The View from Saturday & Geography

I am super excited about starting a novel with my class.  Before we get into Reader's Workshop with self-selected books I am modeling how Reader's workshop will work. I'm using this whole class novel and modeling using sticky notes and responding to what we read each day.    Each day we have a mini-lesson on the elements of fiction.  So far it is going great and I am glad I started Reader's Workshop this way.

In social studies I just finished teaching The Five Themes of Geography. I made a great review game on the smart board that seemed to work well.  I will try to post it on here for anyone who wants to use it.  Everyone did great on the quiz today so I am very excited about how things are going so far.

Lessons from the first week

My first week of teaching flew by.   It was nothing like I expected it to be but awesome nonetheless.  What I once thought about teaching sixth graders was completely wrong.  I had this idea that because I know all kinds of behavior management strategies and am organized myself that my kids will be able to follow along with me.  The failure to even understand organization was my biggest surprise.  I required my students to have a 3 subject notebook for language arts in which they will keep daily grammar, reading and writing mini-lessons.  For social studies I required them to have 3 divider tabs for their binder so that they could put their bellringers, notes and assignments in their own place.  The other two tabs that they get in a pack were to be used for science and math.  Next year I think I will just require a binder for my own classes and have students keep everything for me in one binder.  I couldn't believe how hard it was for students to grasp that language arts grammar bellringers go in the language arts notebook, not the binder.  I am hoping that over time they will start to put things in the right place.

Another big surprise to me was how long it takes students to copy notes.  It seems like it takes them 5 minutes to copy one sentence.  I never have students take more notes than what would go on a simple anchor chart so it really shocked me at how much time we wasted while waiting on everyone to finish copying.  I think I will be providing guided notes for my students to glue into their language arts notebook and then fill in while we are going over it.

Overall, I had a great first week getting to know my students.  I think that they will be a great bunch and I am hoping that they learn as much as I have already learned from them!

Classroom Tour

My room is finally finished and I'm so glad because I have yet to write out my lesson plans for next week.   Here are just a few pictures of my favorite parts of the room.   

My reading area before I changed the bulletin board.

Reading area bulletin board.  It will be an interactive board where students can write
book recommendations on the fish for other students to look at.

This is the back of the room.  I have a small round table for conferencing with students.

I love the giraffe print border I found at All About Education.  One
side of the agenda will be for writing the daily objectives and the
other side will be for their homework.

The front of my desk

Next on my list of things to do is write out name tags for students to find where they are to seat, figure out a way to organize make up work and then start writing my lesson plans!  I'm so excited that the first day is right around the corner.  I will feel even better about it once everything is ready tomorrow afternoon.  I'm very thankful though that everyone at my school has been super helpful.  I really believe I chose the right school to teach at and can't wait to see what this school year will bring!

In The Middle

During my undergraduate reading course I was required to read a few chapters from the book "In the Middle" by Nancy Atwell.  I'm now reading the textbook over again to see what I can learn about teaching middle school language arts.  What I've taken from the book so far:



1) An idea to introduce students to the classroom is to provide a scavenger hunt of classroom supplies instead of just pointing them all out to them.

2) Require students to write a letter to me at least once a week about what they are reading and then reply back to them.  I will be making sure that each student has a one subject notebook for this purpose.

3) Nancy Atwell structure her daily schedule to include a writing workshop and a reading workshop everyday. I most likely won't have the time for both but I do like the idea of having word work as a bellringer, followed by a mini-lesson and then either a reading or writing workshop which I can alternate each day.   I also like how she emphasizes the importance of read alouds which I think I will end each day with.

4)  "In the Middle" offers many ideas for topics for mini-lessons.  Some suggestions for the beginning of year include:
 -Expectations for writing or reading
 -Conferring with peers: where, when, how
 -How to use an editing checklist for writing
 -Classroom literary resources
 -Procedures for booktalks
 -Setting goals for reading and writing

If anyone else has read "In the Middle" and used Atwell's approach I'd love to know how it has worked for you.

Read Alouds

I absolutely can not wait to read aloud to my students.  I think it is so important for students to hear how good readers sound.  It also is fun to hear a voice with a story no matter how old or good of a reader you already are. I plan on reading aloud to my students for at least 5 or 10 minutes each day.   The pictures below are of books I'm considering using.  What books do you enjoy reading aloud to your students?

Reading Area

My reading area is starting to come along in my classroom.  I now have two seat crates and a small rug to match.  I found the rug at T.J. Maxx on clearance for $5.00 and I bought the fabric for the crates for $4 at Walmart.    I would love to get a really big rug for the reading area but the large rugs are well over $100 dollars even at places like Ikea.  Here is a picture of the crates (thanks to Pinterest for the idea) and the rug I bought.

I still need to carry in the other crate and a bean bag chair I have.   After that I'm pretty that the reading area will be complete.  I would like to have more fun seating spots but my room just isn't big enough to have too many more chairs.  If I see any beach mats on sale I may try purchasing a couple of them.  

Pinterest Crafts

After having searched Pinterest for months I can now finally pick out the things I want to make for my own classroom.  Here are a few things that I saw that I really want to make before school starts.

1)  Crate Seating:  I already have the memory foam topper and the crates.  All  I need is to get some fabric and make them.   I have a very small reading area in my room that these would be the perfect size for.


2) Teacher Binder: I've seen so many ideas on Pinterest for keeping a teacher binder organized. Teacherspayteachers have several free already made labels to organize your binder.

3) Hanging File:  This idea is really pretty and cheaper than buying a hanging file organizer which I wanted for  keeping work to return to each period in.   It also will give me a cute way to use the duck tape I bought.