5 for Friday and a Giveaway

It's been a while since I've linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a little old 5 for Friday action. I've missed it! 

 I have been in PD all week. Some of it was fantastic, some of it was good review and some of it was...this.

 Ok, it wasn't really THAT bad and I do love me some data BUT you know when you reach that point where you are just like "can't I go live in my classroom for a little while and just bask in all that I've accomplished while feverishly writing my to-do lists in my personalized Erin Condren planner"...that was me yesterday. Even though my room was done (reveal coming soon...I promise), I wanted to just go sit at my desk and think through some of the little things. Today we have a work day and I'm looking forward to some alone time to...work. 

One of my personal instructional goals this year is to be more purposeful with my vocabulary instruction. Luckily, that directly ties in with our school goal of increased vocabulary development/instruction with intentional use of word walls...HELLO. Love it. 
I attended a training on this book last summer and loved the strategies but kind of stuffed the book in with the thousand other "resources I'm definitely going to use...sometime" and forgot about it. Well now I'm in a book study and I'm loving this book. 44 easy-to-implement activities that you can do...right now. Thursday I helped lead a training at our school where we introduced 2 of the activities so I thought I'd share the info with you, my fabulous readers, next week. I even have a freebie handout you can have to easily implement. [[I'm just that nice!]] :) 

 This.

 Have you guys discovered S'well bottles? My teacher friends and I are in love with them. Let me be honest, I'm so not a water drinker. I'd happily live my days drinking peach tea, Dr. Pepper and almost any other caffeinated, carbonated beverage. But I know I need to drink more water. Enter the S'well bottle. You see, I only drink water if it's super cold. So it's only up to my standards for as long as the ice isn't melting normally....but my adorable hot pink S'well bottle keeps my drink cold all day. As in at least 20 hours. EVEN IN THE 100 DEGREE WEATHER. It's amazing. S'well isn't paying but (but hey S'well people, if you want to pay me to rave about your bottles, I'm totally cool with that...just sayin')
You need to get one. They are cute and work like a dream. #Christmasgiftidea

I've said it before but I absolutely love the people I work with. They are seriously the best. That being said, we lost alot of "core" team members at the end of last year for various reasons. That means we have to work even harder to stick together and have each other's back this year...I am LOVING my new team. Of course I knew all of them before but it's nice working together! Plus we are adorable. #Team Elliott #LivingTree ((that's for you Krissy) 

We are some FANatics! Our kids are college bound :)

Love my SpED team friends and glad I get to work more closely with ya'll ths year!

Just #SharingaCoke :) 

Have you checked out my giveaway that's going on now?! It's for a FREE YEAR-LONG membership to abcteach.com! Free. Thousands of resources. Free. You should definitely go check out my post and comment so you can be entered in the drawing! Winners will be announced Monday night/Tuesday morning. Do it. Or if you know a teacher that could benefit, let them know! 

5 for Funday?

Ok, I know I'm extremely tardy to the party BUT I have had a great week...(and I haven't often said that phrase this school year!) so I want to share some of the awesome stuff that's been happening :) 

We had our district assessments this week so I did a gallery walk for reviewing the steps of analyzing poetry.

Listen, if there is any "test strategy" I teach, it is the steps to reviewing and analyzing a poem. For the past 3 years they have proved worthwhile for helping students figure out what elements are in a poem, the author's message, etc. And because I like you people, I'll share my secret ;) 

 It is seriously that simple but we learn all the vocabulary and definitions of the various elements and poetry types early in the school year and then start analyzing by the second six weeks. I have my kids analyze lots of popular songs first because they find that a little more fun :) but then we move on to poems that are a little more "meaty". One tip: When identifying the speaker, I always tell my kids, don't write down the author's name...write down the type of person who would have authored this poem. 

I am a Texas girl. I love the unpredictability of Texas...this week it was 81 on Monday and all of our kids were in shorts and then Tuesday the high was 50..which in Texas means it's freezing so the next day they were all bundled up. I LOVE it. And now it's snowing...which means everyone is already crossing their fingers for no school tomorrow. ((Yea, yea, we know...Texans are winter wimps...but come talk to me in the summer when it's 110 and we're outside playing sports.)) :) 

Seriously. In November. In Texas. I am beside myself. I. LOVE. WINTER.

