An Early Currently and I'm still late!

Once again I'm joining up with Farley and her wonderful currently linky and I'm still one of the later entries! Oh, well, maybe I am always fashionably late!!

 

It is so nice to have the windows opened and the air off again, so I'm listening to the birds (and the neighbors dogs bark, but it's okay). My cats are happy that the windows are open, too!

 

I love Sunday afternoons when I don't have anything to do on Mondays! I'm trying to figure out how I can keep this going even during the school year.

 

I keep writing down ideas, creating materials, and trying to decide on a classroom theme. This week end I went to a behavior conference and learned some great ideas to try in my classroom. One of my co-workers also went and we talked about trying to change our level system and point sheets for the school, so my head has all this buzzing around in it!

 

I would love to take a vacation somewhere this summer, but it isn't looking promising. First, our bathroom ceiling leaked and has to be replaced, so then there will be repainting, and I have to figure out what to do with the border- I'm thinking it will go. Then I have a STEM class for 2 weeks that I signed up for to learn about the standards better since I'm switching grades (again). So, I think that leaves about 2 weeks of freedom for me before school actually starts! My husband is doing the ceiling himself, so there goes all of his free time!

 

I really need to go to the grocery store today! We need food! I have the list made out with the menu for the week, but I just need to actually get up and go! Well, first I should shower and get out of my pj's!

 

My tip is to join linky parties and make meaningful comments. I still consider myself a newbie to blogging (I think my 1st year anniversary will be here soon). I've gained followers from the linky parties and commenting when I have something to say on other blogs. I've learned a lot from other bloggers and always want to share my appreciation for them!

 

So go to Farley's blog and join in the fun!

 



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June Goals, just what the teacher in me ordered!

I love this idea for a linky party! I need to be held accountable and set goals for each month of my summer! So I'm linking up with

I started cleaning, purging, and organizing the dreaded basement today. It has become a dumping ground for everything- not just my teachery items. I'm trying to get rid of things I haven't used in the past few years and organize it all by subject or category. This may take me all month! I also want to spend more time with my mom, sons, and husband doing fun things. We tend to get stuck on what has to be done or think that we can do fun stuff next week, which never comes. I've told my sons (ages 20 and 23) that I will be taking them out for lunch during the summer. 

On pinterest and other teacher blogs, I've seen some awesome ideas for organizing ideas with the common core. Since switching grades for next year, this is a good time to set up file folders with the standard number and description on them. Hmmmm, not sure what happened to my 4, in blog at least 4 times per month! I've slacked off during the school year, so I hope to get back in the swing of blogging!

I want to reread The Great Gatsby. I read it in high school (a long time ago) and with the movie coming out, I want to read the book before seeing the movie. I also have ordered Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids. I like the idea of whole brain teaching, but it needs tweaking for my students! Hopefully, this book will give me a lot of ideas. I've also joined the book club/discussion for this book with others through Chris Biffle's Whole Brain Teaching site, to help me along!

June Shout Out to Vacation Time!!

It's June and everyone here knows what that means... Farley's June currently , school is out (or ending, hopefully) and summer flip flop time!! My school ended on Friday, so tomorrow is my first official day of vacation! I know I will be awake early, as it takes me awhile to turn off my internal alarm clock and retrain the kitties to wake up later!

 

I love HGTV and House Hunters, I love being able to see inside of different peoples' homes! As I wrote earlier, my school ended on Friday- kind of bittersweet as my classroom paraprofessional retired, our wonderful speech pathologist is moving to another state, AND two other teachers are going to other schools - I'm going to miss all of them!

I've decided that I need to plan out what I'm going to do this summer, so that I don't keep putting off what I want to get done, and then not do anything! I just need to make the plan and stick with it as I have several major projects in mind! I really need a space where I can create my classroom plans, centers, games, bulletin board cuteness, and anything else that I may need or want! Right now, I do my creating, printing, cutting, laminating in the living room or at the dining room table, which means I'm constantly getting things out, working, and then putting things away. This leads into my need of cleaning out the basement. It would be the perfect place to work in the summer. I just dread going to clean it out- over the past year  2 years maybe 4 years (yikes!) I've just carried down boxes from each school year to store when I've changed grades or themes. I need to organize it all and purge items! 

