Finally Friday!

Praise the good Lord above, I survived this week! At points I honestly did not think I was going to make it.

With all that said, here is a recap of what we covered this week and what went on:

1. Common Fractions Assessment-
At our last planning day, the fourth grade team wrote about a thousand fraction math problems covering all standards. Myself and another teacher pushed them together and created a big kahuna test. It was incredibly difficult and took several of my students more than 2 1/2 hours. After I finished grading the test, I discovered that I need to reteach some concepts and then have them correct their tests. Frustrating, but with the test a little over a month away, it's incredibly important. In addition, fractions are such a large part of the 4th grade Common Core curriculum.

2. Field Trip to the Planetarium
On Wednesday we took about 150 fourth graders to the Planetarium on the campus of UNC-Chapel HIll. Since my school is in a rural area, it took us about 90 minutes each way. 3 hours on a bus was not my idea of a good time. Add in a sick kid, not so great chaperones, and scheduling mishaps. BUT the shows were amazing and the kids were incredibly well behaved and intrigued.

3. Relay For Life

Our school has a Relay for Life team each year and we have several fundraisers throughout the year. Last night was our annual Spaghetti Dinner & Talent Show. I coordinated most of the spaghetti dinner and we had a pretty good turnout. I can already see how next year can be even better! I took one picture, of my wonderful co-worker's adorable son chowing down on a cupcake. Isn't he cute?

4. In ELA this week I have been working on completing independent reading assessments. This requires the rest of my students to be occupied with independent work. This is always a struggle for my friends. Does anyone have any suggestions? I do have to pat myself on the back. I have 13 students who are reading at middle of fifth grade level or beyond. I have 1 student exactly on level, 1 approaching level (1 level below), and 6 friends below level. Coming from the beginning of the year, when it was almost flipped, that is an amazing transformation! Reading is definitely my favorite subject!

5. Tonight I went with one of my good friends, Meredith, to dinner and just to chat. I've known Meredith for about 7 years. She also just recently got an awesome job as a guidance counselor! Yay!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="329"] Meredith and I at Appalachian State[/caption]

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings and our server was Megan at The Remodeled Life's cousin. Small world! After dinner we went to Targay, where I was sucked into the Dollar Spot.

Well, the HGTV magazine didn't come from the dollar spot. (I wish!)  But whenever there are non-fiction books to be found in the dollar spot, I will for sure scoop them up!

Oh, I'm also including a picture of my clip chart at the end of the day on Thursday. I think next year I need more below "Ready to Learn". I just have those friends who aren't motivated by one clip-down.

I keep the boys on the right and the girls on the left just for easier viewing. The boys were rocking it out yesterday. I do have 23 students, 11 girls and 12 boys.

I'm linking up with two awesome ladies, Doodle Bugs and Teaching Maddeness.

Tomorrow I'm headed thrifting with an amazing co-worker. I'll try to take some pictures! Have a fabulous weekend!

Hodge Podge Post

Is anyone else having the struggle I am? Since coming back from Spring Break yesterday my kiddos have been wild. It's almost as if they have forgotten all the rules and procedures. Add to that the fact that a student who left in December came back today (such is life in a school with a transient population) and we have a field trip tomorrow and we are insane. This afternoon we took our quarterly district benchmark for ELA. Can I have another Spring Break please? (42 school days until summer!)

As a first year teacher I have tried so many different types of classroom management tricks and methods. I think every teacher at some point struggles with classroom management. I even have an entire pinboard devoted to this topic on Pinterest. My favorite, and what I'm sticking with now, is a clip chart. I originally saw this idea on Pinterest from the Clutter Free Classroom. 

I probably should have started with this idea at the beginning of the year, and I even had a clip chart created, but for some reason I didn't. Our school uses PBIS, which stands for Positive Behavior Intervention Supports, or in human language, is really emphasizing the positive behaviors we see and trying to ignore or downplay the negative behaviors. (Obviously if it is detrimental to the learning of other students or harmful we step in) My clip chart looks a bit different. I only have one negative consequence right now. All of my kiddos start out on the green level, which is Ready to Learn. They can move up or down. If they move down to yellow, then there is some sort of consequence, whether it be silent lunch, laps at recess, phone call home, or a referral. 

