The Packing Begins

I apologize for my absence in recent months.  I've had a ton of things thrown at me all at once and well, I just haven't been able to bring myself to post about it all.  That is until now.

My huge announcement is that I will be mooing back to Texas this summer.  Smiles and tears all rolled into this announcement.  Most of you know my husband is in the Air Force.  Well, we received word at the beginning of December that we had orders.  He will serve a one year tour in Korea (without us).  first thought were that this isn't fair.  My husband is currently deployed and we will only get to be with him for 3-4 months before he is god again.  How do I explain this to a 4 year old when I can't even wrap my brain around it?  Trust me.  So many questions have been running through my mind.

Why Texas?  Well, my that is my home state.  While I miss all my friends and co-workers, I feel that I must go home.  We will not be coming back to NC.  As of now we are waiting for a follow-on assignment which could be Texas anyway or Germany.  It is a waiting game for the next few months. But, in the meantime, I need to be with my family.  I need my daughter to grow up knowing them and for them to cherish all of the time they can with her.

Will I teach in Texas?  This one I am not quite sure about yet.  Possibly, yes.  But, it all depends on where our follow-on assignment is to and when we need to report there.  I may just sub for a while and be a parent volunteer.  This will be her first year of school, Kindergarten.  I just want to lap up all of her innocence while I can.

There you have it!  The craziness of my life the past month or so.  But, I am going to make the best of my teaching for the next few months.  I've got lots of great units in store and hope to share them with you soon.  Here is a sneak peak I am working on for Common Core RL 2.1 and RL 3.2 for you 2nd and 3rd grade teachers.  This will be helpful for those in NC that must complete writing portfolios for your students.

Turkey Fun & Interventions

Brrrr!  It is cold outside.  I am loving very second of this cold front and I hope that it is here to stay.  Don't get me wrong, I L-O-V-E the summer.  What teacher doesn't?  But, I also love to wear leggings and sweaters because let's face it....they are just plain comfortable.  I still pull out my flip-flop during the winter.  They should be a year-round staple, in my opinion.

Okay, enough of my winter fashion sense.  Time to get down to some school business.

one of the most important things I like to teach is "thankfulness".  If we teach kids early about things they should be grateful for, I believe they will carry this with them throughout their lives.  Every year I use a turkey to create a list of things we are thankful for.  This year the 2nd grade team at our school was asked to create centerpieces that would sit in the middle of each table at an Air Force Thanksgiving luncheon.  I got an idea from Pinterest, and made it my own.  My students used their handprints to write things they are thankful for on each finger.  Then, we hot glued (or I hot glued) the hands to brown paper cups.  We also glued on googly eyes, an orange beak, and a red turkey "snood" or as I like to call it "gobbler".  I know that is absolutely not the correct term, but it just makes more sense to me and is a fun word to say.  They turned out adorable!!!!

All the students did an amazing job!

Here is our class "thankful feather" turkey!  I love bringing this back each year!

I also had a little time to do some intervention with sight words, reading fluency, and comprehension.  The kids read these passages with me and found each word every time we read the passage, which ended up being 4 times.  They made flashcards for school and home.  We reviewed these words and will continue to build their cards throughout the year.  this has been one of the most quick and worthwhile interventions I have found for struggling/emergent readers in 2nd grade.  I found this packet {HERE} and I love it!  I wish I could give it 10 stars, it is that wonderful!

Well, that's a wrap.  Do you know of any intervetion packets that you have found on TeachersPayTeachers or any other site that is quick and easy?  Please share!



  

Wild Weather Writing and Fair Fun

My, oh, my!  I have been blessed with many days to keep me busy.  My students have learned so much in such a small amount of time.  I can't believe we have been in school for 5 weeks.  Our days have been jam packed with rigorous activities.