When I go on vacation I need the usual books and camera, but it is a family joke that any type of slope or uneven ground that I walk on, I tend to fall- especially if it is muddy. I keep trash bags in the car for me to sit on when I fall in mud, the times I've fallen I was covered in mud!

 

I hope everyone is enjoying their last few days of school, or their first few days of summer!

What would I do differently next year?

It's so much fun to join a linky party, so for my first of the summer, I'm linking up with Kim over at
Finding Joy in 6th Grade

So what would I do differently next year? Well, some of the things are easy to identify- I'm switching grades again going from a 4th and 5th grade room to a 3rd and 4th grade classroom!

This past school year, I used rotations for part of the year, but then switched back to whole group instruction, with different tasks for the students in order to meet their needs. I really like the rotations of working with teacher, practice, and apply skills, so I need to plan this out better for the next year. Some of the problems were with staff- I had 4 different people for one of my aides during the year, with varying experience and knowledge, so it was difficult to depend on them to help out.

I need to challenge my students to do more, take more chances, even fail at times! My students tend to be scared of making any mistakes, so they simply don't do the extra work. I need to keep them accountable and make sure that they are performing at their best level.

Working with students with various emotional and behavior challenges, I need to incorporate more multi-sensory activities in the school day. It may be by giving them a choice menu based on learning styles or through different activities that use their senses and motor skills.

I guess I have my summer planned with all that I hope to accomplish next year. I've kept a reflection journal this year, so I know what I need to change and what worked in my class this year. So what are you going to do differently or the same next year?

Finally May Currently!

It's finally here! Spring has arrived in Ohio! I'm loving the warmer weather and the ability to go outside more with my students! The trees and flowers are in  bloom, along with my allergies! The state testings for my students are done- I have students from 5 different schools, so I had various students testing over a 2 week period! And, last but certainly not least, it's time for May Currently! I'm hoping that now that all my IEP, ETR, and other meetings are done for the year, I can get back to blogging!  So I'm linking up with Farley and the other fantastic bloggers for the May Currently!

I'm listening to Ellen- I love her show, it's a great stress reliever, too!  Today was a day off for my school, because of election day in Ohio! I had a great time shopping at the Teachers Pay Teachers sale! It's so hard to limit my purchases, I wish I could learn how to create cute, creative items for my students, but in the meantime I'll keep buying from all the talented teachers out there! Of course, it would help to have a TpT fairy to print out, cut out and laminate all the items I bought! I wonder how many credits I would earn for renting a TpT fairy?  I have 15 days left of school and 2 of those are personal days! It's getting hard to stay motivated to develop my lesson plans and materials (thank you again to TpT). My students don't want to be in class working anymore than what I do! It really didn't help that we had today off, Mondays are hard enough without having another "Monday" tomorrow! Then on Thursday, we have our fun fitness day, barring any rain! This week is basically a wash to start or complete anything! This summer I'm hoping to paint my kitchen and my bedroom, not totally sure of the colors, yet! I also need to get in better shape- hoping to exercise more now that it is nicer outside! I also want to take several mini-vacations around the area and state.

Fourth Grade Common Core Workbook

 Have you heard about this wonderful resource? If you teach 4th grade and need a good, quality resource for teaching using the new common core standards, this is for you! It has everything organized by subject. This workbook is a timesaver with so many activities to cover the new standards. Included in this workbook are graphic organizers for reading comprehension, center activities and materials to print out, laminate and use, worksheets for vocabulary, concepts, and practice skills. The materials are age appropriate with nice clip art and easy to read font. I just wish I would have had such a great resource like this when I first started teaching! It would have saved me so much money having all the activities offered by this one book, rather than the bookshelf of resources that I've bought throughout the years! Check out the  Fourth Grade Common Core Workbook and if you have a blog, you can enter the giveaway, if you hurry!