Name Tag Glyphs for Your First Day

Oh hiiiiiiiiiii!  Just popping in...after a very long time...to share a glyph I put together and started using on the first day of school last year.  **It's finally up on Teachers Pay Teachers for you to purchase.**

We started school this past Wednesday, so it has just been crazy busy.  Here I sit trying to grade some new district Common Core assessments that are actually quite fantastic.

available on Teachers Pay Teachers

What I love about this is, while they are coloring (and finishing breakfast) and I'm attempting to take attendance for the first day, I can easily get to know some quick things about my new students!  It's a quick conversation starter between myself and individual students too!  Once they are all done, I like to have them share with each other if let's say...your district's attendance website is down and you are in a mild panic because the first day is starting to fall apart.  Gah!!  Yep!  True story.

I have to show you my first teacher gift of the year too!  A student handed this to me while I was high-fiving and fist bumping my class at the door this morning.  Don't you just love that it is in a water bottle?!  Talk about putting a smile on my face so early in the year.  :-)

Have you had your first day yet?  How did it go?  Let me know what you think of the glyph. 

It's a Book Frenzy!!

Soooooooooo...we have been back in school for 8 days now.  I've had zero chance to take pictures of some of the lessons we've been doing.

With that being said, I HAD to take pictures on the first day of school during the book frenzy in our classroom library.  After reading Reading in the Wild and being a part of the book study (see all of those posts HERE), I was ready to implement wild reading in my classroom alongside the procedures.

I gave a couple of book talks and also gave what will now be my annual "I love reading," speech a la Colby Sharp's inspirational speech.  I wish I would have had a student film it...but maybe next year. Since I was wearing a dress and heels...I refrained from jumping on tables.  But I really really really wanted to.  My kids were cracking up and very much into it.  I had so much more fun presenting my true passion for reading this way instead of just sort of talking about it like I did in years prior.  The impact was HUGE.

Once I laid the groundwork and my students gained an understanding into just how much reading was going to become part of their 5th grade life...it was time to let them loose.  Oh, and because I gave a couple book talks from the nonfiction section of my library, so many of my kids went in that direction!!!  If I knew it was going to be that easy to get kids on that side of our library, I would have done it a long time ago.  So many new things were learned from this year's book frenzy, I love it!!!

Notice all the kids on the left side?  That's the nonfiction section!

Many of them selected books a lot faster than I've ever seen before.  This makes me nervous though as they may have just grabbed the first book they saw.  But only a handful of them have abandoned them since that first day.  The vibe in the room was also completely more positive and electric versus other years.  I even felt different watching my new group discovering how much fun they were going to have.  Wild readers are in my room already!...now it's a matter of showing them they can do it without me.

It also looks like I have quite a few World War II fans...so I am going to try to get my hands on as many fiction and nonfiction books as possible to provide for them.  I can't wait to share my interest in WWII with them as well!

This fellow has had this Pearl Harbor book since the first day and is still deep into it 8 days later.

This is what I saw after only telling them once to sit down and start enjoying their first book.  

All in all, this year's book frenzy was a success.  My students clearly have a love for reading already, at least most of them.  So, we can focus more on getting books they love in their hands and teaching them how to become wilder readers throughout the school year and beyond.

Did you have a book frenzy this year?  How did it go?  Let me know!

Currently || Back to School Already?!

Seriously?!  It's already a new month...and of course, August means going back to work and back to school.  Teachers officially reported back yesterday in my district here in Arizona and our students start next Wednesday.  

These last 4 days have been completely full of meetings and trainings without any time to be in my classroom at all.  But I'm ready to get back in to my routine, meet my new students, and get this 2013-2014 party started.  My to-do list is still forever long even though I've crossed off so many items in this last month.  The life of a teacher...a never ending to-do list.  Never ending.

