Five for Fraturday

Hi, friends!

I hope your Sunday morning is as beautiful as ours is here in DC!  It's the first truly cold morning of the fall, but I'm almost done with my first cup of coffee, I have a load of laundry in, the sun is streaming through our kitchen/living room windows, and all the boys (hubs included) are taking a nap, so I'm the boss of myself for the next 45-ish minutes.  Since I'm already 24 hours late, let's just get right down to it, shall we?

I live in DC, but I grew up in Cincinnati.  I love, love, LOVE Cincinnati, in a way that I don't think most people love their hometown.  I am also a fan of all Cincinnati teams, including the Bearcats.  Both of my parents went to UC, so we were raised as Bearcat fans.  The biggest struggle about living in DC is out of market games (thank you, DirectTV for NFL Sunday Ticket), so last night I was super stoked to watch UC play USF.  I thought it would be a close, competitive game, but that UC would win. Whomp, whomp, whomp.  Was I ever wrong!  They were down 21 in the first quarter, and it didn't really get any better at all ever.  Finally, at halftime, I had to give up.  The hubs and I watched shows off the DVR instead.  It was bad, y'all.  The final score was 65-27.  Yowza.  But, on the upside, I unloaded the dishwasher, did all the dishes, and did two loads of baby laundry because the game was so bad.  Everything has a silver lining, right? 

Can you BELIEVE Thanksgiving is next week?!  I'm sure those of you who are in the classroom can, and feel like it can't come soon enough, but I feel like it's sneaking up on me out of nowhere.  We still don't even have a plan for Thanksgiving.  We used to always do Friendsgiving, but most of our friends we did that with have moved back to The Good Land.  Last year, we went to North Carolina to have Thanksgiving with my cousin and her family, which was really nice, but we still haven't committed to anything for this year.  It feels like Thanksgiving is still 3 weeks away.

True confession:  I am on day 11 (eleven!?) of the 21 Day Fix, and I STILL want to eat crap all the time.  I mean, I'm not because of said Fix, but whoever said that you just stop craving things is a liar.  Or, in my true soul, I'm just a fat kid.  I'd honestly say both are equally probable.  I used to think the hardest part about dieting would be giving up the booze, but since I was pregnant last year that's not enough it.  It's the delicious, but terrible for you food, like burgers and nachos.  

Based on some Scopes that I've rewatched recently (because I can't catch a darn thing live.  Babies.), it seems like people are interested in planning materials.  It's my goal to have a Scope up by Thanksgiving on how I plan (#crossyourfingers), but I'll add my materials as freebies to my TpT store regardless by the end of the weekend.  To answer some base questions, no, I didn't have to turn in plans, no, we didn't use a reading series, and no, I didn't plan with my team.  We planned units together, but our daily plans we did on our own.  Here's a shot of what a week of plans looked like.  N

Normally, there's more typing and less handwriting, but this is just a general glance.  Time of day goes down the side, Day across the top, and I usually put in the teaching point and any important reminders in the box for that day.  

One last true confession for y'all.  For about two weeks now, I have been working my tail off to NOT listen to holiday music.  And, at the same time, Pandora has been working so hard to get me to listen.  They suggested a Michael Buble Holiday station to me (which I should probably create), and they keep telling me about how they've added new content to my already existing holiday stations.  I also realize that I might have too many holiday radio stations.  Is that a thing?  Can you have too many?

This time next weekend I will certainly be listening to at least one of those stations.  =)

Have a great weekend, and a happy Thanksgiving!

xoxo

Five for Friday--I'm back at it!

Hey, y'all!  Two blog posts in just under 12 hours!  I'm practically patting myself on the back over here.  The things that I can accomplish when the hubs has the day off and the twins are down for their morning nap.  So, here are my five random things from this previous week.

Are y'all following any teachers in Vegas?  I've never been to the conference in Vegas; it hasn't worked out for a variety of reasons.  This year, it's obviously the twinnies.  I'm hoping that next year I'll be able to make it, but I'm having major Vegas FOMO.  I mean, I get FOMO pretty bad anyway, but now that my IG feed is blowing up with pictures and people are using Periscope all the time it's some pretty aggressive FOMO.  Which brings me to number 2.