Our Science unit is about everything weather.  From weather, tools, to cloud types, to the water cycle, we are busy little meteorologist.  On of my favorite things about teaching is INTEGRATION!   I can cover so many topics in fewer lessons.  We are required to have our students write informative essays.  For my lesson plans last week, we studied different types of Wild, wacky Weather...hurricanes, thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, etc.  My students read about all of these and then chose one to give us the low down on what to expect with this weather.  Hurricanes and Tornadoes were of cours ethe favorites!  My students made bubble maps to brainstorm and then created their writings.  They turned out to be wonderful with lots of factual information.  If you have never visited http://www.weatherwizkids.com/, you must check it out!  The kids explored this site and found lots of valuable resources to complete their writings.  Oooooh, there you have technology integration too!

My students enjoyed creating the bottom half of their bodies with rain boots which are a necessity for bad weather days!

Just a little pic on a monster truck ride at the county fair. This was taken after the tantrums and tears.  I'm not sure we will be going back to the fair again until she is 16.  This mom was worn out! 

Can you tell that my daughter is my husband in full, personality and all?

This past week we have been busy studying rhythm and rhymes in poetry.  Pics to follow soon.  Have a relaxing weekend.  Monday will be here before we know it!

It's Fall Friends!

I am loving every second of this cool, gloomy weather.  I actually accomplished quite bit by staying inside.  I have been going back and forth on what to do about National Boards.  I am not questioning whether or not to pursue it, THAT IS A GIVEN!  I want to be a NBCT!  I just can't decide what certification I want, Early Generalist or Middle Generalist.  All I know is early elementary which I absolutely love, butIi wouldn't mind changing to the upper elementary grades in the future.  Having taught Kindergarten, 1st, & 2nd, I have been able to see how the curriculum adapts to each grade.  Hmmm, I'm just don't have a clue on what I should do???

Let me just warn you that I am about to jump all over the place on this post.  I have some of my pics from the past two weeks back logged and wanted to share some happenings in my life.

On Thursday,I received a letter from my local Congressman George Holding in my teacher box at school.  I looked at this huge envelope in my box and thought, "Oh my goodness! What is that?"  It almost felt like Christmas morning.  Then I saw it was from the House of Representatives and couldn't wait to tear it open to find this inside.

The envelope also contained an framed certificate, but I left it at school.  So, no pics right now.  let's just say I was in teacher heaven.  I still can't believe this is happening to me!  I also had a television interview with our school news channel.  I felt like I babbled on and on.  I am one of those people that doesn't like hearing myself on any type of video or recording.  Gosh, I am too critical of myself, but I really think I have a type of OCD .  I just want it all to be perfect. :)

The week before last, my students and my coworkers students created this pretty piece of art for our assistant Ms. K.  The students wrote tiny messages on the sprinkles and we hung it between our two classes to surprise her on her special day.  she loved it!  Our kids did an amazing job of keeping it a secret.

Also last week, my students began the writing process.  Narratives!  Such a big component of 2nd grade!  One of my sweet students wrote this about her best friend.  Too cute!  This activity really gives me an insight about each child.  Thus, I enjoy having my students complete this writing every year.  It was created by the talented Amy lemons and can be found for free {HERE}!

My plans for next week include seasons, weather, and Johnny Appleseed!  

It is that time of year my friends!

  

Author's Purpose, Exploring with PIE

One of my favorite things to teach is Author's Purpose.  I use the PIE acronym.  Persuade-Inform-Entertain!  Each year I find more and more great resources to use with this.  This year my students have Interactive Reading Notebooks.  You can find the one I am using HERE.  It covers all Reading Standards for Common Core 2nd Grade.  Nicole Shelby is fabulous!  My students and I love all of her packs.   I also use her Language Interactive Notebook which I will discuss at a later time.

I modeled how to complete each activity and away they went!!!

A flapbook to write the way to figure out the author's purpose by asking questions about a book.

Common Core Standard with the different type's of author's purposes.