Listening:

If you are not from Arizona (or even India really) or have never lived here in the summertime, you probably don't know what monsoon season is or what it is really like.  Here, when the dew point gets up to 55 degrees for 5 days straight, the monsoon season basically arrives.  That means gigantic dust storms (think The Mummy)...let me help you visualize:

courtesy of The Mummy

But the dust storms here are much worse and at least another mile higher.  They travel at super high speeds and knock down power lines, tear roofs off houses, split trees, and are horrible to get stuck in. We have to pull over if we are on the road or freeway...and forget running the air conditioner while you sit roasting in your 100 degree car, unless you want to get a lungful of dust (even if you have the outside air turned off).

The upside is we also have crazy rainstorms with microbursts.  Remember the scene in Forrest Gump when he is describing the different kinds of rain when he was in Vietnam?  Well, we tend to get the sideways rain the most.  It pounds down and causes flash floods.  We love it the most when we get to watch the electric storms and listen to the thunder pounding though.  It happens almost nightly for about 2 months.

Loving:

I got an email that I had won a copy of a T.R. Ragan book...but it is the 3rd in a series.  Since I haven't read the first two books, I started reading the first one called Abducted.  It's about a woman who was abducted by a serial killer but was his only victim to actually escape.  The book takes off about 14 years or so later as she receives a mysterious note that is most likely from her abductor, who seems to have come back from the dead . It is sooooooo good!  And?  It was only $2.99 for Kindle!  Stay tuned for my next What I Read Wednesday when I put up my review and a more detailed summary of it.

Thinking:

Like I already said, my first day of school is next Wednesday and Meet the Teacher Night is the night before.  I'm hoping to have a fantastic turn-out as I have had in the past so I can meet as many of my 31 students as possible.  It is always a little awkward having to meet the families for the first time because everyone, including me, get a wave of shyness.  But I also love being able to meet them and get a view into what my year will be like.  This year I hope to make stronger connections with the parents to improve our communication throughout the year.

Wanting:

I cannot wait to do my annual first day of school outfit shopping with my bestie, Beth!!  We have done it the past 4 years or so.  It's like being a kid again.  And that's exactly what I am, a little kid at heart. This is what I bought and wore last year for my first day of school.  Here's hoping I score a super cute dress from The Limited, Dillards, or Nordstrom Rack...that is my goal!!

Skirt and top from Forever 21 and my heels are from Dillard's...all bought last summer

Needing:

I have been working on my to-do list for what seems like all summer long.  No matter how many things I cross off, my list seems to stay just as full as it was at the beginning of the summer.  Sigh.

B2S Must-Haves:

It was hard to only include one TPT item for my Back-to-School must haves.
1)  But one I'm really looking forward to using, and believe me, there are quite a few...is this awesome bundle set that I bought from Teaching in Room 6.

2)  Looking forward to using this in my classroom to better help my students master their multiplication (and eventually their division) facts.  Laura Candler is amazing and I took a free webinar a couple weeks ago.  This item makes me excited to get my kids feeling confident!

3)  Of course, I had to go into Pinterest to look for one of the pins on that looooooong to-do list I mentioned earlier.  This is an item I have seen in other classrooms and keep wanting to put in mine.  I think this new school year is the perfect time to do so.  My class and I always seem to embrace these things, but this sign puts it out there right away and lets them know what their 5th grade journey will be like from the get-go.

I'm joining up with Oh Boy Fourth Grade's monthly linky party for the first time this month.  Here's the button and a link to her Currently post in case you'd like to join up with us.

Currently Linky Party

There Goes My Summer!

**Warning:  This is a picture heavy post...but entertaining all the same!**

I feel like summer vacation zoomed past me at light speed!  But when I stop to think about where I was when I went home on that last day of the school year back in May, I realize...I did get to enjoy a nice two months off. By that I actually mean this...

No really!  When everyone else was going home and truly celebrating on May 24th, I was freaking out knowing I had one more week before my National Boards portfolio entries were due.  For that first week out of school, I worked like a dog to finish up final edits, do major reflections on myself as a teacher, scanned documents, pictures, letters, and more like a mad woman, and sat at my pretty little iMac uploading and watching a status bar move across the screen.  Many deep breaths and hesitations (pressing that "Submit" button was trickier than an outsider would think) I submitted two days earlier than I told myself I would!  

