The First Days of School: Unit B: LINKY

Hello everyone!  Today we're discussing Unit B of The First Days of School.  If you've read the book, or even if you haven't read the book, link up with me!  I want to hear your thoughts!

Grab this image, include it in your post, and link it back here! OR Pin it! :)

Unit B is all about positive expectations.  I really liked how on page 37, the authors say, "Expectations are different than standards."  It's really a good point to keep in mind, because standards are levels of achievement.  Standards are the academic concepts we teach our students.  An expectation is what you believe will or will not happen.

Another good point to keep in mind:

"Humans have a success instinct." (p.35)  It goes on to say that we can accomplish anything with our students if we have high expectations.

This unit reminded me of a video I came across about a year ago, which many of you have probably already seen before.  I feel it's a good reminder that WE set the expectations for our students.  And that EVERY student can succeed if we show them we care about them.

Page 45 begins to discuss how schools, parents, students, and the community should celebrate the first day of school.  Some schools have had big assemblies where parents and students wear formal attire.

1.  How does your school celebrate the first day?  Are teachers required to be outside of their classrooms greeting students as they enter the building?

During my first year of teaching, I had a student whom I had a hard time "reaching".  He never wanted to participate and often had outbursts and would storm out of the room.  He would slink into the classroom every morning during morning work, not saying a word to anybody.  Every morning, I would greet him with a smile, saying, "Good morning, _______!"  I would stop whatever I was doing to greet him.  Most days, he wouldn't respond.  After a few weeks of consistency, he began to greet me back.  "Good morning, Miss Woodward!"

2.  Does your school or district have a dress code?  What is it?  Do you think how you dress determines whether or not you're effective as a teacher?

While I do think it's important for teachers to be dressed appropriately, I didn't agree with everything on the "What's In" and "What's Out" list on page 57.  Some examples:

What's in: Career suits for women; bright colors for elementary teachers; soft, muted colors for secondary teachers.

What's Out: Excessive jewelry; blue denim only on Saturdays; and bold prints, plaids, and colors are no-no's.

Do you agree?

One last point from the unit:  In Chapter 10, page 71, the authors discuss using manners like "Please" and "Thank you".  While I agree with this point, I recently got some good advice from a teacher friend. She said, "Do not say 'Please' or 'Thank you' for expected behaviors."  For example, "Class, please sit down." Or, "Class, quiet down.  Thank you."  Because those are behaviors you would expect for learning to take place, you should not use "Please" or "Thank you".  Now, if a student gives you a beautiful picture or you need to ask a student to grab something off the shelf, then you should use "Please" and "Thank you".  To me, it made perfect sense!  What do you think?

3.  What were your biggest take-aways from this Unit?

Now it's your turn!

Write a post answering the three questions, post it, copy the page URL, and then link it up below!

Next Monday, we will be looking at Unit C: Classroom Management.  Looking forward to it!  :)

An InLinkz Link-up

The First Days of School: Unit A: LINKY

Hello everyone!  Today I'm hosting my very own linky party so we can talk about Unit A of The First Days of School.  Wahoo!  If you've read the book, or even if you haven't read the book, link up!  I want to hear your thoughts!

Grab this image, include it in your post, and link it back here! OR Pin it! :)

I remember the days leading up to my first day of my first year teaching.  I had veteran teachers as my teammates, and I felt so out of my element!  They already had their first days planned out, and I had NO idea what to do to start the year!

1.  Did you get any training on how to start the school year?  Did your school or district start you off with a mentor?

The book lays out four stages of teaching:

- Fantasy: Be a friend to your students.

- Survival: Just make it through the day!

-Mastery: Teachers who know how to achieve student success.

-Impact: Teachers who have an effect on a student's life.

They say that most teachers will not make it past the first two stages.  Some days I am in the survival stage, while some days I feel as though I have mastered the craft.

2.  What stage of teaching are you in?

Some of the biggest take-aways came towards the end of the unit.

