Common Core Math Inspiration

Long time, no post. Stumbled across a link from an elementary math wiki for a school in North Carolina. It contained numerous links to helpful common core documents, over views, vertical continuums, and critical standards. It also contained a Glogster with a link to an 11 minute Dan Meyer YouTube video that was very inspirational and helped to reassure me that the common core roll out for next year isn't something to worry or stress over, but rather, to be excited and renewed as a teacher. It reminded me that our Georgia math frameworks have prepared us to move professionally in the direction of appropriate math instruction: to question students, to allow students to discuss and develop algorithms and explore multiple solutions, and to think critically and creatively about authentically applicable problems. Am going to be looking more into Dan Meyer's blog! :)

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Fond Memories & On to Summer!

As always, I'm very far behind on posting, but I've finally combed through all of the photos and put them into Layout to share with you. Created a "Reading Helps Your Mind Bloom" book display, to leave up as state testing started. I pulled lots of gardening, bees, and butterfly books. Plus, lots of potential parents came through at the end of the year for tours, so it was good to have this out to keep it from being too sterile as all the library books started coming back. I did a "Hop Into a Great Book" display here to put an emphasis on some seldom-circulated books as well as to highlight nonfiction, though I also put out some fiction books too! Kept on teaching kindergarten and first graders about different authors. I did create some very fun centers for Mo Willems. As one paraprofessional said to me, "You're brave to do Play-Doh on carpet." However, we didn't really have any issues when I gave the kids clear expec...

Smile

Look at that shelf. Such disarray. That's kind of how I felt around mid-August. Pulled in too many directions. On overload. In need of a bookend to hold me up and set me straight. (or, in need of more time in my day) One week, I tried staying no later than 4 PM, and leaving undone what I couldn't accomplish, but that was stressful, too! I currently spend around 30 minutes everyday, either during classes, during planning, or after, afternoon car duty, to keep all of the books shelved. I'm doing a better job of preventing the shelves from looking like the one pictured above. (We've had 3 different moms come a collective six times to volunteer to help with shelving. Yay for Mrs. Stratton, who has come back multiple times!) I implemented a new change this year, to allow 4th and 5th graders to re-shelve their own fiction or everybody/picture books. That has helped! I also started a 5th grade program called "Castle Apprent...

Summer Already

Wow. I cannot believe that this year went by so quickly! I also can't believe, though I shouldn't be surprised, that I haven't posted ANYTHING since October 2016! Here's a quick, catch-up of relevant events with captions. :) Third grade's CultureGrams projects turned out really well. They worked feverishly, even when we were displaced into the multi-purpose room. They loved learning about a different country and its similarities and differences with their own. Second grade finished learning about the different periods of the Dewey Decimal system, and shared some of their work for our library bulletin board. Fun bulletin board idea from Pinterest for the start of second semester Kindergarten through fourth graders then listened to me read aloud 20 different Georgia Picture Book Award Nominees, over many weeks, so that they would be able to vote for their one favorite book. I worked in "28 Days: Moments in Blac...

Blessed to Teach and Read

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