So, does it work?? For many of my students, they thrive on everyone knowing that they are doing a great job. They don't want anyone to know if they are in trouble. So, "clipping up" is a great motivatior for them. They want to reach the top of the chart and when that happens, I wear their clip around for the rest of the day. The thing that I have really learned with this is that it takes dedication on my part and just being consistent. I need to give less warnings and have them clip down quicker. I need to focus more on clipping up though as well. I wish my kiddos were intrinsically motivated, but honestly, how many adults really are? I know that I love being acknowledged by someone for my hard work! 

So, on one last note, Lindsey at My Life as a Third Grade Teacher is celebrating having 900 followers. (WOW!) Head over there to enter to win a $20 Target gift card. Or don't, less competition for me! :) 

I'm linking up with:

Go link up and check out her awesome task cards! 

Have a Wonderful Wednesday! We are going to the Morehead Planetarium. Pray we have a fun and educational trip! 

PS: Does anyone know how to make bloggy buttons work on WordPress? 

 

Monday Made It

How much do I love that there is a link-up for almost every day of the week?? Today, I'm linking up with the talented Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics. I love reading 4th grade blogs. I mean, I love reading all blogs, but I especially like reading blogs of teachers that deal with the same nonsense I do. The same standards, the same hormones, etc. 

Anyways, back on track. (ADD much?) Linking up with Tara for the wonderful...

I have a hodge-podge of randomocity for this week. First up, this month is one of my wonderful co-worker's Birthday Month. That's right, we celebrate right. For the entire month. To kick off her birthday, I surprised her with this treat to brighten up the first Monday back after Spring Break:

I printed the tag from the wonderful ladies at eighteen25. All their free printables are awesome. In the mason jar are the FlavoRed Starburst JellyBeans. (She loves those)

Last night I was feeling super creative and whipped up some math centers to review fractions. They're not cute. AT ALL. Oh well. The kids can still learn with them! I created a Write the Room activity using fraction word problems, fraction war to work on equivalent fractions, and a few other games that it seems like they enjoyed today. Here are some of my Write the Room cards fresh out of the laminator. 

 

And here are a few pics of my kiddos enjoying the centers today. 

 

And I also just finished putting together a 4th Grade Fractions Assessment that covers 4.NF.1-4.NF.7 (I know you're all jealous of my awesome life). No pic of that cause it would be super boring. 

Have a terrific Tuesday! 

 

 

 

Mentor Text Linky

I have a confession to make. I am insanely addicted to children's books. I have over 1200 in my classroom library. Plus more in my mentor text bin. One of my goals for the summer is to better organize my mentor texts, but for now my cabinet is overflowing and disorganized. 

The wonderful ladies over at Collaboration Cuties are having a linky party about mentor texts. This week's theme is Language Arts. My absolute favorite mentor text for Language Arts is...

 

 

This book follows a family as their children grow up and their tree Steve does as well. Steve holds laundry, creates leaf piles, places for young love to blossom, and shelter for the dog's house. Make sure you have tissues handy, because the end of the book never fails to make me cry. 

I use this book to teach main idea. On anchor chart paper, I sketch a tree. On the trunk, the kiddos and I come up with the main idea of the story. On the branches we put the supporting details. Each leave contains an adjective that describes Steve, the tree. I got this idea originally from the fabulous Amy Lemons. This is her pin that inspired me, over a year ago. 

 

I complete this with the students and then have them complete their own main idea/detail activity later independently with another text. 

I cannot wait to see what other books are linked up, so I can add them to my shopping cart at Amazon! What are your favorite mentor texts?

 

First Post: Currently (April)

Welcome to my little corner of this blogging world. For my first post, I'm going to link up with Farley for the April Currently. 

 

Listening: I have become addicted to HGTV over Spring Break. Possibly because I'm currently looking for an apartment/house?

Loving: Spring Break. Of course! You never realize how much you really just need to sit around and do nothing until you get a week to relax.

Thinking: One more quarter. I think I can, I think I can.

Wanting: We have a T.A. that rotates through our classrooms, but I only get her for about 2 hours a week. In an age when I have so much differentiation in my classroom, it's difficult to meet every child's needs on my own.

Needing: Even though I got lots of sleep this past week, I can always use more!

Advice: Sometimes, I really need to take my own advice. I agree to do too much sometimes. Oopsies.