Back to School Goals

I am linking up with I {heart} Recess and sharing with everyone my back to school goals.

This year will be full of change. New grade level, new school, new home. Part of me is very nervous. But, another park of me is so incredibly excited for this new change in my life.

So, now for my goals this year...

Personal- Last year was a tough one. Many times, I would stress about it when I got home. Honestly, it was starting to affect my relationships. Towards the end of the year, I started leaving work at work, and spending quality time with the people I love and not stressing about work. My goal for this year is to continue doing that. I also really would like to work more to stay in shape. It my old house, I didn't have the time due to my long commute or the space. Now that I live about a mile from my school and have an amazing trail that is right behind my condo, I have no excuse!

Organization- Last year, I feel that I did a great job using multiple forms of assessment. However, I had all this data, but I feel like I didn't use it as well as I should have. This year, I want to collect data from my students and use it to help guide my small group and whole group instruction.

Planning- I really want to use more Common Core strategies in my instruction. I did it a lot last year with essential questions in my reading strategy groups. I would like to continue working on learning new Common Core strategies and find ways to integrate subjects. I did some last year with my Charlotte's Web unit. I want to keep learning and doing research on ways to integrate Common Core into my classroom.

Professional- My first year of teaching I started learning about Whole Brain Teaching. Last year, I went to my first conference and met Coach B! It has seriously changed how I teach my students. My goal is to continue learning more about WBT and use it to help my challenging students.

Students- Last year I did a horrible job giving my students their work back. I gave them their work back at least once or twice a month! I am so ashamed! This year, I really want to give them their work back on a more consistent basis. That is my goal and I sticking to it!

Motto- My motto for this year is that it is never too late. It's never too late to fix things that may have been broken. It's never to late to make changes in your life. It's never too late to say that you are sorry or to say I love you. I have learned over these last couple of months that it is never too late...for anything.

I am so excited to be going into my classroom next week. If you are following me on Instagram, I will be posting pictures of my progress. I will try to do a post before school starts of my new classroom!

Happy new school year everyone :)

Classroom Organization

I am so excited to link up with Michelle from Fabulous in First do my first Sunday Smorgasborb!

I have been living with my parents for the last week and a half because the lease in my old house was up on July 1st and my new condo isn't ready until July 19th. So, that means back to the parents for two weeks! Anyway, this week I started my back-to-school shopping and started to get organized for next year. Since I am going to be in second grade next year, I want to change how I organize my classroom materials. Last year my kiddos had binders; however, I know that will NOT work for my little second graders.

Instead, I will have baskets with their work folders in them. I am so excited because I found them at the Dollar Store and they had many different colors to choose from!

For my kiddos next year, they will have baskets for Daily 5, Writer's Workshop, and possibly Math. I'm still trying to decide what other subjects I may need their baskets for. In those baskets, will go their work folders. I really wish I did this last year, especially for Daily 5 because many times my students did not finish their work and had the papers all over their desk! So, for next year, they will have a Daily 5 folder and a section for unfinished work, and another section for their response sheets.

Stephanie from Third Grade Thoughts has amazing accountability worksheets that I used last year. It really helped my kiddos stay focused during Daily 5.

I will also be using my baskets for students Writer's Workshop notebooks. I have been doing a lot of research this summer on Writer's Workshop. I've been reading Amanda Nickerson's Launching Writer's Workshop pack for some more ideas for craft lessons and organization. One of my goals this year is to improve my Writer's Workshop block.

Once I get into my new condo, I will be doing more posts of how I organize my materials and some creative ideas that I will be working on to get me ready for the new school year. We don't start until August 19th, so I still have a lot of time to get ready!

On a side note, I'm not sure if there are any Giants fans out there, but Tim Lincecum pitched a NO HITTER last night at their game with the Padres! I was with some friends at an Irish Pub for a girls night out, and while I was there,I was watching the game. Toward the end, the pub was going CRAZY for Lincecum's no hitter game! Let's go GIANTS!!

Open Court Focus Wall Headers

The curriculum that my school currently uses is Open Court. During my student teaching, both schools used Open Court; so I have some experience. I started getting ready for next year by getting my focus wall ready. I created some focus wall headers. I was so proud of myself because this was the first time I created anything like this!

Focus Wall Header

An example of one of the unit headers. I have one for each unit.

In Open Court, they have a questions and concept board. This will be new to me, but I like the idea. One this board, it allows students to make connections and ask questions about the concept. I have done a bit of this with my third graders last year, but I'm really excited to do more of it this year! Here is an example of the headers I made for my question and concept board

This is what I have done so far. I don't have the teacher editions yet and I have not met with my team. But, I am excited about what I've done so far and letting my creative juices flow more during the summer. I want to do some more about writer's workshop, common core techniques, and organizational ideas.

Charlotte's Web...and some news

Each year towards the end, I always do a unit on Charlotte's Web. This is my favorite part of the year not only because it is really close to summer vacation, but I am able to do more creative and critical thinking activities with my kiddos. This year it was a little crazy because I was interviewing at other districts and missed several days. But, I still tried to make the best of it.

We started by doing some background knowledge on farms. I split them into groups and had them look at various pictures of farm animals. I didn't tell them what they are learning about, I just wanted them to look at some pictures and obtain some clues about what we were going to learn. Then, I asked students to share what they already knew about farms and recorded it on the anchor chart. Then, during our lessons, I had my kiddos jot down any new learning they we added it to our anchor chart.

Then, I had them use Amanda Nickerson's Jot Spot Activity to compare Wilbur and Charlotte. They really enjoyed this activity! It helped them understand what were their actions, feelings, and motivations. My kiddos had a difficult time understanding what motivation meant. We discussed, why is Charlotte doing what she does? Why is Wilbur doing what he does? What is motivating their actions. They then continued to do character reports on Charlotte and Wilbur.

We did several more activities about sequencing, spiders, and describing the setting. We examined how E.B. White used descriptive words to paint a picture in our minds what is going on in the story. We would go back and get specific evidence and phrases that E.B. White used. After we discussed the setting, I had my students draw a picture of what they visualized the farm to look like.

I love doing Charlotte's Web because you can incorporate so many different activities and lessons into this unit.

Now that the school year is over, I have some news to share. For the last two years, I have been teaching in San Jose. I have left San Jose and will be moving to the sunny area of Livermore! I am very excited. It is a great school and I cannot wait to start this new chapter. I currently have my whole life in boxes and in storage; but, I should be moved into my new place in the next couple of weeks. I cannot wait to get settled into my new condo and school, and let me creative juices flow! Not only am I changing districts, but I am also changing grade levels. I will be teaching second grade next year. I have already started some planning and my goal is to incorporate more common core strategies into my teaching!

What a Year...and a currently

When I started this blog, I wanted to share all of the wonderful ideas and lessons I try out in my classroom. That was the plan; however, sometimes...life happens.

I started doing a lot with my dance company. I started dancing 3 days a week and started doing tap again.

I'm the tapper in the pink sweater! This is my Golden Girls tap routine. It was hilarious!!

Also, in November, my commute went from 10 minutes, to over 30 minutes each way. By the time I got home...I was exhausted. In addition to moving, we also got an adorable puppy, Trigger. He is just a bundle of joy!

In addition to everything else, I had a death in my family. Around September, my Nana started to become very ill. She passed this past November. Here is a picture of my Nana, Papa, and me when I was just born.

But, within everything that happened this year, I also had some beautiful additions. Such as my wonderful niece, Emma Fay who is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen!

So, here is my currently for June!

I am going to try and do some posts about the different units and strategies I have been doing this year that are amazing. I've been trying to use some Common Core strategies that were very successful with my class.