Five for Friday on a Saturday. Again.

Hi, friends.  I'm late.  Again.  But I'm going to link up with Doodlebug's for 5 for Friturday (that's a mix of Friday and Saturday) since it was so much fun last week.

1.  I launched writers' workshop this week.  We're testing out this new writing curriculum put together by Schoolwide.  I like it because they plan out the entire lesson for you and they use LOTS of mentor texts.  I would say the criticism I have right now is that it seems like sometimes their goal or objective for the lesson is slightly disconnected from the actual content of the lesson.  After our lesson we completed the sentence "I feel like a writer when..." and they had some sweet ideas!  One kid said that they feel like a writer when he reads books and another said he feels like a writer when he concentrates.  

2.  On Tuesday this week we also talked about adjectives as words that describe and brainstormed some adjectives that we could use to describe first grade.  We came up with a nice chart full of describing words and then I gave them part of this lifesaving back to school packet and they wrote about first grade.  This one certainly WASN'T on the chart, but I obviously 100% agree. 

3.  Even though this week was a short week because of Labor Day it felt super long!  I don't think it helped that I had several commitments during the week outside of school.  I'm just feeling so behind, and school just started.  How can that be?!

4.  Today, I spent all day at an area charter school as part of a TeachFest launching the DC Common Core Collaborative (DC CCC).  Even though I was a little sad to miss college football games during the day it was great to be around teachers who are so committed and inspired.  I'm in the first grade math group, and during this first quarter we're each designing a performance task that will fall in the operations & algebraic thinking.  We specifically decided to focus on 1.OA.3 and 1.OA.4.  I'm so interested to see the tasks that everyone is going to design!  

5.  My teacher desk has been a HOT MESS since the first day of school and Friday I promised myself that I would not leave the physical building of my school until I dominated that mess.  I would be lying to you if I said that I hadn't repeatedly looked at this picture of my table throughout the weekend just because it makes me feel more zen.  

You're probably saying to yourself  "Zen?!  I can see scraps of paper on your table!"  You're right.  There are scraps of paper on my table, but those are all piles that have post-its on them and are ready to go Monday morning.  

That wraps up my Five for Friturday.  I hope your weekends are lovely and that your team wins tomorrow!  (Unless you live in Chicago.  Then you have to lose so my Bengals can win.)

xoxo

Rachel