Are y'all doing this Periscope thing?!  It's so cool!  I haven't done any broadcasts myself yet; I kind of feel like I'm not sure what to say, but I'm really into checking out the broadcasts that others are doing.  Shroeder's Shenanignas in Second and Lucky Little Learners are doing AWESOME broadcasts.  If you aren't on Periscope you can learn about it here, but basically you download the app to your phone and then you can use it to broadcast yourself.  The broadcast is stored for 24 hours and then deleted.  It's owned by Twitter, but I'm pretty sure you don't have to have the twitters to use Periscope.  Like I said, I haven't 'scoped myself yet, but I'm so into the broadcasts I've seen.  I think my personal goal is to do a broadcast before next Friday.  I can update y'all next week in the Five for Friday.  =)  

                                                       

This is totally gratuitous, but here's a picture of how I've been spending my days lately.  With these two gentlemen.  

Next up in the TpT store is more Fundations units.  It's all very slow going, because as lovely as these gentlemen are, they don't really care so much about Mama's plans.  They just want to eat, sleep, and play.  Mostly eat and sleep.  

Next up on the blog, I'm thinking a series on organizing.  Parent form and communication, lesson/unit plans, calendars and to-do lists.  Is this something potentially helpful, or redundant?  Is there something else you'd like to see here?  I aim to please.  =)  

Okay, team.  That's it for me.  Nap time is almost over, and I can hear the gents starting to wake, so that's my cue.  Have a great weekend!

xoxo

First Five for Friday of 2015

Y'all.  Not only am I blogging two days in a row, but I am actually joining up with Five for Friday ON A FRIDAY!  This is a seminal moment in my life.  And potentially just really indicative of how exactly how much I don't want to vacuum or fold laundry.

                                                   
This week's Five for Friday will be mostly personal, since we haven't been in school since December 18th.  Hopefully, that's okay with you.  =)  You can check back next Friday for a more school connected Five for Friday.

{one}

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is laying wreaths at Arlington Cemetery.  There's always a Saturday in December where you can go lay wreaths on the graves of (almost) all of the soldiers at the cemetery, and then afterwards the hubs and I always go see the train display at the Botanic Gardens.  And every year we make some poor unsuspecting tourist take our picture in front of the tree at the Botanic Garden.  Most of the time it's a pretty nerdy picture, but I think this year it actually turned out pretty well.  Kudos to you, random stranger!  Thanks for making my favorite Christmas tradition a little awesomer.  

{two}

This is one of the best addressed envelopes I've ever seen.  It was our Christmas card from one of my friends from high school.  

{three}

While we were home for Christmas visiting family, we went out to lunch one day with this little love.  My sweet niece is basically the love of my life, and I love taking her out on her own.  Especially since she has a new little baby at home, so we went to Skyline for lunch and when she was eating her Oreos for dessert she said, "Look, Aunt Rachel!  I have a cookie mustache!"  That girl has personality for days.  Naturally, I had to photograph said event.  

{four}

Y'all.  Did you know that FRIENDS is on Netflix now?  It's basically one of my favorite shows ever; I own all 10 seasons on DVD and watch them compulsively whenever the hubs travels for work.  But today I was watching them on Netflix just because it's easier and when Mr. Spouse came home and asked what I was watching and I said FRIENDS he called me a dork for watching it on Netflix when I own all the seasons.  

{five}

Over break, I just finished reading The Together Teacher.  If you haven't read it, I recommned it.  It took me several months to read it; I probably could have read it faster if I have prioritized it more.  If you're not familiar with the book it's basically about ways to be an effective teacher without working your booty to death.  The goal of the book is balance, which is what I'm after this year.  But one of the habits the book recommends forming is creating a weekly worksheet that shows all the meetings, deadlines, and obligations you have each week and it even includes a spot to track upcoming commitments.  I made my first Weekly Worksheet today.  I'm pretty jazzed to use it.  I'll let you know if it's helpful/makes a difference.  This is my finished product for next week.  

