Etch 'n Sketch Reflections

Summer is in full swing, and for me that means a combination of projects around the house, vacation time (a trip to Disney World!), time down at the ballpark, and planning for next year. And it's crazy to think that one third of summer has already passed! My teaching partner and I had the opportunity to meet last week to begin planning for next year. Both of us will be new to sixth grade, so it will be a big learning opportunity for the both of us (but a bit more for me since she is coming from seventh grade).  We discussed scheduling/co-teaching opportunities. The principal would really like us to think outside of a traditional classroom setting and look for areas where we can team teach. We determined that we will both teach a section of math at the same time and use a half-hour piece of the math block for a team teaching PBL time. I will then teach the science blocks and she will teach the integrated language arts/social studies blocks. We also discussed areas that we could con...

This was the start of my summer...a beautiful weekend down in Lake Geneva with a friend from college. I should be more honest, the days were beautiful, but the nights were rainy. Nevertheless, it was some much-needed R&R. And, hopefully, R&R will be what the rest of the summer brings: some golf, time at parks watching Olivia playing softball and soccer, and a vacation to Disney World! But this summer will also bring some new experiences, specifically with the learning and preparation that I will need for my new 6th grade position. My focus will be in math and science, and I'm really excited to starting this adventure in these areas. Not that I have anything against the other subject areas--it's just that math and science have always been areas I've enjoyed more. I'm beginning my learning on middle school with a little online learning, checking out middle school blogs and twitter resources. Next week, however, I'm going to have the opportunity to sit do...

Today wrapped up another school year--my 14th year, in fact, with 12 of those being in my current 3rd grade position. Except I can't really call it my current position anymore, as next year I will be moving up to 6th grade at the new middle school. It is a position I am excited about; a change, a fresh start, a new challenge. Don't get me wrong, every year is truly like that when it comes to teaching. Every year brings a new make up of kids, changes to our curriculum, and challenges galore. But for me, right now, this just felt right, so I took the leap. I'm going to miss my school (this is my picture leaving today). I'm going to miss my colleagues and the connections I've made during all these years. I'm going to miss 3rd graders, who are, by nature, still very sweet and kind, but also unpredictable. You never really know what one of them might say or do from one moment to the next. But even though I will not get to see all of these people on a regular basis...

Probably just about every teacher has muttered those words at some point (I know I am most certainly guilty of it). And those words lead to cabinets, drawers, shelves, closets, nooks, crannies, and anywhere else that space is available to be filled up with random junk. But I can say that, as of last Friday, the only time my cabinets, drawers, and closets have ever been cleaner is when the school was brand new. I inherited my room 12 years ago, and I've organized and purged things from the previous resident here and there, but never to the full extent that I could have. It felt good last year to be able to downsize an entire filing cabinet full of master copies from my room. I had always told myself, "They were used by the last teacher, so I will probably use them, too." Some of it I did use, but the curriculum changes, and resources along with it. So it was time to dispose of the paper inside that hunk of metal and free up the space for things I was using. Just as it felt...

It happens every year...field day. A day that pretty much every student looks forward to, and I am usually beat by the end of it. It is a day of extra excitement, and tons of fun, but also a lot of child-wrangling and management skills. My hat is off to the fantastic gym teachers at our school who organize this event every year, as well as all the parents who volunteer to run the activities. We had beautiful weather this year! The students are overwhelmed with joy and competition during the various activities, which include both whole class vs. whole class as well as small group relay events. The events include an obstacle course, fox tail toss, beanbag tic-tac-toe, some water activities (always popular), a scooter challenge, and a bowling pin/frisbee challenge. I usually participate in a few activities, and this year was no different. However, this year I had a new favorite game, which was also the first time it was at the field day. It was a "Critter Grab." The teams needed...

So, if you've been keeping up with my blog, you know that I have a particular student (we'll call her student X) who has difficulties seeing past her own wants and doesn't see the role she plays in the classroom disagreements that she is part of. Well, today she may have reached that tipping point of realization that she is soon going to have no girl classmates that she can look to and call friends if she doesn't start making some honest changes. It may have taken the entire year, with a tremendous amount of frustration, but I think she is finally aware that the girls have reached their breaking point and they are keeping her accountable for her actions. This morning, a couple of the girls (we'll call them A and B) brought it to my attention that X used A's computer to get her way back onto a shared Google project that B had "removed" X from due to how she was treating some of the other girls (we'll call them C and D, whom I'm fairly certain ...

It seems weird to say this, but that was a crazy fast week, and it was a pretty good one on top of it all. Of course there were still the occasional misunderstandings between students and quick reactions rather than calm thinking, but they weren't major explosions. The weather, as a whole, was nice this week other than one day of inside recess (but tomorrow looks TERRIBLE! 80 degrees one day this week and 40 tomorrow? That's a load of cow manure right there...) But it doesn't matter, because tomorrow's Friday, and nothing's going to get me down on a Friday. I had fun with some of the lessons this week. We've been working on reading poetry during literacy time for the last couple of weeks. Last month was National Poetry Month (I know, it's May...our last unit took some extra time so we started poetry a little late!) so we've been reading a variety of poetry books and identifying the thoughts and feelings the poets were trying to express. To cap it off, ...