Reflective Teaching Day 5...what a serious reminder of the importance of my calling!

Today, in the list of reflective teaching I am supposed to talk about my classroom...but my day started off in a horrible way.  Shortly after my arrival at school, I found out that one of our sweet first graders unexpectedly went home to be with The Lord Thursday night.  The shock hit home in numerous ways.  He was a younger sibling to two of my previous students, friend of my son's since daycare, and a precious student in a dear friend's classroom.  I witnessed heart ache not from family, who I am sure were at home dealing with their own grief, but from a different kind of family.  The teachers, who love the children in their classroom suddenly faced the realization that life is so very short!  We immediately reflected on our students, the ones that are so easy to love, and others who may try our patience daily.  "What if!" was all I could think of.  

I had to return to my classroom and make an announcement that they NEVER prepare you to make in any college education classes.  I had to face my 24 fourth graders and tell them a friend wasn't going to be joining us at school anymore, a chair would be empty for the rest of the year.  My heart broke and the tears flowed as I sat with my class to share the news.  In my "weakness", I reminded myself that it is good for my students to see my pain.

The silence in the room was almost amazing...not sure we've EVER been that silent!  Suddenly, the questions came..."Was he in pain?", "What happened?", "I have had heart problems since I was born...can this happen to me?"...the ultimate answer in the back of my mind was one I couldn't share, but longed to let my kids know!  Our little friend was with his Daddy in Heaven!  In my sorrow, a large part of me rejoiced in this fact!  My beliefs could not be shared in my classroom...but what a calming effect they had on me for the remainder of the day!  

At lunch, an overwhelming amount of parents arrived to eat with their child...maybe they had planned to do so, or they were moved to make the extra trip from the notification of our loss, but the support they offered not only their children but the staff at our school was amazing.  Parents offered to step into classrooms to watch as students worked to give teachers a little break to go to the lounge or restroom to shed a tear in private.  Offers of coffee or snacks were also very present for the staff.  

I made sure that every child in my classroom was dismissed with a hug, or high five and a wish for a great weekend as they left, and I hugged my own two children that much harder and more frequently Friday night.  Life is ultimately too short!  

What positive effect did I have on all the people I came in contact with today?

A Reflective Teacher (30 day challenge)

Found a cool 30 day reflective journal for teachers, and thought it would be a good way to motivate me to think about my focus for this year...as well as get on here to share thoughts about my calling!  So, here goes...

Day 1

Write your goals for the year...be as specific as you want!

My biggest goal for the 2014-2015 school year is to promote a LOVE and desire to want to read...for FUN!

Day 2

Write about one piece of technology you would like to try this year.

I am planning to integrate blogging into my reading instruction this year.  I will set it up as more of a book review that will be posted to my website so students and parents can enjoy the work as well.

Day 3

Discuss one observation area you would like to focus on this year.

As a part of our teacher evaluation tool, I am required to demonstrate leadership in collaborating with other teachers.  I usually rank myself pretty highly because I am constantly collaborating vertically with my peers.  This year I would like to collaborate more across our grade level.  Our school departmentalized, so vertical collaboration males more since across the subjects, but there is so much more that we can do when we collaborate across the grade level.  The Science/Social Studies teacher and I can collaborate more consistently about non-fiction reading and fiction reading skills.

Day 4

What do you love most about teaching?

Wow...not the money!  (Just kidding!). Mostly I love working and interacting with students all day long.  The challenges they present are a puzzle for me to figure out, and I've always LOVED puzzles! Watching a child grow in the area of reading. And being able to show them ways they have increased their knowledge is inspiring to me to continue to motivate them to do their best!

Well, five days late isn't that bad!  Now that I'm caught up, I'll work to continue on this 30 day reflection challenge!