Fossil Ridge HS lost their playoff game on Friday which means football season is over and I have my hubs back!! :) I'm not a terrible person for being a little excited they lost, right? I mean, we all know they were never going to be state champs this year...

So remember how in #1 I told you we took our district assessments this week? Well I typically don't put a lot of emphasis on these tests (and I didn't this time either) because I'm not about to stress kids out over a little test. They have plenty of stress when it comes to the pass-or-repeat-5th grade STAAR test....

BUT...ya'll, I have 50 kids in my 2 gen. ed classes and I had a 90% passing rate!! I was stoked. They did such a good job analyzing those texts! :) 

 Ok, and now the most exciting part of my whole week. In our school district, the PTA (same as a PTO) always puts on a Jam The Gym Basketball tournament in the Spring and a Volleyball tournament in the Fall. If you know me AT ALL, you know I live and breathe volleyball. It is my happy place. But I don't get to play that much now that I'm teaching and a momma....but our school decided to put a team together with a few of us that like to play afterschool sometimes and WE.WON. We won the whole tournament...as in we are the best (elementary teachers) volleyball team in Irving ISD. It was such a fun day spent with my Elliott family. We played hard but most importantly we played as a team. Shout out to my teammates: Rebekah, Jenn, Maria, Corinne, Mike, Warren, Jeremy, Tino and Fernando! In the words of Mr. Love, we GOT IT DONE!

Side note: Our final game was against Good Elementary which had an AWESOME team...and they also have awesome admin...they have BOTH of our old principals! :) It was almost like a family feud.

My cutie teaching partner Kristin stayed for most of the day--what a loyal fan! 

You guys have no idea how excited we were!! 

Check out the hardware! 

5 days until Thanksgiving Break. Let's do this, people! 

PTL it's Friday! 9.12.2014

Ya'll. It's only the 3rd week of school and I'm ready for Christmas break. But seriously. 

That is SOOO not like me.

I love school and usually it's the end of October before I'm feeling the necessity of a break...but this year is kicking my tail! My to-do list is forever long and even when I mark stuff off, I don't feel like I'm getting stuff "done". Am I the only one?! So here it goes...

  I have some amazing students this year...but I have some others who love to test me and my partner teachers. Any bloggers out there have tips or articles on defiant children? I'm needing some help here, peeps! 

 This week I went to INOVA training. It is a data organization system (I mean, its really more than that but I spent a whole day at a training on statistics and the math behind using data to anticipate student achievement on state testing...) ANYWAY, it was very interesting and I can't wait to spend time getting to know the program better. {I'm not even being sarcastic here...I love analyzing data} 

#truth. It's FINALLY feeling like Fall in Texas! Today it was in the 70s...it dropped over 30 degrees in the last 24 hours and some of you would crack up at the attire of Texans. We totally broke out the scarves and sweatshirts. Don't judge...

I am desperately wanting a full week to teach. Are ya'll with me? Between trainings, picture day, Labor Day, beginning of year testing, library days, etc. I have YET to teach a full 5 days in a week. It's hard to get into a routine when we always have "stuff". This week I did manage to finish our genre studies using the book Genre Connections. Ya'll, I am in love with this book. Teaching the genres with concrete objects is so easy and the kids seem to actually get it! We also reviewed poetry types v. elements and had a gallery walk where students worked in partners to analyze poems to determine their type and the elements (rhyme, rhythm, rhyme scheme, number of stanzas, meter, etc.)..so I guess even with hectic schedules, we ARE still learning :) 

Today is my baby's birthday!! I officially have a one year old! :) 

5 for Friday and Classroom Reveal

Is it just me or is the 2nd week of school the worst?! I mean, you are not exactly in the routine yet, it's a 4 day week and the novelty of the new school year has worn off. Also, by the 2nd week of school, I'm officially behind on the zillions of things on my to-do list. Such as "blogging". :( Anyway, I didn't want to miss one of my favorite linky parties! So I'm combining some things :) 

Today I got my first SLANT Box! My new friend Ashley from CANADA sent me all kinds of  cute stuff...I didn't get a pic of the contents but she basically got all my favs...candy, supplies, magnets, pens, and a subtle invite to Canada during the summer. [[Any more 100+ degree days and I may be making my way sooner rather than later!]]

