Do your students have a hard time with double vowels?

Good Morning. It is a sunny day here in my world. I have been hitting Pinterest again and found a digraph chart to help my struggling readers. It is FREE of course! The author is Let's Get Fancy in First and below is the chart. It gives great pictures AND a flip the sound section to help readers hear the difference between short and long vowels. What do you think about this?

Blogs You Need to Go To........

It has been a few weeks since I last blogged. I have been busy, just like all you teachers and mothers out there, not to neglect the fathers as well. I am currently on my spring break, so I have had time to go on Pinterest. I have found many great ideas. I have also come across blogs that I think you might be interested in. I have two today. Samples of the work that I downloaded FOR FREE is pictured below. This first idea is from ilove2teach. I just downloaded a prefix/suffix activity for my students reading notebooks. They will not only be able to record prefixed/suffixes from the lesson, but also add others as they read to self or read to a partner. Examples of how exactly to use it are on the link above.

Another blog that I found is called The Bubbly Blond. There are many good guided reading ideas on the blog. I downloaded a Monday through Friday guide for guided reading. It is spelled plainly. I figured I can use the parts I like and change what I need to for my routine. More examples are on the link above. 

I will share more blogs as I come across them. In my learning of How to Train a Teacher, if anyone can tell me how to save a button and put it on my blog, I would greatly appreciate it. I would love to let you be able to go to these sites at once. 

Organization bins that are worth the money........

Over six months has gone by since my last entry. Wow, it seems just like yesterday. I have been thinking of things that I have done or have that will help other teachers. One organization idea I have is from Really Good Stuff that my students use as their Daily 5/Centers keeper. These were expensive, but they do last. There is a label for each bin. I use numbers for my students, so it works beautifully. As you can see they fit a lot of stuff in them. They were really worth the money. The carts roll or lock in place so they can be moved as I move my room around.

As stated in my last post, we are starting with sentence structure but also the four types of sentences. I found an easy assessment (and FREE!) from Mrs. Prince and Co. I will be using it this week.

See how easy it is! 

Welcome Back! School with students began for me this week! I am totally excited about my class. They are well behaved. The co-teaching is going well!! My partner and I have found much common ground. My blog today is not about co-teaching though. It is about Interactive Notebooks. They are all the rage, and everyone teacher you read about loves them. Our grade level has decided to commit to doing interactive notebooks this year, BUT where to begin? I found a blog as I was searching Pinterest with a few tips to read BEFORE you begin. The blog, All Students Can Shine, has 10 tips for newbies, like my grade level. She also has interactive notebooks for sale on TpT (I am not endorsing them. I have not looked through them). Check them out though. It is a very overwhelming task and one great piece of advice is to start small. Our grade level is going to start with different types of sentences and place value. We are not diving in without getting our feet wet. I hope this is helpful. If you have any tips for us, please leave them in the comments section. Have a great day!

I changed my dismissal procedures this year after seeing so many cute entries on Pinterest. I adapted several to make the one that I am using. I made the background University of Illinois colors (I-L-L). I did have to make it two pages. The border didn't quite reach the page side, so I had to trim and tape the two pages together. I printed it on card stock and laminated it.I will also be making an arrival procedures in the next few days.

Sorry it is sideways!

Today's cute idea comes to us from 4th Grade Frolics. These stop signs are given quietly, so no other students are disturbed. I will be testing them out this coming school year. I will let you know how they work out. To get your own (they were free!), click on the link above. Have a Great Day!

Cute Comprehension Cards

How many students don't want to say that they don't know something because they are afraid of what their classmates will think. Here is a great idea for checking for comprehension when presenting an idea. It will take a lot of persistence in using but I am very optimistic. I got these adorable cards on classroom freebie too! (I figured out how to add a link!)

I also have been searching for a sub binder idea; something simple that doesn't take to much to put together and I found one on TpT (it was FREE!).
from Persnickety Pickles. It didn't take much color. I will put it in a binder and put it on the shelf for the day I need a guest teacher. Once again, when I figure out how to link to her site, I will do so and let you know I did. It is not going to take too much time to put this together.