This little piece of work was one of those last minute {AHA} moments.  I found this PREZI and I loved how there was a podcast of the story The Apple Pie Tree at the end.  I had students listen to the story and draw what they understood about the story.  Of course some students only drew one thing, but this little friend drew and wrote about everything she remembered.  I love how she analyzed the story and put her own spin on it.  Amazing!

We will continue discussing author's purpose for the next 3 weeks just to make sure they have it down.  I am having the students keep this in their journal so we can organize books we read into the 3 different categories. I want them to reflect on the stories we read so they are easily able to identify author's purpose when reading a story.  You can grab this freebie by clicking on the pic!

Have a restful weekend my friends!

Classroom Rules (I survived Week 1!)

Oh am I ever-so-thankful that we are into our 2nd week of school.  I love my new little friends!  They are a quiet bunch with such wonderful manners.  I usually have crazy dreams about my class leading up to the 1st day of school, but I didn't have any this year.  Perhaps the jitters of beginning a new school year disappear once you reach a milestone in your teaching career.

The BIGGEST thing I reinforced this week were the Classroom Rules.  We use PBIS, which I have mentioned before.  Every class has the same rules and expectations so there is consistency.  I love this!  The kids know the rules year after year, but I always have to reintroduce them especially because we get many new students each year.

This is what my classroom rules look like:

It looks so much better in person, but I wanted to take a quick picture of it with my phone so you could see how I put it together.  I had many requests for these rules, so I made many different templates for teachers at our school to use.  Click on the pictures below to get a free copy that you can use in your classroom.

Bright Classroom Theme

Beach Classroom Theme

Hope these help all of you get a great start to the school year!  I'll be back later this week with more things we are working on in 2nd Grade!

A Week I Will Never Forget

This past week has been life-changing.  My mind has been on full throttle, my nerves shot, and my heart filled with joy.

Let me rewind a bit.  As you know, I was selected as Teacher of the Year for my school.  I was so ecstatic!  So, I spent my summer preparing my teaching portfolio.  Let me just tell you that it is a ton of work, but it also let me reflect on my beliefs about teaching.  I gained more knowledge by writing my ideas than you can imagine.

Fast forward to last week..  I interviewed with past educators for a spot as a finalist for my district as Teacher of the Year.  My nerves were on crazy mode.  I just didn't know which kind of questions would be asked.  Would it be Common Core Standards?  Maybe it would be about how I differentiate in my classroom?  Hmm...I just didn't know.

Well, to my surprise I received an email that I was selected as Elementary Teacher of the Year and would need to come back for more interviews to determine the Teacher of the Year at the county level.  Talk about lots of excitement and tears.  My mind was in a million places as I thought about what all of this meant.

On Tuesday night we had our Teacher of the Year banquet.  My nerves were there to visit me once again.  You would think I would have nerves of steel by this point.  Each TOY from each school was announced.  Then came the three finalists.  After we all sat back down the Superintendent stood and gave his speech.  As soon as I heard him quote what was in my portfolio I knew it was me.  My husband kicked me under the table because he knew all of the words from my portfolio.  I had spent so much time writing, reading, revising, etc. that I read it over and over and over again.  I am sure he was annoyed at times, but he just let me speak.

I stood up and gave only a few comments because the excitement had truly gotten the best of me.  I was in a room full of wonderful educators that certainly deserved this recognition just as much as I did.  I am truly honored and very blessed!

 Wayne County Schools Teacher of the Year 2013-2014

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This is me with our Superintendent Dr. Taylor.

My wonderful,supportive husband and I.  All dressed up before the banquet.

The beautiful flowers are from my family back in Texas.  The award was presented to me from my sweet colleagues who truly helped my to get to this point.

Thursday we had Open House.  With all of the excitement going on I had to throw everything together last minute to make sure my classroom was the way I like it.  

We always take a grade level team photo after each open house.  These are the lovely ladies I work with and that keep me on my feet.  :)

I must get to bed and hopefully get plenty of rest.  I have 23 new 2nd graders to greet tomorrow.  I think this is the first year in 7 years that I am not nervous one bit!