I got a little work done. ;)

Hi, friends!  I know I've been off the radar for about a week, but I was getting some work done.  ;)  Not personally obviously, but my cute little blog.  Well, I like to think it's a cute little blog.  Maybe you disagree?  I hope not.  =)

Y'all, I'm having major holiday brain.  I had a great post planned out, and I sure can't remember what it was about.  (Reason #703,208 I should write EVERYTHING down)  So instead, I'm just going to tell you all 2 things.  One:  I did some Shared Reading this week with my literacy coach and it's been so adorable to watch my kids get into it next week.  I don't know how many of you do Shared Reading, but basically it works the way it sounds--you choose a brief passage (I generally stick with a poem) and then you teach kids how to read it.  We've been doing really cute things this week, like asking kids to read a selected word, pointing out trick words, using a flashlight to "highlight" certain words, and reading to the rhythm of the poem.  The kids have been having a good time, and they've even been into reading the poem at other times of the day, like when they're fast finishers.  It's endearing to see them so jazzed about reading.

And number two.  (Tee hee.  Permission to chuckle.)  I'd like to give some mad thanks to other bloggers tomorrow, because fellow bloggers are basically planning my partay/saving my hinney tomorrow.  We're making the "pumpkin pie" that Corinna blogs about here while making these ADORABLE turkeys.

Alright, friends--one more day.  One more day!  We can make it!  I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and relaxing Thanksgiving.  =)
xoxo

What? Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK?!

Holy moly.  I can't believe this is the last week of school before Thanksgiving.  That means November is basically over, y'all.  I can't even handle it.  I've been cooking up this post for a while, and I finally feel semi-organized before 9:00pm on a Sunday so I'm here to share some ideas with you today.

First, before I forget I wanted to let you know that I just made some table points trackers, if that's a thing you're into.  You can snag them for a measly $1.50 right here.  My littles this year are having a hard time seeing the big picture.  They keep getting caught up on fussing at each other, and if we're being completely honest it's driving me NUTS!  I'm a teacher, not a referee, yo!  So I'm hoping that this will be helpful to us.  I'll make sure to let you know how it all shakes out.

I also wanted to get in on the work station posts that everyone does.  When I started this blogging experiment I talked a lot about how I teach math in my classroom, but I wanted to take a break from that and talk about how guided reading and work stations looks in my classroom.  First, they look REALLY different from last year for several reasons.  1.) My kids last year had a crazy high stamina and were great at working together, so I frequently did 3-4 guided reading groups in one day.  And 2) my distract revamped their expectations for guided reading and literacy work stations (LWS), so I'm trying to fall in line like to good little worker bee that I envision myself to be.  =)  Basically, the way that we're doing work stations this year is that we have 5 different work stations--fluency, word work, independent reading, writing, and inquiry and investigation (otherwise known as the work station that keeps me up at night).  The activities in each work station are up to you, but you should have all 5 of them up and running and kids should cycle through them each week.  The big change that's been giving me the 1-2 punch this year is that we're only supposed to pull 2 groups each day.  That's right.  Just 2.  I've also been having a hard time balancing that because I also have a Fundations Double Dose group right now that's supposed to meet 3 times a week (M, W, F).

I will say one thing that has really helped keep us on track this year is a visual work station rotation board.  I always kind of scoffed at them and had never used one before, but I have to say that I really am on board for it now.  So helpful.  It's also really helped me shift responsibility to my little nuggets.  Plus, it's great for kids who transition back into the classroom during work stations.  They just get their folder, check the board, and then go to meet their group.  The other tool that I'm in LOVE with is our Scholastic guided reading library.  DC bought it for all their elementary schools last year and it is amaze-balls.  It has reading behaviors to teach at each level, and it has a matrix that lists each book, the level of the book, and what the book is designed to teach for word work and comprehension.  It makes planning for guided reading a snap.

How many groups do you pull in a day?  What resources do you use to plan?
Happy Football-watching!  (Who-dey!)
xoxo
Rachel

The Best Laid Plans

Friends.  I'm shaking my head at myself.  On Monday, when I was home getting myself organized I really thought to myself "Heck yes!  I am going to blog EVERY day this week as part of this Bloghoppin' linky party".  Spoiler alert:  I failed.  :(  But, I ended up being surprisingly busy outside of school this week and I didn't realize that was happening ahead of time.  Like, Wednesday one of my super besties was last minute in town for just one night and I couldn't really say "No, I can't meet you for drinks tonight because I have to blog".  I mean, I guess I could have done that, but I just never see that Libb and I really wanted to hang out with her.  So I'm sorry that I was a minor fail, but I'm going to link back up today, get back on the wagon, and share some new(ish) ideas.

This is 100% a recycled ideas, but it's one of the best ideas I've ever heard of.  Give your children numbers.  I'm going to say it again because it's so awesome:  give your children numbers.

