Busy, and some freebies!

Oh boy, has life been busy, busy, busy! Today was my last day of student teaching for now, so after spring break I will be heading back to my school to finish off the year. Student teaching was a great experience and I learned a lot about myself during this process. I will really miss all the kids and amazing teachers that I got to work with.

This last week, I had the opportunity to watch some really great teachers. I learned so many new things to take back to my classroom. One of my favorite things that I learned from one of the third grade teachers was on questioning. She asks the kids to think of thick and thin questions. The thin questions are those that you can pull right from the book. They are found right on the page. The thick questions are those that you have to make predictions or inferences from. I really liked this way of thinking. One of the second grade teachers that I was watching today started her day with a dance party. This allowed the kids to wake up and get their brains ready to work for the day. These are two things that I will for sure take back to my classroom. I am excited to try them and see what my students think about it. 

Tomorrow I will be attending the Southern California bloggy meetup. What a great way to start my spring break. I am so excited to meet all these great ladies. I have to confess that I am a little nervous because I am going to be meeting some ladies that I really admire in the blogging world. I have been following a few of them ever since I first started following blogs two years ago. 

Well, I also have a few freebies to share with you today. For several years I have been doing a differentiated spelling homework for my second graders. I give them a contract that allows them to do the activities that help them learn the words best. This year, I started doing this same idea for my fourth graders with their vocabulary words. The students have lots of different activities that they can do. If you would like a copy of the vocabulary contract that I have been using, just click on the apple. 

This year, I also started a differentiated reading project each week for my fourth graders. They have really enjoyed getting to pick what kind of project they get to do. If you would like a copy for yourself, just click on the apple to download it. 

Do any of you use differentiated assignments for classwork or homework? How do you use differentiated assignments? Well, I hope you all have a great weekend. If you have started your spring break, I hope that you have some fun things planned for your time off! 

Bloggy Meet Up!

I am super excited about the So Cal blogger meet up! This will be my first meet up, and it will be so nice to meet some of the wonderful people behind these amazing blogs. Even though I have not been blogging for very long, I have been reading and following lots of blogs for a couple of years. I just love all of the creativity that is out there. 

If you would like to join in on the fun, come on over to Katie's blog, "Teacher to the Core" and sign up. Just click on the picture below to go over to her blog. 

After going to Katie's blog and signing up, head over to Kate's blog at "Second Grade Sparkle" and link up that you will be attending. 

I am so excited about this fun event! I hope that I will be seeing you all there. Have a great weekend! 

A cool tip!

I wanted to take a few minutes and share a cool tip with you. I really hate putting paper on my bulletin boards. The paper always rips and fades, and it also is just plain hard to get the paper up. At the beginning of the year, I use fabric on my boards. It is easier to put up, and I can keep it up all year. All I have to do is change the items on the board based on the seasons. And I don't have to put new paper up every time I change the board. I'm also able to keep the same fabric up year after year so in the long run, I save money!

 This is a picture of a map that I had up in my room. This was a piece of fabric that I found at a small store. 

 This was a spring board that I put up. I used a cute piece of fabric, and I used my cricut to cut out all the cute bugs and flowers. 

In this picture, you can kind of see that the bulletin board fabric is money. 

These two boards are some of my all time favorites. I just LOVE how they turned out. The top board was crayon fabric which went well with the theme, and the bottom board fabric looked kind of like honey combs. Have you ever thought of using fabric on your boards? I just love fabric in the classroom because it makes the room look so bright! 

adventures in student teaching

I am getting ready to start my third week of student teaching. It sure is different than having your own classroom. I have to follow the lead of my master teacher and follow the procedures and discipline plan that she has set up, even though I would not necessarily use them for my own classroom. 

My master teacher is very nice, and I have learned a lot of interesting concepts that she uses in her classroom. I am excited to take them back to my own classroom. I really like the way she does writers workshop. She has the kids edit their own papers and then with a partner before they turn it into her. I will be taking that back to my class. I think it is great that they have learned how to edit their own papers. It is such a great skill for them to master, and I had never thought to have my students do that. I have also learned a lot about centers. My master teacher uses them a lot. I am not sure I would do it exactly the same way as her, but I will be trying them back in my classroom when I return. 

