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~