I hope everyone enjoys their waning holiday breaks!  Happy New Year!

xoxo

Five for Friday...on a Saturday...Again

Y'all, I really have the best intentions.  I always want to link up on Friday.  And then something always comes up, like delicious burgers and the Olympics Opening Ceremony.  Without any more babbling, here's my Five for Friday.  =)
                                                  

ONE

At the very top of my bloggy to-do list for much longer than I care to admit has been figuring out how to offer fan freebies on Facebook.  The other night I was finished with school work earlier than expected and wasn't falling asleep on my keyboard already so I thought that would be a great night to figure it out.  Even though I almost ripped my hair out trying to get it to work and may or may not have said some very unladylike things, I finally did.  Victory is mine!  I was feeling so darn excited, and no one else was around to appreciate said excitement.  So now I'm forcing you to share it with me. 

TWO

Every day after lunch, we come back to class for 15 minutes of Quiet Time.  I always tell them that it's time for them to "recharge their brain batteries", but it also gives me 15 minutes to make a chart, give a sight word assessment, talk to another teacher, or whatever.  It's a win-win.  

Earlier this week, one of my little nuggets wrote me a letter during Quiet Time, and even put it an envelope that she folded and glued out of another piece of paper.  It included this picture, which I find funny for a few reasons.

a) I'm actually the smallest person in this picture.  b) I honestly think I've only been on the playground a few times with my nuggets this year, because I have lunch duty, not recess duty.  And c) there's no slide at our school playground.  Ah, youth.  

THREE

I blogged about this earlier this week, so I won't really talk about it much here, but I made this graph to share my students' Lexia levels and hold them more accountable.  You can read more about it here.  I'm going to add it to my fan freebie page, so you too can hold your students accountable for their work in Lexia.  

FOUR

I was noticing that a lot of my students were writing about math by writing about things that weren't math (I drew a book.  I drew a tree.  Then, I colored it in.) so on Thursday we made this Math Actions chart to have an idea about all the match actions we might do while problem solving.  I said that they should have one math action every time they write about math.  (I actually hate saying stuff like that, but I also generally find it helpful for the low middle-middle kids.)  Sorry this picture is a little blurry.  I couldn't figure out why that was until I realized (after I left school of course) that it was because the lights were off in my classroom at the time.

FIVE

Last but not least, we had our annual Superbowl party this past Sunday.  It was really fun, even though the game wasn't.  Mr. Spouse's birthday is in mid-January, and I had planned to make cupcakes to celebrate, but didn't have time before we went out of town and then I didn't want to make them when it was just the 2 of us because I would eat approximately 58% of the cupcakes.  And that's not necessary.  So I made them for the Superbowl party instead, when we were guaranteed to have some friends around.  And then, as I was thinking about how best to serve them, I remembered that I had this.  That we got as a wedding present.  You know, 16 months ago.  

Better late than never, right?  I felt like I was classing up the Superbowl.  =)

Alright, friends.  Thanks for dropping by and listening to me ramble.  Have a great weekend!

xoxo

Five for...Sunday?!

Friends.

This weekend REALLY got away from me.  And even though I'm yawning like crazy I refuse to accept defeat and go to bed without linking up with Doodlebug's for Five for Friday.

 

This week really whipped my butt, which is extremely ridiculous because we only had 1.5 days of school.  So without any further babbling here are my Sunday five.  

Even though we were off on Monday for the holiday, and we didn't have school Tuesday or Wednesday, we definitely had an Arts for Every Student field trip to see a play of Miss Nelson is Missing.  I'd be lying to your face if I told you I was excited for this trip before we went.  Honestly, I thought the play would be campy and just kind of an unenjoyable field trip, but it was fantastic!  The play was so adorable, and really funny.  The kids loved it; they remembered having read the book earlier this year, and they were so into how they knew that Miss Swamp is Miss Nelson.  This picture is the worst (ugh; stupid cell phone pics), but it was adorable how excited all the kids were.  