Beginning of the 2014-2015 School Year

I can't believe that my 5 weeks of summer are gone already!  This school year is going to be amazing!  We have so many changes taking place...and I don't often say this, but change is GOOD!  Our new principal made sure that our class lists were given out in time to contact students and welcome them to our school.  The addresses were clearly visible on the class list, which aided in the process.  What a HUGE benefit it is to be able to welcome the families to fourth grade!  I have gotten so many wonderful e-mail responses from the parents about how happy they are to know that their child isn't just a number!  

We also made some grade level changes.  The biggest was that we held our Open House before the start of the year, so we could explain a lot of what we do before the year starts.  My conferences are being scheduled within the first two weeks of school, which will allow me to follow up with parents about the first couple of weeks, answer any questions they may have, and follow up with them later after first quarter is completed!  

We are refreshed and ready to tackle this year.  I have some great ideas, and (I know I have said this before, but) I want to stay on top of this site to share some great ideas...and hopefully hear back from other readers about what is working for you!  

Enjoy the rest of your summer as I begin to learn the names of my new kiddos and get them ready for the challenges that they will encounter in fourth grade!  

Motivating Readers

This summer I am taking time to reflect on my teaching, and figure out ways I can motivate my readers. After EOG testing and the rigorous Common Core Standards, our staff has realized that the stamina our students have when it comes to reading for longer amounts of time is greatly lacking.  

I reflected on my personal reading life, and found that I love to read because of the adventures I can go on.  My father would take me to the library every summer as often as we needed to so I could participate in the Summer Reading Program.  Nothing motivated me like some free pencils, visors, or a new book of my own.  Sadly, not many students are motivated by these things any more, and children who are avid readers typically don't need that kind of motivation.  

I asked my daughter, an avid reader herself, why she reads so much!  She said that she hears her friends talk about video games and how they get bored after awhile because the game never changes, or they've played all the levels.  She also added that a book never runs out of batteries, and is always ready to go.  In her words, "Reading never gets boring, because every time you read it's different."  Wow!  She so elequently said it...

How can I get my fourth graders to see this value in reading?  That is my goal this summer, to come up with ways that I can motivate my students in the coming school year.

MY LIST OF MOTIVATORS, so far...

1.  Begin a 100 book challenge to motivate and require a variety of reading.  Students who complete the 100 book challenge will earn rewards...not sure what yet!

2.  Institute a Classroom Book Club.  My lunch has been moved to the middle time slot this year, which will help me better provide a meeting time for all three classes to meet and discuss a selected book.  I will create sign-up sheets for a variety of books that we will read together.  Only students willing to read the books and discuss them on Wednesdays at lunch should sign up for the club...

3.  Add a Book Blog to my classroom website!  Students can submit in writing their book review that will be edited and added to my website under a new tab.  We will publish their review!

4.  Book Talks every Friday.  Every Friday at the end of our literacy time, students can check in and share what book they are reading.  We can even check in to the Book Blog to see who has been published and find out what they have to share!  

That's all I have for now, but I am still looking for ideas.  If you have any, please share!

Classroom Library

This part of my classroom has always been a frustration for me.  I always thought a good teacher should have a ton of books in their library, but organizing those books (and staying on top of it) can be very frustrating.  

I had initially started off with a small library that was organized by topics.  I would introduce books to my kindergarteners as we discussed topics in the subject areas.  This made sense to me, as most of my kindergarteners couldn't read independently.

Once I moved to another school, I found myself learning how to be a reading teacher.  I didn't have a classroom of my own, but helped teachers implement guided reading into their classroom structure.  I didn't have to worry about a classroom library, but had two guided reading libraries to stay on top of for two buildings.  This was easy.  We organized them by level, since teachers needed to easily come in and grab sets of books to use with their reading groups.

Once I had a classroom of my own, I thought that leveling my library was the way to go.  I took the time to painstakingly look up every title on www.lexile.com.  I wrote the level in the inside cover of the book, and sorted all the books by level.  Next, I labeled the outside cover of the book with a bin number and taught my students to look for the matching numbers to reserve their selections.  (They still didn't do it correctly!)