This pic is from the first day of school. The kids in my 3rd class of the day begged for independent reading time. I NEVER deny independent reading time! 

My little Jacksie Bear is going to be ONE in one week. We had an early birthday with his great grandparents last week and my talented cousin made this adorable rubber ducky cake. It is too darn cute. Jackson wasn't actually interested in the feeding-himself part but he loved the icing and cake.   

Welcome to my University of North Texas themed classroom! We are MEAN GREEN'd out and I am so proud. :) Listen, I LOVED college. LOVE Denton, TX and LOVE UNT. I am thrilled to represent UNT. [[Our school is part of the No Excuses University network, so every classroom is a university and no repeats are allowed---I have been another university of 4 years but finally I get to be my alma mater!]]  

 This is the view from the door. It has been said that my classroom looks like a bag of Skittles exploded. I'm okay with that. I am all about color :) The bulletin board above the library area is for book recommendations but I am still trying to figure out how I want to do that because I want the recommendations to come from the kids but I also want to be able to provide them too. I'll get to it...eventually. 

 The bulletin boards over the computers are where my anchor charts for the unit will be housed. Right now we are "Launching Reading Workshop" [Fountas and Pinnell style + Comprehension Connections style!] so I have my Reading Is Thinking up as well as my Reading Salad anchor chart. 

If you can't read the "title" of the boards, it says "Read like a Writer, Write like a Reader". We usually talk about what that means and why Mrs. Andrews would want to put that up on the wall. :) Anyway, hopefully this will be filled with anchor charts galore in the coming weeks as we start our study of literary texts (my favorite!) 

So the top picture of my classroom library area is dark because I took it in the afternoon when the sun was shining through my big window. I LOVE having a giant window and I do all my whole group teaching on the floor while I sit in BIG JOE (the green chair--available at Walmart!). The only drawback to the window is that we don't actually have blinds, and we aren't supposed to have curtains unless they are flame-retardant SOOO I don't have curtains....And when other classes go to recess, we sometimes get distracted.

And I have a Christmas tree. In September. But it's really a UNT tree so it doesn't count as Christmas decor and even if it did, I love it and my kids love reading by the tree. :) 

Picture books, myths and biographies on this shelf

Fiction books :) ..don't know why I didn't snap a pic of my nonfiction shelf but that collection isn't as extensive. 

 

This is "my" area. I have files I need on a daily basis, teacher materials, supplies, my phone, laptop, etc. and on the tall black bookshelf, I keep my guided reading/literature circle materials for all 3 classes (79 students!). 

There you have it, room 410. Where we get down to the business of reading! 

I've shown you my room but I have to share these other cutie rooms from teachers on my campus. The first one is our 2nd grade Gifted/Talented classroom, Ms. Hamilton's class! Leta is like the queen of cute. Her shabby chic classroom is adorable. I want to be her student and read in the library area with the clouds! How cute is this?! 

Right inside the door (She was still decorating)

Leta's teacher desk area

 

I totally stole this pic from Leta's FB but how cute is she?! Are you at all surprised by the cuteness of her room when you see how adorable she is? Bonus: She is the sweetest too. Glad you're at Elliott, Leta! 

Next classroom: one of my besties, Emily! We have been friends since 2nd grade when we went to Elliott together. (We are teaching at our old school!) She teaches Kinder and it has to be the cleanest, most organized kindergarten class in the world. And it even smells good. I'm not sure what kind of crazy magic she does every afternoon, but it ALWAYS looks this clean before she leaves. 

View from the door!

Library and supplies area plus the word wall

Calendar/Whole Group Area

 This is Emily. Isn't she cute too? I love having one of my longest and most wonderful friends on my campus but since we teach completely OPPOSITE groups (she's Kinder, I'm 5th) we hardly ever see each other during the day! 

Alright, thanks for sticking with the longest 5forFriday EVER. Check out the linky party for first/second week stories and other fun stuff! 

Hope you have a wonderful weekend :)