It really worked out that we had two days off of school because that's how long it took me to get home from a family funeral on Monday.  I literally felt like I stuck in some bizarre, real life version of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.  Here is a sampling of the melange of tickets, boarding passes, and receipts from those 48 hours.  It was certainly not the ideal travel experience.  

Is anyone else watching the Grammys?  Sara Bareilles and Carole King totally just killed it.  I'm so into funky duets, and I really loved Brave.  To be fair, though, I generally just really like that song, so it's possible that I'm biased.  =)  What was your favorite Grammy performance?

 Last week we had an early dismissal on Friday for records keeping, but I wasn't really read to do grades yet, so I used that time to plan for this week.  It was so nice--I planned almost my entire week in those few hours, and I really was able to enjoy this weekend.  In fact, I got so much done on Friday that the hubs and I spontaneously stopped by to play with the twinnies on Saturday afternoon.  It was great.  I wish we could have an early dismissal like that every Friday!

I'm hoping to try and figure out how to put this on my Facebook page in the next few days, but I wanted to share this with you via picture now.  This is how I track my conferences during the week; I know that a lot of people plan their conferences by day, but I just basically cycle through and hit kids where I can.  This generally means that I hit the kids at the beginning of the alphabet with writing conferences on Monday, and progress through.  I generally try to change highlighter colors daily so that I can try to keep track of when I hit kids, but like I said, I'll start at the beginning and go through the alphabet.  If I'm having an insanely efficient week and get through all the kids before Thursday I'll start back with the end of the alphabet kids, so that I might have two different conference with one kid in one day.  But really that doesn't happen very often.  I've tried scheduling kids for days, but the reason I prefer this way is that I feel like it gives me freedom to conference flexibly and if something comes up where I can't conference on one day for whatever reason those kids aren't lost for the week.  I usually keep my notes from conferences on address labels and then stick them into the appropriate binder later.  I do keep a few notes on my conference sheet, as you can see, but the bulk of them go onto sticky labels.  Just an idea, if you're having a hard time tracking conferences.  =)

Okay, friends.  I'm sure that alarm is going to go off waaaaaaaaaay too early.  Have a great night!

xoxo

Five for Friday ON FRIDAY!!!!!!

Friends!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday ON FRIDAY!  I'm so proud of myself.
                                                   
Without any further babbling, I bring you our Five for Friday.  **Important Disclaimer:  the camera on my phone is broken, and I can't find my actual camera, so there are no pictures in my 5 for Friday this week.  :(  Major bummer.

This week, we had our first round of parent/teacher conferences--APTT, which stands for Academic Parent Teacher Teams.  It's this really cool, data driven type of conference.  It went well; we had about 20 parents show up the first night, and have been able to catch up with more of them since. 

I am SO JAZZED that we have a long weekend coming up.  These past few weeks have been a little crazy. I'm also super jazzed to see the Zac Brown Band in concert on Sunday.  I don't generally love county, but I do love that Zac Brown Band.  

Even though I live in DC quite close to the Mall, I haven't been down in that area since the shutdown began.  Earlier tonight, the hubs and I were driving to VA and we drove down past the Mall, Independence Ave SE/SW, and the Tidal Basin area and it was totally surreal to see NOT A SOUL anywhere.  Even in the torrential rain there's always a few tourists running around who won't be stopped.  It was completely bizarre to see no one.  

Today, I went to a labsite at another school and it was POURING rain here.  I mean, I thought I was going to have to build an ark.  So, before our meeting started we ran out to get lunch.  I didn't really plan for the weather and my bag didn't close; I did have my rain coat but everything in my bag was getting soaked.  We only had to walk like 2 blocks back to the school and in that short time our paper bags got so wet they started ripping.  I mean, it was really nuts.  It was also equally pouring when the labsite ended, and we had to walk back to the car.  Then, I was dropped off a few blocks from my house to walk home and I was wondering where I happened to put my umbrella.  I opened my bag and it was Right. In. Side.  The whole DANG time!  Ugh.  Total palm to forehead moment.  

