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.