i'm back…and here's why i've been gone so long

when I started this blog I was in my 9th year of teaching; 4th year of being a 5th grade teacher and was finally feeling solid in my own theories, beliefs, and style to save and share my planned and teachable moments (even if I was going to be the only one reading it.) And I was having a BLAST.  The 2012-2013 year was especially challenging as that year 5th grade was only ONE ROUND and my co-teacher who had taught 5th grade longer decided to take the Title I position at our school.  But as I got into the position I was throughly enjoying myself and sharing my ideas from class was a great way to reflect.  I noticed that the last time I had blogged was beginning of March and there are two reasons for that. **note it was also the last time I was on this blog** First, it was the big push/race to the PSSA testing, and that can get a little boring as we practiced test taking skills ad nauseam.  But the BIG & REAL reason was that rumors of stolen/misused money from our super-intentent started to leak, as well as, the possibilities of school closing.  Our school was never mentioned in the first wave of rumors, nor did the staff think that the financial situation that bad that other cuts and solutions would be found to rectify the situation.  

However, at an April meeting our school name was brought into the list of possible closures. There were meeting and supporters protesting for the "small schools" and a lengthly process of being told that it would be the last thing they would look to do, but had to be a "possibility".  To two weeks before the end of school being told that in a 5-4 vote our school and another school would not reopen the next school year. 

Looking back at this blog has brought old tears to the surface, the blogger you see had no idea that all of her hard work, love, and passion put into this school of her dreams would soon be coming to an end.  March signified a different teacher, one whose rose colored glasses turned clear.  I was the one telling other co-workers we are not going to close, we'll be back in this old, stuffy building next year with new things to complain about.  But the deeds of the wicked, were paid in full by the innocent.  I still taught and still gave my students my all in the classroom, but with all my reassurance to others it was a heavy burden to think "what if"

The "what if" in my case actually turned into another fantastic position for me (I can not say the same for some of my other beloved co-workers, we were spread through out the district.  Which has been the hardest thing, not seeing those people each and everyday, I still miss working with them dearly.) I was placed as a sixth grade social studies teacher at the middle school I and my younger sisters attended, as well as, where my father worked his last years as a teacher.  He retired after the 2013 school year, I would tell the staff there "when one of us leaves, another most follow, or this school can not run properly."  I always enjoyed history, but until I started teaching it as my curriculum of ancient history, did I not know how much I love learning about the people and practices in the past.  

And so through all the ups and downs of the 2012-2013 school year and getting adjusted to a new school and curriculum I am itching to start blogging again about the practices and projects I bring to the study of world history.

**Side note: The theme for the Read Across America Week was 'American Author Idol'.  Each classroom selected their favorite author and created a door decoration to highlight that author.  They also wrote a persuasive paragraph about their author that was read over the loud speaker.  Each day after lunch the students of the school would cast a vote for their favorite author still remaining.  The final winner was given a "Cat in the Hat" statute (which was supposed to be passed down each year*tear*) **

Read Across America Week

so the Seuss is almost here and for the last six years I have been a part of the Read Across America team, and I must say that this is one of the best weeks of school...we've really made it a special time to come to school with give-a-ways, free books, guest readers, and a week of dressing up.  I am not about to let the 'cat' out of the bag just yet about what we have planned for this year....but I thought I would share what we did last year.  

The theme was 'Reading Across America'  each day we had the kids dress from a different regions of the country (tie into social studies :) One day was West Coast Day/Hollywood day, Southwestern Day, Northeastern Day (with hats and scarves), and Hawaiian Day.  Friday is always Seuss day where we dress in red, black and white, strips or Seuss themed clothing.  I made a huge bulletin board with a map of the U.S.A and posted pictures of all the staff with their favorite book that took place in the United States.  I then pinned those cities to the board as a visual of where the settings were.  The kids really enjoyed seeing their teachers, their favorite book, and where the book took place.

We also decorate the hallways with a birthday theme for the week to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday.  There is a table with decorated boxes from each classroom where students put in nightly reading slips for a chance to win free books.  We choose two students per classroom who read a book/15 minutes a night to pick from an enormous array of scholastic books donated by our PTA.  We give each student a ticket for a chance to win a Seuss themed basket.  There are whole school reads, last year we sat outside out classrooms in the hallways, which was so fun to see all the students snuggled up reading and it was so QUITE for those 20 minutes!  We end the week with handing out the themed baskets and 'Cat in the Hat' cookies, which a local bakery make for us.  

If you do not have special activities for Read Across America week, I highly suggest you try.  It can be a great week in the middle of the school year, to revive students interest and remind them of the joy of reading.

**What the teachers pictures looked like, yup that me and one of my favorite books!

**The main bulletin board with the staffs pictures

                                  **Key to the bulletin board
     

                                                           **The classroom boxes for nightly reading

**The poster by the front door reminding students of what to wear each day

                                 **The gift baskets to win

and the winner is.....

after starting Maniac Magee at the start of school (our days just fly and usually I do not have time for read aloud unfortunately) I finally finished this week and one of the teachers had a quiz show game to go along with it, purchased from Lakeshore.  So we had a little competition this week with the boys vs. girls vs. me.... and I won!! Unfair you say, not so :) I actually missed a 750 pt. question, but still came out on top.  It helped that the last boy pick a 'name you amount card', bet all the boys points, and didn't know the answer.  The prize for the winning student team was that they got to choose any type of cupcake they want for me to make.  They'll get a double cupcake while the boys will get a normal sized one.  The girls choose a chocolate cupcake with oreo frosting.  Tuesday will be yummy!!

flip book, flip book......

I think I'm getting a little obsessed with flip books! It all began when a teacher in the school did a flip book activity with her kids for New Years, where the number of the year (2013) flip up for different resolutions for the year.  Along with the pinterest searches which show flip books for a variety of topic in different subjects, and so when we came to our unit of Motion and Design in science and the students need to know the Three Law of Motion...I thought "Flip Chart" and then my student are having trouble remembering Mean, Median, Mode, and Range I thought "Flip Chart." And now I am just thinking of all the other things for which we can make a flip chart :)

non fiction responses.....

here's another assignment we completed for our non fiction unit, the written response, donn donn duunnn :) writing is absolutely getting better, but it is still a struggle/under developed part for most of my students.  Some just don't like to write and it feels like pulling teeth to get a five sentence, three paragraph piece from them.  So now I'm in the non fiction unit, and it felt like a double wammy...typically boring reading with boring writing, so what is one to do???

a few years ago I had found had a Scholastic News magazine which was about the Freedom Riders, and since this unit usually takes place during January(MLK jr. day) and February(black history month) I thought it would be an interesting view of the Civil Right movement.  It is a great article and leads to thoughtful discussions.  How I accomplish writing for a unit is: I model the writing style and have the kids usually write a paragraph or two piece to try out the writing style, in which I hold conferences and the students preform a 'glow and grow' assessment with a partner. (Glow and Grow I found on pinterest and is an AWESOME way for peers to assess each others written work, check it out!)  Then the assessed piece for their writing portfolio I usually require a three paragraph essay based on the same writing style, but different writing prompt, no help from anyone.  My struggle was how do I model a non fiction response and have student input, along with all students participating not just the few that usually do?  And an idea was born, new to me but I'm sure others have done before, have each student responsible for a sentence in the piece!  

First I had students go over what a non fiction written response requirements are and what one looks like from our writing resource, "WriteSource." Then I read the article to them while it projected on my classroom screen.  Once done I handed students a random number, which was the order in which they would write the piece.  Finally, we went to work.  I felt the student who had the number 1 card had it hardest since they had to set the tone for the whole piece.  When they were done I asked number 2 would there be any revisions you would like to make to the sentence created before you?  If they said no then I'd ask for the next sentence.  If they said yes and did a reasonable amount of revision I'd let that be their turn and ask the next person in order to create the next sentence. Those who are my "do as little as possible" and told me to change only one word in a sentence, thinking that I'd go on to the next person, I'd make create the next sentence (can't get one by me :) and my L.S/Title students I'd help out if they needed.  Through it I'd have some students say, "can I go back to the first/second paragraph and add something?"  OF COURSE!!  Once we were all done I printed out a copy and had the students get in groups of three to do a final edit before our final draft.  This process took about three days, but it turned out great!! All students were involved, had a part, and kept (for the most part) engaged in the process.

