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

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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!

Welcome to 2A and Kid President's Pep Talk

We have had a wonderful time in 2nd grade so far!

A more detailed blog post (with photos!) will be up soon, but in the meantime, check out the awesome, inspiring video below!

Please feel free to leave a comment sharing which part of the video inspires you!


"Create something that will make the world awesome."

Love,
Mrs. C.