I was hoping to blog a little sooner than today, but the laminator at school was broken and I wanted to have a finished product to show you before I posted. WELL, the laminator wasn't completely fixed, as I was lead to believe, and I had to hand crank these absent folders myself. I felt like I was a kid again, wringing out the clothes from my grandma's washer (dating myself a little). Anyway, here are my absent folders for this year. I got the printouts from Hand Me Down Mom Genes. They were free! I liked her idea of putting them on manilla folders (accessible and free from school). They turned out pretty neat! I can't wait to use them! As soon as I can figure out how to add a link to her blog, I will. There were some really cute ideas on there.

Almost A Year!

I can't believe it has been almost a year since my last post! Time flies, that's for sure. This coming school year I am going to be in a co-teaching classroom. I have an amazing co-teacher and I hope to share our journey. This will be the first time that we have worked together, so hopefully I can share some insights to help others as our year progresses.

My new title, which I have been giving much thought since I rekindled my need to blog, is from my favorite movie, How to Train Your Dragon. I thought this fit me this coming year, as I am trying to train myself to create items to post to TpT. I am amazed with the inventiveness of the teachers on there and know I can put my ideas on paper in a creative, inspiring way, and let's face it make some extra cash. I am learning that this creating thing is not as simple as copy and paste. Clip art I have is not moving where I want it to, frames and borders are not behaving and staying on the page and with that in mind, I will share those tips as I acquire and master the skill. I have already talked with the technology guru in my school district to help and she seemed all willing to impart her wisdom to me. I am also trying to train myself on how to be more organized.

My school will start four weeks from yesterday and I am freaking out! Inwardly right now, but there is so much to do. While on Pinterest, I found a very interesting blog with five ideas to do right now. The blog is called The Third Wheel at thinkingabout3rd@blogspot.com. Her ideas were just what I needed. Just knowing there is another teacher out there starting to panic makes me feel normal.

I hope to share more with you later. I must go and edit my beginning of the year teacher letter (idea from The Third Wheel). I have a few classroom ideas that I will share, pictures included, next time.

I don't know if you have heard of "binge" watching. But it is all the rage, especially with Netflix. I have been watching many series. Torchwood, Doctor Who, Inspector Lewis, Eureka, and my newest favorite is Call the Midwife. I bet you noticed the theme of British shows in my arsenal. I LOVE the British shows. I can't get enough. I would definitely recommend the shows I have listed above. Binge watching may not be the best way to spend your time, but such joy can come of watching characters change and grow episode, after episode.

It has been a long time since I blogged last, not that anyone is reading this. Since last November, I have finished my fourth year as a third grade teacher. I am currently working our district's summer learning experience and getting my ESL endorsement. I am hoping that with all I learn I can better serve all of the students in my classroom. I am finding out that I have been doing more for the ELL population of my students than I thought. I would definitely recommend taking a course like this for all teachers, even those who think they would never be in an area where ELL students might be. Take North Dakota, a very nondiverse state. Now with the oil boom and all available North Dakotians (?) working for the oil company, other people are needed. So, people from other areas are moving in and settling from other parts of the country. WHO WOULDN'T? They have to pay fast food workers upwords of $15 an hour, because there is no one left to work. North Dakota only has a population of 500,000. What a great time to be in North Dakota. My point is that even if you think, as a teacher, you will never need this endorsement, there may come a time when you would. Better to have it ahead of time and be prepared.

My goal is that I will blog weekly if not more with topics that are helpful to me. For instance, I was on facebook and had a post from Box Tops for Education about BuzzFeed DIY's 25 Clever Classroom tips. Some were ones that I already knew, but some were very clever. Check it out. I especially like the tip about using Paint Chip cards to keep track of all the passwords and log ins that students need for the various educational websites that they use. The example had the passwords written, I would print them on labels and then stick them on. Using the Mail Merge feature on Microsoft Word is a great help with this. They had a great idea about vinyl circles too.

Off to do more homework. I will blog you later.

