Parent Involvement

I am very fortunate to teach at a school in which parent involvement is high, teachers are respected and supported, and education is valued. Home-school communication is one aspect of management that I pride myself on, as I make myself quite accessible to my parents. My parents, students, and myself are (usually) all on the same page, and I think that has a lot to do with the routines I establish early in the school year. Here are some of the things I do to make sure we're all "in the know":

1. Monday Planners - On Monday mornings, I have my students fill in their weekly planner. They copy down the skills/strategies we'll be working on, homework, spelling/vocabulary words, upcoming tests and events. They take their planners home every Monday to get signed by a parent (due Tuesday).

2. Weekly Newsletters - Last year, all my parents had internet access, so I was able to email my weekly newsletter. On the newsletter, I explicitly report what students should be learning in every subject area, and often give suggestions on how parents can assist their children at home. Of course, the normal stuff, like important dates, weekly words, thank yous, etc are also found on the newsletter. Only very rarely did I have parents say they didn't know about this or that. My reply was usually, "Yes, it was indicated on the newsletter dated ..." Check out some examples of my Weekly Newsletters on the, um, Weekly Newsletters page.

3. BEE Books - I put together BEE (Bring Everything Everyday) Books last year for all of my students, which contained a ton of much needed information in plastic page protectors. Let's see...there was a class contact list, money pouch, ABCs of 3rd grade, Homework Directions Sheet, Frequently Misspelled Word list, and a bunch of other resources. It also contained the...

4. Monthly Behavior Calendar -  It looks like a regular old calendar, but in every Friday box, there's a spot for Parent Initials. I would jot a note when a student didn't turn in HW, didn't complete class work, had a behavior issue, etc.The behavior calendar was expected to be signed and returned to school every Monday. Click HERE to see the Monthly Behavior Calendars for 2010-2011. I'll post the ones for 2011-2012 when I get around to making them!  : )

5. This Blog - I started this blog last year, and I was good about updating it at the beginning of the year, but not so much towards the middle. Part of the problem was that I wasn't able to access blogger at school. I would like to do better this year!

6. Mystery Readers -  It is very rare that we don't have a parent come in to read to the class every Friday. The kids love it, the parents love it, and hey, so do I! It's fun to hear a voice other than mine doing read alouds.

7. Open House - I work on a fabulous team, and we put on an awesome open house presentation in September. I think parents walk away feeling confident that their child is in our capable hands! Heehee.

I also email my parents frequently as things come up, send home study guides for tests, and generally do my best to be proactive, instead of being reactive. I hate being behind the 8-ball!

Teacher Resources Page

Thanks to a comment an anonymous poster left today, I became aware that the documents I tried to upload to my Teacher Resources Page (and probably my Weekly Newsletters, too) were unable to be opened! Yikes! I tried again using Scribd, so I hope everyone who wants to see, can now see what I have on those pages. I didn't want to link too many documents because I'm still not sure if it works. If someone can take a peek and let me know by commenting on this post, I'd be most appreciative! I am learning as I go!

Ten Things to Know About Me!

Inspired by another blogging teacher, Go 4th With Mrs. Owens, I am making a list of ten things to know about me. What a great way for students to get to know their teacher, and of course and even better, what a great way for teachers to get to know their students! Here's my list:

10. I love reality TV shows - give me The Real Housewives of (insert any) County over 60 Minutes any day!
9. My favorite place to shop is Target. Where else can you buy peanut butter, a cute dress, cilantro, and a pretty binder, all in the span of 15 minutes?
8. You would never guess this about me, but I love NASCAR. My husband and I have been to the Daytona 500, the Coke Zero 400, and we are looking forward to going to Homestead in November for the last race of the season! Go #99!!!
7. Although ice cream in most any flavor is great, mint chocolate chip has been my all time fave since I was a little kid.
6. I am a very picky eater, although I have gotten better as I've gotten older! But...I still order my cheeseburgers PLAIN!
5. I am an only child. However, I like to think that I have learned to share by now!
4. In the 11 years that I have been a teacher, I have always taught third graders! It's such a fabulous grade to teach!
3. I am interested in taking photographs, making my house and classroom pretty, and creating organizational systems.
2. My favorite place to be is on a beach (Pass-a-Grille, preferably) with a book.
1. My family means the world to me - my husband (Greg) is the best, and my two kids (Ben and Eva) are adorable and funny and I love them very much!