Proof and memorialization of me submitting

Then, I got to enjoy my life for a few days before I had to go back in to the classroom for a special math lab school (AKA summer school).  Meanwhile, I was stressing out about having to take my 4-hour assessment at the Assessment Center in 3 weeks on June 21st.  There was no time for rest as I read up on some math techniques and how to interpret and diagnose reading errors (since it had been awhile since I'd delved in to that).  You see, I was working towards a Middle Childhood Generalist certificate, which means all subjects (including fine arts and health and wellness) ranging from 3rd to 6th grade.  There were quite a few things that I needed to get back on the bike and practice riding for.  So those 3 weeks looked a little something like this...

A little bit of light reading, highlighting, and going post-it flag crazy!...it's honestly a really amazing textbook, really.

I was even boring my furbaby, who nicely held down my papers for me so they wouldn't blow away.

I even went old skool and used flash cards to help me nail down all the accomplished teaching standards I would have to use in my essays.

To keep myself focused on the day and how I'd live through it, I...okay, before you read this next part, I ask you not to laugh at me...I scheduled my DVR to record the Jodi Arias movie on Lifetime.  It kept advertising to premiere on June 22nd, and I knew that would be the day after my tests.  So to me, that was like my target, to live to see June 22nd.  Okay, stop laughing now.  I enjoyed sitting on my couch that night with no responsibility but to watch this made for TV movie!

Did anyone else get excited about this debuting like I did?

When June 21st came around, I was a ball of nerves and didn't think I'd make it through the test alive.  I was afraid more than anything that I would get in there and forget everything I knew as a teacher or I, especially, would not be able to find the right words to answer the mutli-step questions.  All of them. But, thankfully, I got through it and survived to tell...

I proceeded to celebrate in a HUGE way by going out to Buffalo Wild Wings with my supportive husband and friends at my favorite place to unwind.  I CANNOT describe in words how amazing it felt to be able to actually take a breath and enjoy my summer and my free time for the first time in 2 years!  

Honestly, when people asked me if I was going to travel or do anything once I was finally finished, my answer to that was honestly...no.  I wanted to just be able to sit on my couch, read a book or watch T.V. without having to worry about what I should have been writing, typing, or reflecting on.  And you know what?  It felt fantastic!!!  Hence the meme I posted at the top of this blog.  Sure, I won't find out my results until the end of November, but I couldn't be happier to have several months not to think about it anymore...until maybe October when it creeps up on me.

But being the ridiculous Type-A person and teacher that I am, several days later, I was back to my kitchen table working on school items for the upcoming school year.  I couldn't help it!  There were all sorts of ideas I had because of completing National Boards, and frankly, a lot of things needed to be changed in my classroom to improve the impact on learning for my students.

I did get to enjoy more time with my friends though and it felt really good to join them and not worry about what I should have been doing back at home.  Bunco. Book Club. Day trips. Yelp Elite pool parties. Ceramics painting.

A few more shots of my "boring" summer vacation, just so I can remember I wasn't a total vampire!

In fact, I did lots of shopping and movie-going as well...two of my favorite pastimes!!  Who is with me when I say this was one of the BEST movies this summer?!

Anyone who lives in Arizona knows, its better to just hide inside like a vampire until the weather cools off again.  So, to some my summer probably seems like a total bore...but sweet freedom was all I tasted!

Heh. So true when you live in the desert.

Tomorrow (today, when this post goes up) my summer ends.  My alarm clock will go off at 5am.  I'll have to join the morning commute.  Day-long meetings.  Eventually that leads to lesson plans on the weekend again.  Etc. Etc. Etc.  Someone pinch me so I can make sure this is all a dream...that I don't have to go back to being a working stiff already!!!