I'm so excited about some forthcoming blog makeovers!  My brother's best friend is doing some graphic design for me, and I've only see the preview of the button, but I'm feeling pretty excited about what's coming my way.  

Alright, y'all.  I have a lesson plan due tonight (that isn't finished), and a speech (that isn't written) to give tomorrow at my sorority's Founders' Day lunch so I need to get down to business.  Have a great weekend!

xoxo

Rachel

Five for Friday. On A Saturday. Sigh.

Wow.  I'm with my friend Carolyn on this week--there is no possible way this week had just 5 days in it.  Something must have happened to the space/time continuum.  There were definitely extra days added to this week somehow.  But, the upside is that now it's the weekend and I'm sitting on our balcony enjoying some coffee and this beautiful fall weather to share 5 random things about my week with you.  

And I'm so jazzed that Jen from Hello Literacy designed these super cute number buttons for everyone to use!  (You can get them on her blog, on on Doodlebugs.)  If you teach reading and don't follow Jen's blog stop reading right now and add it your Bloglovin' feed.  She has brilliant ideas about literacy and intervention.   No more blabbering.  Here's my 5 for Friday.  (On Saturday.  Of course.)

I'm feeling so thankful for my K-2 team this week.  I had a moment of extreme frustration during a meeting this week and the next day one of my team members came up to me at dismissal and said that there's all times that we feel like that and we're here to support each other and help make each other great.  It was so sweet of her.  She didn't have to say that to me; she could have just let that moment be.  But it really helped to refocus me and remind that I am part of a team, and you can only get out of a team what you're willing to put into it.  I also really need to sing the praises of my real life friend and grade level special ed teacher, Kristin, who helped me cling to my last few shreds of sanity this week.  I have 2 particular little loves this year who need SO. MUCH. SUPPORT and Kristin was there every day after school to help me make behavior plans for them, to listen to me vent, and to give me a 10 minute break from them when I needed it.  Really, y'all, I know this sounds like a cheesy kumbayah moment, but I honestly just feel like sometimes I need to pause and reflect.

I do not know HOW this happened, but somehow the heat in our school kicked on this week.  Uh, it's SEPTEMBER still.  How is that even possible?!  I mean, if I taught in a state that touched Canada I might understand.  I would imagine that maybe at this time of year in Maine or one of the Dakotas or maybe even Minnesota I might wish the heat was on in my classroom.  But here in DC?!  NOT necessary.  On Thursday afternoon it was a pleasant 75 outside.  In my classroom?  A balmy 81.  It felt like the reptile house.  My poor little loves were melting.  At about 2:30 I decided to teach an impromptu origami lesson on how to make a fan.  

This week, I introduced my work station rotation board.  It helped us by 1,000%.  Now I just need to work out the best flow for our work stations and the location of each within our classroom.  I'm hoping to put up the work station rotation cards in my TpT store by the end of the weekend.  I went with seasonal group names--bats, skeletons, ghosts, broomsticks, pumpkins, and spiders.  I deliberately avoided monsters because I didn't want anyone to act like a monster.  ;)  

I'm so excited to take a field trip with the hubs down to Eastern Market today.  It's a fantastic outdoor farmers' market/art market/totally radical market in DC just a few miles from where we live.  I sold him on the idea by promising to be back in time for the Notre Dame game today.  =)  And by promising to buy Honeycrisp apples.  

My classroom printer and I are in a fight.  I'm 95% sure that the fight is over, and that I won, but you can never really be sure.  (Actually, you probably can be sure, but I don't have the technological prowess to be sure.)  To be on the safe side I will be printing most things that I need for Monday at home over the weekend.  I hate that moment of panic when I have to start going classroom to classroom to print what I need for the day.  

Enjoy your weekend, sweet friends!  

xoxo,

Rachel