The Daily 5(ish)

Last year, I read a great little book called The Daily Five by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. The authors advocate using five stations that students should rotate through every day, as opposed to teacher-created centers, which are often very time-consuming to make and manage. These are the five stations:

1. Listen to Reading
2. Read to Self
3. Read to Someone
4. Word Work
5. Work on Writing

I am planning to take some of the ideas I gathered from the book to use in a way that would best benefit my students within the confines of my schedule. Here's what I'm thinking reader's workshop might look like, while incorporating the Daily 5:

First, I will conduct a shared reading mini-lesson, during which I will teach a strategy or skill that the whole class needs to learn. Next, we'll move into our three "rounds" of stations, each of which will last about 15 minutes. While students are in their assigned station (yes, I will assign stations, even though the authors suggest letting the kids choose - they get to make plenty of choices throughout the day, and things will be much better managed if I assign the stations!), I will be working with guided reading groups at my small group table. Here's what my rotation is going to look like (in my head, it all works out!), with 4-6 students in each group. Remember, I will also be plucking students from their station rotation to do guided reading with me:

Round 1 - A: Word Work (Mountain Language, spelling, vocabulary, etc)
                 B: Listen to Reading  (Tumblebooks on the computer)  
                 C: Work on Writing (cursive, journaling, reading responses)

Round 2 - A: Work on Writing
                 B: Word Work
                 C: Listen to Reading

Round 3 - A: Listen to Reading
                 B: Work on Writing
                 C: Word Work

After the third round, we will do a whole-class share to reflect on the day's learning during reader's workshop. Now, one of the stations in The Daily 5, Read to Self, takes priority above the other stations. Because of this, I did not want to include it in the 15 minute station rotations. Instead, I am devoting a 30 minute period outside the daily 5 time/guided reading time for students to independently read. While they are reading, I will be conducting independent reading conferences, ideally conferring one-on-one with each student once every week to two weeks.

We'll see how my plan works out in terms of practicality! I am always open to tweaking as I go to make things run smoothly.

Pinterest!

Another really fun website entered my life about a month ago: Pinterest!!! It is a great way to keep all of those creative ideas you find on the internet neat and orderly and categorized. Let's say you're on-line, perusing ideas for the new school year, and you come across an amazing game or a photo of a fabulous classroom library or a cute craft to celebrate a holiday. You click on the "Pin It" icon (which you have downloaded from the Pinterest website), and select the photo of the item you want to save or remember. A little box pops up, prompting you to categorize your pin (in this case, "Classroom Ideas") and jot a brief description of the item. Once you go back to the Pinterest homepage, you'll have all of your favorite things organized in fantastic little visual representation.

My favorite part of Pinterest, though, is stealing repinning other people's pins. You can start "following" people you know (or random internet strangers who share your interests), see what they're pinning, and then repin the items you like. I love looking for home decorating inspiration, kid craft ideas, methods to organize my life, cool haircuts and styles, and so much more. One can definitely become a teensy bit obsessed with this (ahem).

So...is anyone else pinning? I am always interested in checking out other pin boards. You can see mine (and follow me if you'd like) HERE.

I Heart Google Reader!

Why didn't I know about Google Reader before? For the last couple of years, I've been visiting my favorite teacher blogs, home decorating blogs, kid craft blogs, fashion blogs, etc. via my bookmarks. It was pretty time-consuming to check for new and exciting content of all of the fabulous blogs in internet-land. My bookmarks were organized by category but seemed unwieldy and inefficient and cluttered, which I strongly dislike!

So....Google Reader entered my life yesterday. I subscribed to all of my favorite blogs (I am slightly ashamed to be following 72 blogs as of the moment...and I am always looking for more good stuff! I promise that I don't neglect my family!), and now all I have to do is click on my little Google Reader tab, and see who has updated their blogs. I receive all the new content in a simple and very manageable feed.

Oh, and I almost forgot the most amazing feature: there is a search box that you can use in Google Reader to hone in on a specific post or term, even if you don't remember which of your 72 blogs it originally came from! For example, Let's say that Halloween is right around the corner and I am looking for a fun, festive idea to celebrate. Type "Halloween" into the search box, and voila...every blog post with the word "Halloween" in it, pops up. You can then chose your fave. Isn't that great? And so very efficient? Those Google people are so smart.

I can't believe I just discovered this yesterday!

A Workshop Approach to Math, Too!

For the past several years, I have taken a "workshop" approach to teaching both reading and writing. It only made sense that eventually, I would turn to a math workshop model, too! Last year was my first attempt at math workshop, and wow. I loved it, the kids loved it, and my instruction was individually tailored to meet the needs of all students. Here's what math workshop looks like:

Students were divided into 3 groups based on their chapter pretest (10 questions quick check to assess background knowledge). Every day, the procedure would be the same:

I instruct the whole group (14 students) and provide a 10 minute mini-lessons on the day's essential question/concept/skill. Next students get into their groups:
          Group 1: Sit with me at the back table, while I spend more time "reteaching" or practicing mini-lesson
          Group 2: Play a group/partner game based on the mini-lesson
          Group 3: Independently complete a worksheet/book pages based on the mini-lesson
Students spend about 12 minutes working on their assigned activity (me, game, or independent work). When the timer goes off, Group 1 goes to games, Group 2 goes to independent work, and Group 3 comes to me. Spend 12 minutes in that rotation, timer goes off, and do the switcheroo one more time. Group 1 goes to independent work, Group 2 comes to me, and Group 3 goes to games.

It's very important that students understand that in order for this approach to work the way it's intended to work, we must monitor our own behavior and practice the "right" way to do math workshop. It's a great way for math to be interactive and differentiated!

Students fully engaged in math-related games and activities: