Classroom Tour, 3rd Grade, 2014-2015

So...yeah.  I've been MIA.  For like, EVER.  Sorry about that.  I like, got pregnant.  Yeah.  That's my excuse for everything these days, because I'm 30 weeks now.  Lol.  Preggo brain.

But anyway, thought I'd come back and try to start posting again.  I have so much to say and to share!

I actually looped up with my class this year, so I have 16 of the same kiddos and 2 new ones and am teaching 3rd grade.  It has been an AWESOME transition and a great experience so far.  I am just loving it.

Check out some pictures from our room this year.

"Every Birdie's Welcome in Our Nest."  :)
 

View from the door.  I should really make the front of my desk cute.
Oh well.  Love my new rug from Ikea!

This pic is from our Meet the Teacher Night--the chalkboard is now all decked out!

The Good Morning section holds our Target Reading, used as part of our morning routine.

Then there is a section called Scientist Chat where I ask questions and learners can add their thoughts and comments.  Then next to that, there's a Wonder Board.  Some QR codes scan to certain videos and articles on Wonderopolis, and the learners can add their own "I Wonders."  Which reminds me, I need to read their wonders and try to post some QR codes for them to explore!  :)

Yep.  Our character board still says 2A.
We are now 3E.  Whoops.  ;)

Fiction section of our classroom library.
On the top, I "spotlight" particular books:  seasonal or books that tie in with our current learning topics.

Cubby tags.  :)

Our What Stuck With You Today board has been a big hit.

There's now a numbered grid, and each day before packing up to go home,

the learners jot down one or two things that "stuck" with them from that day and 

stick their post-it notes on the board.

I type in their thoughts on Answer Garden throughout the week,

and then I turn the Answer Garden cloud into a Wordle and share it on Twitter,

print it out for the kiddos to see in the hallway.

This week, we took the Cogat test, and I had them share

what part of the test was easiest for them/what their brain was best at

(working with words, working with numbers, or working with pictures).

I can't wait to read what they wrote!

Our Project Based Learning Board.

It is now constantly filled to the brim!

We just finished a project where the learners groups' chose a state in the

Northeast Region and planned a potential trip for one of our teacher's sister and her husband.

They researched landforms and natural resources in their states, the local climate,

and they planned out fun outdoor activities.

Then most recently, they created raps and illustrations to teach

the 2nd graders how to subtract with regrouping.  So fun to see them 

improving in their cooperation, communication, and critical thinking.

My desk.  It's way messier than this now.  :/

Must do/May do board.  Love this.

I love my daily drawers.  :)

Non-fiction section and my tall bookshelf with teacher editions

and more read alouds.  :)

Um...last year, that blank wall space was covered by bookshelves.

This year, I meant to continue the green & the border all the way down.

But uh...we're 9 weeks into the year, and it still looks like this.  LOL.

I guess you could say I've got bigger fish to fry.

And our hallway display!  I wish the lighting wasn't so awful.

This is also where I display their What Stuck With Us word clouds.

Hope you enjoyed the pseudo-classroom tour.

Hope you all are having a wonderful school year so far!

So I'm Teacher of the Year. WHAT?!

Yeah.  Craziness.  December 5th we had a staff meeting to find out who was the new Teacher of the Year, and lo and behold, it was ME.  *Cue the shock & awe, folks.*

Little ol' me

My silly team nominated me, and so did one of our fab Kinder teachers.  I was so shocked, I just stood there!  Someone made the comment that it was the first time they'd ever seen me speechless.  So true.  I always have a comment for everything, lol.

My principal had called my parents, so they were there to surprise me, and while my hubs was out of town for business (bummer), one of my besties who used to teach with me came up, as well.  So neat.

My principal and me

My principal created a Pinterest board for the new Teacher of the Year reveal.  Pretty funny because she always jokes that my classroom looks like Pinterest threw up in it.  LOL.

When she displayed the Pinterest board on the screen, I slowly started to realize that all the pictures she had pinned were of things I had created for my classroom.  It finally started to dawn on me that the new Teacher of the Year must be ME!  Too funny.

The comments with the Pins were taken from the application my colleagues filled out about me.  Wow.

Unique personality?  Check.  It's part of what keeps my students awake, I think.  Haha.

O.K., I didn't create this poster!  I believe I found it on

Technology Rocks Seriously's blog.  :)

So it's possssssible that I could be overheard saying "Ain't nobody got TIME for that!" multiple times a day.  Just sayin'.  (So this was a fitting tribute to me, for sure, lol.)

So yeah.  Pretty dang cool.  And now come the writing of the 6 essays, the observation, and the interview by a panel.  Say HUH?!  Yikes.  Excited about the honor, but a liiiiiiittle stressed about the rest!  :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the remainder of your time off.  This is the first somewhat-school-related thing I have DONE since December 18th, and I applaud myself!  :)

Here's to a great 2014 that includes good friends, good health, lots of love, and plenty of chips & queso.

XO,

Gayla

Like Sands through the Hourglass...

Seriously.  I am sorry to report that with all the new implementations going on in my district, "Ain't nobody got time for that!"  Blogging, that is.  Geez o'Pete.  It's all I can do to [sort of] keep up with all that's expected of me this year, much less blog about it.  PHEW.  This teacher is exhausted.  Excuse me.  Educator.  Oh yes, one of the many things I'm having to relearn.  I am no longer a teacher.  I am an EDUCATOR.  Get it right, folks.  Also?  The students?  No longer.  They are now to be referred to as LEARNERS.  Get on board!  :)

We've also begun Project-Based Learning (PBL) on our campus, which has been lots of fun, but lots of work.  OY.  The kids are LOVING it, and I am loving the collaborating and critical thinking that's going on, but it is a LOT of work.  Mostly upfront work, but still.  Holy Moses!


PBL on U.S. landmarks, their significance, and how they make places unique:

These photos are from today's mission...they learned about the Golden Gate Bridge, and then they

constructed their own long bridge spanning between 2 desks.

Their bridges were judged and scored based on length (3 points for each inch),

beauty, and teamwork.  Every team received the full 2 points for teamwork today!

Whoo hoo!  I was one happy teacher, er, educator.

This mission came from the book Mind Missions, which is AMAZING for turning boring Social Studies units into ENGAGING, hands-on experiences for learners.  I highly recommend it.  Also, it works GREAT for PBL if you use it--the missions are perfect Scaffolding Experiences.

The teams have a few more landmarks to learn about and missions to complete, and then next week they'll receive a Game Changer.  This is where they'll be issued their main task/challenge.  As a whole group, we will be creating and naming our "class town."  Each team will then become a committee--one team will be the Bridge Committee, one will be the Statue Committee, one the Monument Committee, one the Seal Committee, etc.  The committees will be developing and constructing a model of their landmark to stand on a raised relief map of our "Class Town."  I envision them choosing something like "Cockrellville," haha.  

Eventually, each committee will record a video in which they describe our town, including the significance of the landmark they designed and what U.S. landmark it compares to.  These videos will be linked to QR codes so that visitors to the school can scan them to see what our learners created and what they've learned.  They'll also be taking their Kinder Buddies on a "gallery walk" of our town, explaining the landmarks.  OY.  Serious stuff, y'all.

If your school uses PBL, I'd love to hear any thoughts or tips you may have!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

A Little of This and That...

Just a little snippet of what we've been up to in 2nd grade...

We have officially introduced all of the Daily 5 rotations except for Word Work, and we are off and running!  This week was the first week for Work on Writing, and the kiddos are LOVING it.  I do have a LOT of different writing activities, which helps with garnering enthusiasm.  *Tooting horn*  Ahem.

So yeah.  In Listen to Reading, we have 2 options so far: they can listen to books on cd at the listening station, or they can listen to books on the computers.  For that, they visit our classroom blog (see the links on my left sidebar), click the Listen to Reading link at the top left, and there are about 10 websites where they can listen and follow along to stories.  They love it.

Soon I'll be introducing the iPads (Listen to Reading & Word Work) and iPods (Listen to Reading), which will create QUITE the buzz (can't wait--except for the crying--there's always crying when they don't get the iPad FIRST FIRST FIRST).

*Side note: we share our iPads with the 3rd grade team, so our kiddos get to use them every other day.  Pretty great!

So this year we have started notebooking like CRAZE-EE.  I seriously think we have a freaking notebook for every subject.  It's a little out of control, but I am loving them.  Especially now that they're all pretty much set up.  (Creating Table of Contents using rulers?  With 7 year olds?  Not fun.)

Check out some of our notebooking so far this year!  I found some amazing units on Teachers Pay Teachers and some freebie notebook pages, and I am soooooo excited about the awesome work my kids are going to do this year.

Amazing Reading Notebook Unit by Nicole Shelby

The above 2 pics show some freebies for Reading Notebook by Becca at Simply 2nd Resources

My Science Journal Title Page

********

Here's the part where I'm gonna complain, because it's my blog, and I can whine if I want to (and YES, I may POSSIBLY be DRINKING some wine as I whine, but that's neither here nor there):

-I had my 1st SIOP training today after school (Sheltered Instruction for ELLs if you're not familiar), and I'm frustrated.  We sat through a slide show presentation that basically told us information that we had all already learned back when we had to take the ESL certification test, and THEN came the REAL reason for the training: we are now going to be required to post our Content Objectives and Language Objectives in our classrooms.  For every state standard.  For every subject.  Every day.

SIGH.

And yes, I know our district is probably super late to this objective-posting party, but DANG IT, I don't like it.  I have SO MANY other things I need to be doing besides typing up the objectives that I cover every day (is it just me, or are there about 30 if I include everything I review or touch upon?).  Seriously?!  I haven't been so frustrated (my nice word) in a long time.  Well, I was pretty frustrated when I found out I had to do 6 hours of this training, heh.  