I have also had the opportunity to try my hand at creating some materials for the class. I am not great at it yet, but it was really fun trying everything out! Last week we read the story, "Officer Buckle and Gloria." We had tons of fun with it. I had the kids come up with their own safety tip, and here is the worksheet that I created. Just click on the picture and enjoy this fun freebie. I hope that you enjoy! 

New Adventures

On Friday, I was told by the principal at my school that the school board was not sure they wanted to rehire me for next year. I took this as God speaking to me. I have been thinking for the last year that it might be time to move on. I have a very long commute every day. It takes me close to an hour to get to school in the morning, and about another two and even sometimes three hours to get home at night. It is time to find something closer to my house. 

Of course I will miss everyone at the school, but I will not miss the long commute and the loads of paperwork that I have to do everyday. It will also be nice to have a contained classroom again. These last five years, I feel like I have really lost some of my creativity. 

The classes at the school I am at now are just so short that there is no time to be creative. By the time I get the kids from their classroom, it is almost time to take them back to class. There is so much time spent traveling back and forth.  At least when you have the kids all day, you are able to adjust things throughout the day so you can fit in some of the fun things as well. 

So I am hitting the ground running. At least I found out about next year pretty early so I will hopefully be able to find a job. I am already putting together my resume, talking to other teacher friends, and looking through job postings. I know that God has the perfect job out there for me. 

As you all probably know, I am finishing up my credential right now which means that I will be starting my student teaching next week. This is another new adventure. I am so nervous about it. I know it will be great once I get into it, and I am looking forward to seeing how another teacher does things and learning from her. I really do love learning new things. Do you feel that way as well? Until next time, I hope everyone has a great day. 

A New Year

Well, it has been a crazy couple of weeks! I went back to school this last week not feeling well. While my husband and I were in Paris, I got sick and then got even worse when we got home. At least we had a really great time. We saw so many wonderful things and even got an extra day in Zurich, Switzerland at the loss of the airline! 

 This is us inside the beautiful Paris Opera House. It was gorgeous!

And of course we had to take some pictures with the Eiffel Tower. 

So this last week I was sick, and got even more sick as the week went on. By Friday, I was feeling really bad so I stayed home to try and get better. I lounged around and slept most of the day. Today I'm feeling better, but still not great. It is really hard to work when you don't feel well. 

At least now I am starting to feel better so I can get some blogging done and check out some of my other favorite blogs to see what everyone is doing. 

Well, on to other things! This last quarter, we started a new program for our upper grade math. My 5th grade math program is now done independently. They take no work home and it is all done in class. This allows me to see what the students are really understanding and what they still need help with. This new program also allows the students to work at their own pace. If a student needs a little more time on a lesson, they can take that time. Next year, when they move up to the next grade they will start math where they left off. If they finish through lesson 100 in the 5th grade book, they have to finish the rest of the lessons before they can move on to the next book. 

So here is how I organize the program. Organization is key with this because the students are all on different lessons. 

 I use this box to keep all the work the kids do. It also has all the tests copied so when a student is ready for a test, it is ready for them. I don't have to worry about remembering to get things copied for them.

Here is the inside of the box. Each student has a folder where I keep their work. At the end of ten lessons, they take a test and then all of their work gets handed back to them. I also have a folder for the graded work. This allows me to see what work needs to be recorded and placed into the students folders. 

What do you do for your math program? How do you organize the work?

Craziness

Christmas has flown by and it sure was crazy! I am sitting in the airport right now posting from my phone. My husband and I are off to celebrate New Year's in Paris. This is our first time there and we are so excited!

Earlier this month, I participated in the Holly Bloggy Christmas exchange. I got to buy all my favorite things for Kelly Pate over at thirstiefirsties.blogspot.com. I hope she liked all the things I sent her. I am not able to figure out how to post pictures from my phone so I will have to show the pictures later.

Well, this is it for now but I will be back soon to tell you all about our trip to Paris, as well as what will be happening when school starts up again. What will you be doing with your class when school starts?