Back to Writing

This post has been long over due. Last year ended in a flourish and I am very grateful to all the people in my life who helped me make it through the entire school year and beyond! :)

This year I was looking forward to starting over again, as every year you get to do in some way. I moved up to 4th grade with my students and have a different mix of kids, including 7 that I had last year. Moving up with the students has been great! I know them from last year and we hit the ground running.

I'll give a brief summary of what's happened so far this year...

The first two weeks of school was completely dedicated to classroom procedure and teaching the students to rotate through centers and what's expected of them. Last year, I did not do this and I can't begin to tell you the difference it has made in both my life at school and theirs. The expectations are clear, and behaviors are manageable.

The students have been making great progress with our new reading program, Reading Street. I've also introduced Reciprocal Teaching into our center rotations and have recently had a second reading group start to do this instead of Partner Reading. We're still working on independence during this skill. ;)

Math groups are going well. All direct instruction is given in small groups and I couldn't be more grateful for this. We do cross-class grouping with the students and the dynamics are working well.

As for me, this year is going great! Things outside of school couldn't be better, and that has helped make my teaching stronger. :) I am so much more relaxed in my teaching and more confident as well.

My hope is to start using this space as a way to share lesson ideas as well as classroom ideas. I've fallen in love with Pinterest as well as Teacher-pay-Teachers and will post links to the great things I find, too! Happy beginning of winter! :)


P.S. Thank you to whoever you are...MY PRINCIPAL LOVED MY BLOG!  :)

Happy First Day of Spring!

Hello!

It's been a long time, and many things have happened from then until now. I have begun to feel like I know what I'm doing, and at the same time, I learn something new about myself and my students every day.

Behavior has been my number one challenge this school year. I have been told that this is often a big one for new teachers, but I have some particularly challenging students. I have learned patience further than I thought possible, and strategies that work and don't work.

Planning has slowly been getting easier as I have established a routine to my lessons. The school is switching over to a guided reading program, and in scouring the internet for resources, I stubbled across the video below. It is a powerful and inspiring answer to what a teacher makes.

While I have struggled with many things this year, after writing the 2nd term report cards I celebrated many student's accomplishments. I look forward to their continued growth, and mine!