So today was the first day back after Spring Break, and like usual the kids were super calm and very eager to get back into the swing of things! I am saddened to think that I only have weeks left with this group of kiddos. This has been my best group in my eight years of teaching. I have good parents who actually help the kids, and most of the kids are eager to learn and will put forth effort to do it! I am blessed because this time last year, I was considering quitting due to the exact opposite classroom environment. But we all know you have your good and bad years, just depends on the kid mix and how everything works together.
I have recently fully implemented Daily 5! I had done a study group in the county two years ago and followed along with the blogger study group over the summer and had worked bits and pieces into my schedule the past few months. We are now on our 3rd week of full implementation. I teach writing first thing in the morning, so we have our mini lesson, followed by 15 minutes of Work on Writing, then I allow a few students to share what they worked on. Then we go into our Reading Time. The students get the choice of Read to Self, Read to Someone, or Listen to reading. They are doing AWESOME with this. We have done Read to Self all year, but just made it to 15 minutes consistently, so I decided to combine them and give them choice! Following Reading Time, we do a Reading mini lesson, then go into Word Work. I have adapted a coworker's Daily 5 Contract to make it work for my room. I love it and the kids are finally getting the hang of it. They have 5 Have To's that they get to chose 1 each day. I allow two students per basket, and it is working so far. The kids have the contract attached to their clipboard that they keep in their book boxes, and they check off where they work each day. Once everyone has chose where they want to work, I can pull groups and work as long or as little as I need to with them. I am only meeting with one or two groups a day, but I feel my guided reading lessons are more beneficial, than trying to rush and meet everyone every day or every other day. My assistant is also pulling groups as needed to work on sight words, or reading during this time.
I will post pics of Daily 5 later in the week! Maybe if I write this it will help me be more accountable. I struggle trying to remember to take pictures of my kids working in class. I am often too busy working with them, to think about it. We will see if I remember.
A goal this summer is to dig into Daily 5 Math. I love Daily 5 so much, I can't wait to see how it will be for math!
So I was very excited to find some new Tennessee Teacher Bloggers yesterday. I can't wait to see if their will be a TN Meetup this summer that will be close enough that I can attend! Had fun at the last one.
So very interesting thing happening tomorrow at school. The assistants are giving our students an evaluation on us! They have to answer 33 questions about the teacher. I am interested in seeing what they ask and will be curious as to how they answer. I mean they are 6, I am not worried about my kids, but I do feel for upper grades teachers as my kids are still little and love me, but big kids don't always like their teacher, so I think it will be interesting.
Well since Spring Break is over, I am guessing everyone is on countdown mode. I had not officially counted down yet, but my wonderful coworker did and like I said earlier not wanting to see this group go, but ready for Summer. So here it is:
~34 days for me at work (3 days of inservice and 1 personal day already planned off with my coworker to have a girls day!)
~ 31 days for the kids
~Heather
