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

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

It's past my bedtime. :\

Holy moly.  I can't believe my life/social calendar decided to explode at the same time as back to school.  The mess I leave on my circle table every day shames me until I get to school the next morning.  I am so exhausted; I feel like a little hamster on a wheel, just running and running in circle and never going anywhere or accomplishing anything.

I wanted to stop by tonight to let you know 2 things.  First, I'm working on (what I hope will be) a really great resource for anyone who does Fundations in their classroom.  And maybe even for teachers who don't use Fundations?  I'm hoping to roll it out unit by unit or several units at a time.  Look for the first unit to be up by the end of the weekend.  And secondly, once I can get my act together I'll be sharing the structures and routines that I've been setting up these last 2 weeks.  And maybe, maybe I can even get some pictures of my classroom together.  (As long as you promise not to judge my anchor charts!)

Have a great night, friends!  =)
Rachel

Did that just happen??

Y'all, if I hadn't really just lived that first day I really wouldn't believe that it had just happened.  It was SUCH a whirlwind.  I was feeling so nervous about not having a special on our first day, and it ended up that even without a special we still didn't get to about 4 different activities!

I have about 20 of the cutest first grade nuggets you've ever seen.  So sweet and so eager to learn.  (And so buying into my crazy need to sing everything at the beginning of the school year.  LOVE!)  One of my cute little ELLs today just kept repeating things over and over again to himself in Spanish, then in English.  "Bathroom.  Bano.  Blue.  Azul."  So sweet.

I wish I had some first day pictures to share with you, but my phone was stolen last week and between trying to get ready for school, leaving town for 4 days, working with MPD, and Verizon I just haven't had time to get to the physical Verizon store yet.  (Cross your fingers no parents were trying to call me tonight.)  I'm hoping to cross that off the list tomorrow.

I hope you all had a great first day!  I have one more project to finish before I can hit the hay.  Hopefully, I'll be back with pictures later this week.

Take it easy.  =)

Skipping Town

Y'all.  The back to school pressure is REAL!  My to-do list grows every day, and I'm not really sure I'm making any forward progress.  It's literally keeping me up at night.

However, said pressure is not stopping me from leaving my lovely husband behind for the next few days in DC while I hightail it up to PA to meet my parents and aunt.  I mean, really it's only 3 days.  And I promise to work on the train.  And I'll go into my classroom on Friday.  So this will be fine, right?

I don't really have a specific plan in mind today, but I did want to share 3 things with you.
1.

  I don't know if your Target will have the same deals as mine, but I got these binders for 99 cents EACH!  True confession:  sometimes, when I find really great teacher deals I turn into a bit of a hoarder.  Do I have any idea what I'm doing with 5 brand new binders?  Heck no.  But I hate when I feel like I'm a binder down in the middle of the year and people want me to pay them $4 for it.  So I'm preemptively striking this year.

2.

Last Friday was a BEAUTIFUL day out here in DC.  I mean, practically perfect--sun shining, low humidity, just a few puffy clouds in the sky.  And all I wanted was to go to the pool.  But instead, I powered through and loosely planned my ENTIRE first week of school.  I definitely feel like I need to go back and script out a few lessons to make sure my timing is right, especially for the first few days.  But it does feel pretty liberating to know that I have the majority of my first week back planned.  One thing I definitely need are crafts to introduce some new materials--I would like to find something where my kids are painting, cutting, and gluing all in one craft, but I have no idea what the one craft will be.  To the pins!  I'm sure I'll be able to find something on Pinterest.  Right?!  

3.  And here's the last thing I wanted to share with you.  This very interesting infographic from my adorable baby brother who works for an educational publishing company.  (They mostly target higher ed companies, so no freebies for this girl, but it definitely gives him a super interesting perspective on the pace/trajectory of education.)  I'm not 100% sure I share this vision for the future of education, but it's definitely an interesting picture that they paint.  I have a lot of reservations, but like I said it's very interesting food for thought.  

I'm going to finish this laundry and get to packing for my last mini-vacation of the summer!  Enjoy the waning days of summer break!  How many days do you have left?