I like this idea for several reasons.  1) Everyone only has one number, so if even kids have the same name when you call numbers it eliminates confusion.  2)  My particular school has a lot of transience, so it makes it easy to re-use materials if one kids leaves and another comes in.  It's hard to reuse a folder or notebook labeled "David", but if your pencils and folders say "18" then it's easier to recycle that for students.  3)  It gives students a space in line and eliminates all those busting/cutting arguments.  (I suppose this isn't necessarily inherent in assigning numbers, but I always tell my students to line up in "line order", which means that they line up numerically.)  I really cannot emphasize enough how positively I feel about giving children numbers in a classroom.

This is my other "new idea" that probably also qualifies as a helpful hint.  I started this last year, and to be perfectly honest with you, it was more successful last year than this year, but I think that's because my loves this year are much more DEpendent and much needier than my group from last year.  In any case, I'm going to stick with this idea because I know it will ultimately pay off for me.  And here it is:  The Question Box.  Say, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?  The Question Box is a large square that I tape off on the floor near my table using blue painter's tape and I label it "Question Box", and make sure to draw question marks on it.  The way the Question Box works is that if you have a question during any type of work station time and you ask your group members and they don't know you come to the question box.  The rules of the question box are that there can only be one kid in the box at a time, and that you  have to wait quietly in the box until I can pause my teaching to help you.  It works really well once you teach it...or at least it has for me.  It's really nice because it gives kids a way to get your attention quietly without distracting themselves and other kids.  Another really nice fringe benefit of the Question Box is that you can leave kids in there indefinitely.  What I mean by that is that if you have kids who come to the box all the time for silly or unnecessary reasons (or non-question reasons) you can make them stand in the box longer, and sometimes they will get bored and leave.  Last year I had one sweetheart who came to the Question Box every. single. day.  So I started making her wait longer than I would make other kids wait, which was also really helpful for me because I knew that if she waited it out that she really did need me.  It was a nice silent signal.  Honestly, it takes about 30 seconds to tape down a Question Box and it saves so much time.  I don't have a picture of my Question Box because I'm a terrible blogger and I always forget about pictures.

That's about it for me, friends.  Tomorrow is Smithsonian Teachers' Night (yessssssssssssssssssssss), so I hope to be back tomorrow with some more treats, but I can make no promises.
Happy Friday!
xoxo
Rachel

Time Savers

Hello, friends!

Before we go any further, let's take a moment to remember why we're all at home blogging today:  Veterans' Day.  If you know someone who's an active in the military or retired, or a family who has someone serving thank them.  I don't want to get too political here, but we have a lot of great freedoms in this country that not everyone in the world has and our military defends those rights and protects us.

And now I'm excited to participate in Blog Hoppin's linky for this week.  It's a cute little play on Thankful.
                                                      
See, I told you.  Cute, right?  I'm going to give you my top three time savers.

#1
Classroom timers!
Whether you use an egg timer, the timer on your cellphone, or some other secret timer option I feel like timers save my behind multiple times a day.  Timers help me make sure I'm not keeping my little nuggets on the carpet too long (yes, I set them for myself when I call my kids to the carpet), and they make sure I'm not spending too much time on an activity.  One of the first things I teach my kids on the first day of school is what they should do when they hear a time in our classroom.  (And in case you're curious, it's put down whatever might be in your hands, zip your lips, touch your shoulders, and look at your teacher.  It sounds like a lot, but we practice.  It takes about 5 seconds now.)  I even set timers for Brain Breaks and transitions, starting Morning Meeting, and when we go out to recess.  I have been known to get so into Fundations that I forget about recess.

#2
Keep your eyes on the prize!
This sounds weird, right?!  But stick with me here.  This is something we've done in my grade level band that has REALLY helped us in meetings.  As teachers, it's easy for us to become distracted by details, minutiae, and what ifs.  We start talking about these things during a meeting, and then suddenly our meeting is over, and we haven't resolved the issue that brought us to the table.  (Please tell me that's not just our school?!)  We've used 2 solutions that have been helpful for us making meetings the most useful they can be.  First, we've been very strict about using a Parking Lot for questions that aren't 100% connected to what we're discussing at the moment.  Even if there isn't a physical parking lot we'll write the question down, or email the person who has the answer to said question or could help us find the answer.  It's really helped us stay on track and be more focused in meetings.  Another thing we've done, and I'm going to be honest--I really wasn't on board with this at first because it felt so artificial to me, but we use protocols to discuss student work.  It helps save time because there are specific steps with times attached.  So rather than just discussing student's work, you get 5 minutes to talk about the assignment and what the student produced, other teachers have 5 minutes to ask you questions about the work, you work together to pull out this student's "glows", or things they did well, and then you take 5 minutes to discuss what this kid needs to move forward.
#3
Make your students do as much as they can.
Say, what?!  Before you think that sounds completely obvious, stick with me.  Here's what I mean:  rather than always collect the papers and pass them out yourself, make that children's jobs.  Instead of cleaning up the scraps of paper after you were cutting and gluing make a kid do it.  Now I hear what you're saying--it takes them so long, it's actually wasting time, I'm too uptight for that.  (No, you're not saying that?!  It was just me??)  I was with you.  I thought there was no way I could release that much responsibility to my kids.  Now, when we clean up, my kids get 1 minute (2 if we really made a mess), and the kids who have jobs perform them and the kids who don't have jobs take a brain break.  When the timer goes off we're ready to move on and everyone has had the opportunity to move around.  It's a win-win-win.

