying all of the bookshelves.

I know I have all of these lofty goals but I want to be a better teacher for myself and my students.

~Susan~

TEACHER APPRECIATION GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

This week (May 4-8) is Teacher Appreciation Week.  I know this is a GREAT time to be appreciated because we are all at the end of the year and ready for a break.  If you are like me, you feel under appreciated most of the time.  Well....here is a little help.  I found a Blog Hop with 19 AWESOME bloggers.  I have included the link to Teaching in Room 6.  This is where I started.  You can enter through Rafflecopter and there will be links at the end of the post for all of the other wonderful blogs.    I hope that you take the time to enter because it will be well worth it!!!!!!
~Susan~

Balancing & Weighing

Our class is working with our AMSTI "Balancing & Weighing" kits.  AMSTI is "Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative".  These kits have TONS of hands on activities.  Here are some pictures of the students trying to balance their beam balance on a fulcrum.

The above AMSTI link was a general website.  Here are the specific links for Math and Science.  You can even select specific grade levels.  The following are links for "Balancing & Weighing" Activities.  

• Carolina Curriculum (This is where we get the T.E. for our kits.)
• Mrs. Roskow's Class
• Pinterest (Katherine Erikson)
• Math Worksheets for Kids
• Math Playground
• TeachersPayTeachers 

I hope that there are some resources here that you can use.

~Susan~

Another GREAT find!

Here lately I cannot turn my school brain off.  I am constantly looking on Facebook/Pinterest/TPT for ideas to help enhance the learning in my classroom.  Well, I found another website.  The post I found was back in 2012 but it has some great ideas.  It is The Polka Dotted Teacher.  This particular post discusses Word Clouds.  I went to Yahoo and put in word clouds in the search bar.  Here are the links that came up in that search:

1. Wordle
2. Tagxedo
3. Word It Out
4. ABCya
5. Make Word Mosiac
6. Visual Thesaurus
7. Image Chef
8. Yippy Cloud
9. Tagul

I found the above link from Mrs. Rios Teaches Second Grade.  

Okay...it is 9:00 and I have to finish entering grades.  Progress Reports go out tomorrow.

~Susan~

EARTH DAY!!!

     I wish I could take credit for some of these but I can't.  I just wanted to share some of the AWESOME resources that I found for Earth Day which is April 22 (Wednesday).

1. The first resource is from Education.com.  They have resources for every grade level.  You can get on their email list.
2. Here is another one from Classroom Freebies.  It is "Earth Day:  Roll the Die and Read".
3. I absolutely love Scholastic.  There are many different resources that you will be able to use in your classroom.
4. Pinterest - Everyone loves Pinterest!!!  You can find so many cute & easy ideas.
5. This is my weakness.  There needs to be a group to help with my Teachers Pay Teachers - Earth Day addiction.  
6. I also like to use Apples4theteacher.  This is a link to many Earth Day resources for you to use in your classroom.
7. This link is from EarthDay.org.  You will have to search around to see what you want to use with your class.
8. School Tube - I know there is some difficulty for classes using You Tube.  I found this link to School Tube.  It should be easily accessible in your classroom.  I will try at school tomorrow and let you know.
9. I love Dr. Seuss.  This link is to activities with "The Lorax" and it is on Seussville.com.

I know that there are many more out there.  If you know of some awesome links, please share them in the comments section.

~Susan~

ANOTHER AWESOME BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my....this has been a GREAT weekend!  Well great in the fact that I have made a couple of AWESOME blog discoveries and I got to spend some beach time with my girls.  I blogged about Sheila Jane Teaching (you need to join).  Well, here is another WONDERFUL blog!!!!!  It is Amanda at Teaching Maddeness.  You need to visit.  I have spent the past 2 plus hours on this blog.

She also uses Whole Brain Teaching.  I have registered for a FREE WBT workshop in June.  I know it is in Louisiana and 6 hours away but it is FREE and will be well worth it.  Here is the link if you are interested:  WBT Conference.  I just read that the event is now closed but you can be added to the wait list.  It won't hurt to try.

~Susan~

POETRY MONTH

I know Shel Silverstein is one of my favorite poets EVER.  I remember reading "Where the Sidewalk Ends" all the time!!!!!  Here is a link to some learning resources to use with his awesome poetry.  There are many downloadable resources that you can use.  I don't know about you but I need to do a better job of teaching/using poetry all year long!  There is even a Common Core aligned teaching guide.  It is also the 50th Anniversary of "The Giving Tree".  Remember, Earth Day is coming up soon (April 22nd).

Here is a blog that I found on a Poetry Month Bloghop on FB.  It is Literacy Loving Gals.  She has different links to many poetry sites & resources.  The bloghop was started by Carla at Comprehension Connection.  Here is an awesome article that I found on Reading Rockets that has many links for you to use.

I got the following from www.shelsilverstein.com:

     If you are a dreamer, come in,

If you are a dreamer,
A wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er,
A magic bean buyer…

Come in…for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins. You'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist.

Let's use the poetry we grew up on along with Common Core.  Times change but some things don't have to.

~Susan~

Another Blog

OK....I am still on Spring Break but this post is not school related...  I know.

On my last post, I talked about Sheila Jane Teaching.  Well, there is a blog that I follow all the time.  It is Wendi Kitsteiner.  This blog I use in my personal as well as my professional life (just because she is REAL, loves the LORD, & loves her FAMILY).  I also have just a tad bit in common with her (fertility struggles).  Please, you need to go and visit her blog.  She is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

~Susan~

Spring Break

Who is on Spring Break this week?  This is my first day and my school mind will not turn off.  I cannot quit thinking about school.  Well....mainly stalking blogs!  I have found some GREAT ones.  Wait....there is one thing that I have discovered that may just be my saving grace this year.  

Who has heard of Sheila Jane Teaching?  Oh my...if you haven't, you have to go and visit NOW!!!!  This site is awesome!!!  She even has a Facebook Page (Sprinkle Teaching Magic), TeachersPayTeachers store, and Pinterest  page.  She totally understands the frustrations of teachers ("Been There, Done That").  The very first pin I noticed on her Pinterest Page was End Teacher Burnout.  I so need this right now and I know there are many of you out there that need this too.

I better log off for now.  It is 11:30 at night and I am tired.  GOoD night :)

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