when it came to the assessed piece I had students select from a variety of Scholastic New magazines that I had left over or had not gotten to use yet.  Asked them to highlight facts during their reading, and then follow our model to complete their piece.  I have since hung the finished ones in the hall with the cover of their chosen magazine.  Interestingly, many picked the about the Titanic, they are fascinated with this story.

facts=non fiction.....

well first off how did we get to February already??? Last time I checked I was getting ready for the holidays and now we are into third quarter, which always seems to sadden me because I know my days are now rapidly decreasing with the amount of time I have with my students.  And with a class like I have this year, I don't want to let them go :(  however, that part of being a fifth grade teacher, in our district at least.  

so what have we been filling our time with at school...non fiction.  for some reason our non fiction comprehension scores tend to be lower on state tests, so this is something we hit on all year, but we also have a unit in Language Arts devoted to it.  Of course we READ non fiction text in everything during this unit: modeled reading, guided reading, center work...you name it's there.  A story that we have from the Scholastic series (but is also a book) is The Secrets of Vesuvius and from year to year the kids just love this text.  During the reading I have big spaces on my white board that are labeled "EWWW", "NO WAY", and AWESOME".  I give students 3 sticky notes a day (usually takes 3 days to read) and they have to write down a fact from the text that would fit into those categories, and yes I of course have those students who say, "nothing in here is gross to me, I watch ......(fill in the blank with any number of gross movies/t.v. shows" to which I always say too bad, you still have to find one:) And believe me there are some 'eww' parts in the text.  Last year I created a simple template for summary that I label: I Think You Should Know and they choose three facts that they would think someone should know about what happened at  Mt. Vesuvius.  I added this year another box at the bottom that was labeled: My Own View in which I asked them to give their overall view of what they learned from the text.

now this year for some reason, as I'm sure happens to everyone, we were reading A LOT of passages about ocean life.  Our resource of Literacy By Design has a whole unit about Ocean Life and students were selecting guided reading books about ocean life.  I found center activities that went with our unit comprehension strategy which had passages that dealt with Oceans Life, so I had the student complete another slip on Ocean Life.  And of course as always happens I have those student who finish their task earlier than others, so I thought well why not have them create a display to hang outside our room.  I split those who had finished into groups to work on one of the two displays, had them choose creative directors who would design the poster, researchers who would look up real pictures to add to the poster, and decorators who would follow the directors' vision to color, glue, and complete the final project.  And amazingly those "slow workers" quickened their pace to be able to work on a poster.  Here are the finished pieces, I had no role in the creation (except the half sheet of paper to write their responses on, I even had students die cut the letters to make the banner!) 

I would highly suggest that if you are like me before (a control freak, who has to do everything herself) let your students create whole class visuals. These turned out AWESOME, better then what I could/would have done. And the pride that the students have of having a part in the display that others ooohhh and aaahhhh at is priceless.

moment of tears and affirmation....

Today was our first day back after Thanksgiving break (up here hunting starts on Monday, yep it's that important we get a day off...but who's complaining:) Returning from a relaxing break is always a hard thing for me to get back up to speed, especially morning routines! It always seems like I need just 10 more minutes..so as I am gathering my attendance cards and finding the lunch count menu a student comes up to me and hands me something, saying "I made this for you."  I quickly glance down at what's in my hand and see that it is a handmade card, taking a double look at the detail that this girl has put into this card ( I mean Hallmark worthy) On the front it said "Remember in grade school when you found out it was pizza day and you got all excited"....(inside) "well that's what it's like having a teacher like you everyday."  BLEW...ME...AWAY! I had to stop to gain my composure as tears came to my eyes.

To say that I have not had my doubts about my profession is an understatement, there's no rule book to teaching, no constant as to what will work and what won't from year to year, even day to day...I have often thoughts about am I even making a difference or am I totally wasting a whole year of these students lives.  Not to mention the less then favorable point of view most society members have of our profession, along with the ridiculous expectations of the state tests.

But one, just one simple act like this brings me back to why I do what I do and that what I do is good enough...I'm not sure if this girl knows how much that card truly means or how often I will view it for affirmation, but she made not only may day today, but many more to come.  These are the momenti di's I look for.