Don't forget to thank a veteran or active military member today.  =)
xoxo
Rachel

What a crazy year it's been

Hi, friends

This time last year, this is what I was doing.

It's so crazy to think that it's been an entire year since our wedding.  It was so much fun!  So today, Mr. Spouse and I are just unplugging, reminiscing, and enjoying our first anniversary.  Allegedly, the hubs has some plans up his sleeves, but he refuses to discuss them.  

I'll be back later this week to talk about our literacy work stations and guided reading.  And maybe even some math, if I start this week as organized as I'm planning.  =)  

Happy Sunday, y'all!

xoxo

Rachel

My Truth Monday (on a Tuesday)

I super love Denise's topic for My Truth Monday this week.  (Which is why I hope she'll let me link up even though I'm one day late!)  It's all about becoming a teacher.  I tried to condense the story--which I'm sure you'll laugh at when you see how much I wrote--but I'm a talker.  What can I say?!
                                     
I also have to have a super, mega, nerd out moment.  When I linked up with Susan, over here, at her brilliant little blog she not only decided to COMMENT on my blog, but she started following my sad little blog.  Y'all.  I felt like a celebrity had called me on the phone!  I geeked out so hard in my classroom this afternoon.  NERD ALERT!

Okay, friends.  Enough Rambling.  Here's My Truth for this week.

Two Posts in Two Hours?!

It's because I'm a sucker for a good linky party.  And, of course, my paralyzing FOMO.  An old roommate gave me FOMO and since then it has really negatively interfered with a lot of my productivity.

In any case, Susan over at Thank God it's First Grade just moved from Las Vegas to Mass, and is hosting a super interesting linky.
                                          
And, since I have a paralyzing fear of missing out on fun, I of course need to participate.  Despite that the fact that I have already blogged once today and despite the fact that I have a grand total of zero lessons planned for tomorrow.  Actually, that's not true.  I have one lesson planned for tomorrow.  I planned my whole week of Fundations before brunch this morning.  Without any more babbling here's my schedule:

And here are some preemptive answers.  My grade level partner and I set this schedule together, and our admin team approved it, so we have roughly the same schedule, but we set our blocks.  Some times (GLM, specials, lunch, etc) are set by admin, but outside of those times we set our daily schedule, which is a nice piece of autonomy.  We have duty 4 times a week--3 lunch and 1 breakfast.  I didn't mark this on my schedule, which I also didn't realize until now, but when I go to GLM my students go to 2 consecutive specials.  If there's no GLM one week then I have all of that as personal planning time (which is really nice, but doesn't happen terribly often).  Earlier this summer I blogged about Responsive Classroom and the RC structures that our school uses.  Morning Meeting is one of them, so MM has a very distinct structure and the kids really get into the structure/routine of it--greeting, share, activity, morning message.  I've also added in calendar math this year, which isn't really part of RC, but has been helpful for me and building in some additional math time for my littles.  

If you have any other questions about my daily schedule I'd be happy to answer them.

Happy Sunday, y'all!  (And go Colts!)

xoxo

Rachel

How is it time for another Currently again?!

Hello, friends!  I can't believe it, but somehow both my calendar and my Bloglovin' feed are telling me that it's time for another Currently, so here we go.

Listening:  my in-laws were in town visiting this weekend (hence the NASCAR), so I've been trying to balance being a good hostess and preparing for school.

Loving:  ah, fall!  Yesterday, for my MIL's birthday we went out to some VA wineries and it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  Crisp sunny day, fire pits out to stay warm, gorgeous fall colors, and excellent company.

Thinking: even though yesterday was a great day I really neglected school this week/weekend.  I've been meaning to put a new Fundations product on TpT for almost a month.  :/

Wanting:  seriously.  Who does NOT always want a 3 day weekend?!  I mean, sometimes it feels more necessary than other times, but I feel like teaching is definitely one of those professions where you hardly ever feel caught up.  Or maybe that's just me?!?  (Please say it's not!)

Needing:  as I've been feeling a time crunch lately I've also been thinking a lot about this gem from my childhood.  God, Saved by the Bell--you were such a great show.  But really, I think the only better than this clip is that when I went to search YouTube for it as I was typing in "saved by the bell", You Tube auto supplied "saved by the bell i'm so excited".  What's even better is that the clip is titled "Jessie Spano Caffeine Pill Freakout".  Everything about this is completely awesome.  

A Yummy Pin: Y'all.  THIS pin is so flippin' delicious you won't be able to stand yourself.  It's so delicious you'll want to lick the pan.  And it will probably leave you leftovers as well.  Or maybe I just always end up with a mound of leftovers because it's just me and the hubs?  Either way.  Make it.  Love it.  

Happy Sunday, y'all.

xoxo

Rachel