Anyone else have to do this?  Would you like to join my pity party?  Jump right in, folks!  I loves me some comments!  :)

Actually, one of our ESL Facilitators has a great Pinterest board with ideas for SIOP if you're interested.

Sheltered Instruction Pinterest Board

Hope you are all off and running this school year.  I am loving my group this year and excited about what they're going to accomplish.

Hang in there. 

XO, Gayla

Sunday Night Blues. Sigh.

Things that irritate me when I'm at school on Sunday:

-custodians didn't empty my trash cans, and we had brownies Friday. ants to follow, I'm sure
-new remanufactured ink cartridge doesn't work
-my copies aren't done
-the gates are down, hence a trek across creation to get to my room
-feeling like I've accomplished nothing when I leave
-being at school on Sunday
#teacherproblems

But seriously.  How awful is it to be at school on a Sunday and to still feel unprepared for the week afterward?!  So annoying.  I feel like it doesn't matter how hard I work, I'm just a hamster on a wheel.  (Metaphorically speaking, of course.)

This year (we're 3 weeks in) has been crazy, nutso, people.  We started off the year launching Project-Based Learning (which we're launching district-wide this year--well, either PBL or UBD), and I've already got 2 mini PBL units in the works.  Each team is getting a full day of planning to work on our next full PBL unit, and ours is on October 4th, yay!  Considering I'm a complete newbie, I'm already loving PBL, but there's just not enough time in my day (ha) to plan for it!  Thank goodness we have a coach from the district that is very helpful!

Also in class, we've so far introduced Read to Self and Read to Someone.  Up this week is Listen to Reading (a big favorite every year), so that will be fun.  Alas, I'm fairly certain my iTunes playlist was deleted over the summer.  SIGH.  Last year I had a parent volunteer come up and upload every book on cd to my iTunes account, which was awesome.  Guess I could do that again.

But in other news, I spent more money on my classroom today.  I know, I know.  Shocking, right?  It's a sickness.  I am trying to Schoolgirl Style my room up.  :)

And I keep having to buy more bandanas to make my curtains fluffier.  SIGH.  :)

Well, I'm hoping to get some finishing touches added to my classroom this week (finished curtains, included!), so hopefully I'll have some pics up here soon.  Get ready to ooh and ahh, mmmkay?  K thanks.

You liking my ADHD post tonight?  Does your brain have whiplash yet?  LOL.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to have some pics up soon!

Another Opening, Another Show and Back to School!

So yeah.  I've been meaning to blog.  Really, I have.  But prepping for back-to-school combined with Tech Week and performances of the musical I was in, combined with Staff Development just didn't work well for me, time-wise.

(That's me on the bottom right--we had a BLAST doing this show!)

But it was all worth it!  I am sort of recovered physically from the past few insane weeks.  We just finished the 2nd week with students, and it's been good so far.  I have a very sweet group of kids, if a little talkative and energetic.  :)  I'm really looking forward to learning and playing with them this year.

Anyway, I wanted to share some pics of my classroom even though there are still a few finishing touches I plan to put on it.  (Is a classroom EVER truly "done?")

Haven't decided if I'm going to keep this display for Daily 5 check-in yet...

Will probably change this board to a Writing board for anchor charts, etc.

My new storage area for Word Work activities!  Love it.

(Need to take down that poster!)

My new writing area.  The stuff under the table is junk I still need to sort through and store somewhere.  :(

All my supplies for Work on Writing, so organized, whoo!

We are launching Project-Based Learning this year.  

My PBL board looks better now, but I haven't snapped an updated pic yet, sorry!

Our character quality of the month, Conflict Resolution Wheel, R Time Rules, and Rules for good manners, etc. are displayed here.  (The ugly dolls are my bathroom passes!)

My new Authors We Love wall!

I love how it turned out!

Reading cushions and buddies.

Our Wish List at Meet the Teacher

(about 1/2 of the items were taken, yay!)

Smartboard and my new alphabet line (made by me!)

I have since completed sectioning off the chalkboard on the left, 

and I'm still not sure how I feel about the BRIGHT lime green duct tape.

I HATE chalkboard!

My birthday photos will be posted on the black & white chevron board.

Yay!  The little brown table by the window will house our BioBubble Aquarium!

The next step is for me to allow my kiddos to research what fish and other items we should

buy to put in our BioBubble.  If you haven't seen/heard of them, you should definitely check them out.  SUPER COOL.  I think an aquarium will be a very calming presence in our classroom, and I'm so excited to get it up and running!

Math manipulatives still organized from last year.

(I have since put the label on the bottom left bin, heh.)

Storage for our extra supplies:

pencils, markers, crayons, glue, and baggies

Construction paper storage!

Also, I put the kleenex boxes inside that little lime green basket.  Much cuter.  :)

All the new books I accumulated over the summer.  WHY?!  

Why do I keep getting more books?!  LOL.  It's a sickness.

YAY for awesome library storage!

Guess that's about it.  For now.  If you made it this far, bless you. :)

Hope everyone's beginning of the year is going well!