An Author You Should Read!

I just finished reading the third book by Polly Horvath. It is called One Hundred Adventures. What a great book! It is about a family that lives in Massachusetts. The family consists of a mother and her children. Jane Fielding is the daughter and the main character. She vows to have 100 adventures during the summer. It is an easy read, but very enjoyable. I would highly recommend it. She has two other books that I have read which are just as delightful: The Trolls and Everything on a Waffle. This author is one that I have come to really like. If I taught 5th grade, I would read each of these to the kids as a read aloud and maybe even do an author's study.

Trying Daily 5

I was urged by a coworker to come aboard on the Daily 5 train. I was reluctant at first, however I did purchase the book and read it during the summer two years ago. I wasn't sure how this was going to work. Not wanting to abandon my tried and ture way of centers management, another teacher and I combined our program with Daily 5. It worked pretty well. However, it was still a lot of work. So, this past summer I decided to reread the book and really focus on the 5 stations. I decided to switch completely to the Daily 5 and it is working very well. I would recommend this system to anyone.

Now, I am readying the Daily Cafe book for my actual guided reading. My coworker read it, joined a discussion circle online, and was very gungho about it. She showed me her pensieve and how it was supposed to work. It all sounded amazing. So, now I am reading the book, and am looking forward to having a better system in place for record keeping and conferencing with my students. I am looking forward to really concentrating on skill deficits and having the students more involved. I know it will be a lot of work. I LOVE how this system DOES NOT need to be in place in the beginning of the year. You can phase it in at any time of the year. It takes a lot of the pressure off of me. I can take my time, get comfortable with the system and do it right the first time; not just half-butt it to get it done. 

I will let you know more as the year goes on. I hope to have it up and running in January.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent Teacher conferences are upon us. I have decided this year that I will have parents come before school and after school the week before. This will alleviate some of the crunch and pressure on the actual parent-teacher conference days.  I have such a great class that I don't think I will have any bug problems. My student teacher is so good, I don't think she will have any problem discussing our students' progress.

Student Teaching

I am amazed at the difference in supervisors for student teachers. Just recently two student teachers were evaluated. BOTH student teachers are doing a fantastic job. However, one supervisor chooses to praise and really point out the great features of their student teacher's lesson. The other, bypasses the important part of the lesson, TEACHING, and instead focuses on their paperwork abilities and has the audacity to tell this student teacher that they may not be cut out for teaching based on this. The supervisor commented that the student teacher was great at the TEACHING aspect (the most important part of my job) but because of the paperwork aspect they weren't good enough. This blatent disrespect for the student teacher made me horribly upset. I WOULD NEVER, EVER tell my students that "Oh, you can't put your papers in the correct folders so you shouldn't be a student". Isn't it the job of the Supervisor to guide the student teacher along with the cooperating teacher; motivate them, not degrade them and make them feel worthless. I want to help this student teacher, but what can I do. I feel that if I contact the university, not being the cooperating teacher, I may make it worse for the student teacher.

Well, that's all for today - I just want to say that I LOVE MY JOB! It may be taxing, relentless, and just unfair sometimes. But where else can you get paid to have fun and laugh everyday AND change lives of young people! TEACHING ROCKS!

My first blog

I have been pinning many things on Pinterest and noticed all the fun blogs with much useful information. I thought I might have a few nuggets of wisdom I would like to share so I now dive into the wide world of blogging.

I made the crate chairs for my classroom and they are such a hit that I am now up to 11 chairs for my room. I have to lower my table, but they are already engaged sitting on them. Also, I used upholstery fabric so they would last longer. I also used A LOT of glue sticks. However, the way the kids love to sit on them makes any cost worthwhile.

One other project that I got on Pinterest that I really like is the behavior chart with pins. It is the one with more options than a typical green, yellow, orange, red behavior one. This one allows the students to go up three times to OUTSTANDING. My students love this! The students are really well behaved and move their pins up. They try really hard to move those pins up.

I don't know when my next blog will be, but hopefully sooner than later.