This past year, I would be asked by students where a certain title could be found, and I couldn't answer them.  This part frustrated me the most.  

I researched online, and read what other classroom library organization teachers would use.  It seemed that I was making my library teacher friendly, but not student friendly.  

This summer I have been working on my library.  I found this great labeling system that matched the colors in my room on Teacher Pay Teacher.  *add link here*

I began by removing all books from my shelves and organizing them into three categories: fiction, non-fiction and poetry.  This was an eye opener as to what types of books I obviously favored when ordering books for my library.  Once the books were sorted, I attacked each stack.  Books that I had more than two of, I kept two and discarded the rest.  Books that were old or damaged got junked.  And each stack was further organized by categories (Fiction: traditional, realistic, mystery, science, fantasy.  Non-Fiction: informational, autobiography, biography)

The categories were boxed up together using my book bins that I purchased from Dollar General.  Now I have an idea about how many labels to make in each category.  

Each book will have a label coordinating to the genre that it is associated with.  I used Avery Address Labels (60 per sheet) and ran labels for the cover of each book.  

I are ally hoping that this will work better for the students to find materials that they are interested in.  There is still a lexile level in the cover of each book, but I often find that interest is what turns a child on to a book, not so much the level of the book.  

To help me keep track of the books in my classroom, I plan to use the Book Retreiver app on my iPad.  Students will be able to check books out from my classroom, but I'll know who has the and who still needs to turn in books to me.  (I have found that many of my books are missing!  Since those are an investment that I make each year, I really don't want them to wander off!). 

I'll let you know as the year progresses how the organization is going!

Classroom Layout 2013-2014

Many of you are busy catching the last rays of summer sunshine, but our school is busy getting back into gear for another fun-filled year.  I wanted to share some pictures with you of my classroom.  Some of the components haven't changed, while there have been some great improvements (mounting my projector, for one!).

This is the view from the front corner of the room by my computer station.  I have made the entire back wall my writing focus wall.

This shot shows the far back corner of my room.  This is where the cubbies are.  I have added my birthday celebration board above my cubbies.  I'll add the students pictures under the appropriate month.  They will be holding a dry erase board with their birthdate written on it.

This is the board where I write my morning message.  Below students can post any questions they have about concepts that we've learned throughout the school year.  This is a great tool for students who are shy about raising their hands and taking a chance.  This area was made by the use of the backside of a large vertical file draw cabinet.  I scalped this from a retiring teacher.  Behind it, I have my sink area (which isn't something I enjoy looking at).

This is the front of the classroom.  I LOVE my black background on my bulletin boards.  They make the colors pop on all the charts and documents hanging.  Around my smart board, I have sectioned off my board with pink painters tape.  My schedule will be placed on the far left of the board, once it's been finalized for the school year.  On the right side of the board, I'll write the date, and the homework assignments for the week.  There is also space for classroom news that can be added to and changed as necessary.

This picture shows my guided reading table corner.  My CRAFT board is there, as well as all my reading materials for the small groups that I meet with.  You can also see my favorite wall in the room (The reasons I love my Job!) I have hung up every class picture from my years at this school.  I also have my diplomas, and family pictures here.  

Well, that about covered it!  I really like starting out the school year with the students sitting in groups of two, and facing the front.  This way they have a partner to share with, and are focused on the lessons being taught.  The cups at each pair of desks are from the dollar bin at Target.  They are my favorite find of the school year!  I used Velcro dots to stick them there.  

Box Top Container

I was inspired by some posts on Pinterest...surprise!  I have been in need of a container for my Box Tops for a while now.  My students would typically bring me baggies of cut out rectangles and I would stash them in a box on a shelf.  (I admit, often the days cRaZiNeSs would cause me to forget about them for a couple of weeks.  

To make this, I used a Lysol wipe container, scrapbook paper, and stickers.  They papered was layered in designs, and I added the words and cool back to school stickers.  I know I'll enjoy watching the kids add their box tops to the collection!