3 Link Ups 4 Tuesday

I am catching up a bit today because I haven't been posting as much lately.  I found three great link ups I'm excited to be a part of.

First up is when do I go back to school with Literacy Spark.

     I have already been in and out of school this Summer for cheer practice.  Next week we have cheer camp so I will be there even more.  As for when teachers start we go back on August 20th, while students return the following Monday.  I'm happy we at least start back on a Monday this year!    I will probably go back to school much earlier than the 20th so I can move rooms.  I will be in a different classroom this year and I want to organize my classroom library very well so it will probably take me a while to get my room ready.

      Next up on the link up list is Teachers, show us your Read-Alouds with The Teachers Chair.  The book I really like to read to my sixth graders is The Revealers by Doug Wilhelm. The reason I like to start off with this book is because it talks about the issue of bullying and how to deal with them.  It is also very engaging so my students will remind me to get to the read aloud each day.  I think it is very important to address social issues at the beginning of the year and this is an age appropriate book that speaks to many of the challenges middle school students face.

Finally, I wanted to share my back to school goals through the linkup at I {heart} Recess. It was fun to get to think about these.

Personal:  I really want to get into a routine to run after school.  I started this at the end of last year and it gave me a second energy to get work done after running. I'm hoping to run some more 5k's this year so I want to keep up this goal of running on a daily basis.

Organization:  I have seen so many ideas on Pinterest for teacher binders. I think this is a great way to keep important information organized.  I plan on making my own with a section for lesson plans, student information, parent contacts, calendars, IEP information and assessment data.

Planning:  This year my school is using Powersource for tracking student grades and attendance.  Another teacher we bought is PowerTeacher which is where you can enter your lesson plans online and search through them later.  I think this is a great management system for keeping up with lessons so I'm looking forward to learning all the features of this program.

Professional: After reading "Teach Like a Pirate" I am very excited to use more engaging strategies in my classroom. I want to create lessons that my students would buy tickets to be a part of.

Students:  Last year my students had the hardest time forgetting the things I thought were so simple to remember.  I would get so frustrated when they didn't have a pencil, forgot to write in their agenda or left their name off of their paper.  I do need to remember that they are kids and cut them some more slack when they forget things.

Motto: Practice your passion means to remember why I first wanted to be a teacher and live that our everyday.  I didn't become a teacher because I love grammar so much that I couldn't stand not to teach it.  I became a teacher because I want to make a difference in the lives of children.  Therefore, everyday I want to be passionate about teaching, whether the content I'm covering that day is interesting or not.