"Effective teachers work cooperatively, seek out a mentor and role model, learn at professional meetings, and strive for excellence."

"Teaching is not a private practice."

"Listen, listen, listen."

Teaching is a cooperative career, and it's so important to listen and learn from each other!

3.  What were your biggest take-aways from this Unit?

Now it's your turn!

Write a post answering the three questions, post it, copy the page URL, and then link it up below!

Next Monday, we will be looking at Unit B: Positive Expectations.  Looking forward to it!  :)

An InLinkz Link-up

The First Days of School: Book Study!

Put your party hats on…. I'm going to host my very own, brand spankin' new linky party!  Woohoo!

I just scored this book at a thrift store for $1.50 and I know how many teachers love it.  Julie from A First for Everything told me she has read it every year since she started teaching!  Because this book has helped so many, and has such valuable information to share with new and veteran teachers, I thought I would host a little book study here in the blogging world!

The book is "The First Days of School" by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong.

Each week I will post some discussion questions from each "Unit" in the book (there are 5 altogether) and you'll have a chance to link up and share your thoughts and experiences!  Now, I don't expect you to spend hours reading this book cover to cover (ain't nobody got time for that!).  However, I want this to be valuable to YOU.  If you have read this book before and just want to refresh yourself, awesome!  If you've never read this book before and only have time to skim or read each unit's "Key Idea" or summary, go for it!  I want this linky to be a place for teachers to share what works for them in the first days of school.

The first link-up won't be until next Monday, August 4th.  That gives you time to get your hands on a copy of the book, and read through UNIT A.  

I'd love for you to Pin this post to spread the word!  Use the image below.  :)

Wish me luck… I can't wait to see how this goes!  I'll see you back HERE next Monday for the first Link-Up!  Wahoo!

Finally… A Listening Center!

I know that I'm a little late to the game… okay, maybe a LOT late to the game (it's almost May- yikes!), but I finally got a listening center up and running!  I am SO pumped!

I LOVE shopping at Goodwill for children's books.  Look what I scored this week!

13 books, with audio cassette tapes!  TWO BUCKS FOR EACH SET!

Remember those cassette tapes?  I had to explain to my students how these were like CDs from when I was a little kid.  "Back in the olden days, we didn't have iPods…. and we had to have tape players…."

It was a difficult concept for them to grasp.

So, I found a boom-box with a tape deck, and got this listening center rolling!  They LOVE it!  (I wish I had gotten myself in-gear sooner in the year.)

Of course, I had to do lots of demonstrating of how to put the tape in and how to rewind it.  We did lots of practicing of how to operate the tape player, and how to sit elbow, elbow, knee, knee (EEKK), so everyone can see the book.  So far, it's working great!  Eventually, I would love to have my listening center be digital, like Mrs. Stanford's Class's Listening Center.  I love how she has it all organized with the iPods and headphones at a table.

But for now, these old-school tape cassettes will do the trick!  :)

What does your listening center look like?  How many books do you have in your listening center?

Students READ to ACHIEVE!

This year, students at my school had the opportunity to participate in Read to Achieve.  Read to Achieve is a program sponsored by the NBA to promote reading for kids.  The goal was for each student to read 500 pages by the deadline.  If they did, they had the opportunity to attend the Minnesota Timberwolves game for an after-school field trip!

I had six students participate and reach the goal from my class.  There were over 90 students total from our school!  So Friday after school, we fed the kids dinner, loaded the buses, and headed to the Timberwolves game.  It was a crazy fun time!

The kids could bring some of their own money, so you bet they bought every sugary thing they could get their hands on.  Cotton candy, slushies, candy, pop… you name it.

They were full of Timberwolves spirit!  My students were really good at watching the ball and knowing when teams scored.  Even though we were in the LAST row of the whole stadium.  :)

After the game, the kids got to go down onto the court and shoot a free-throw!

Even though we didn't get back to the school until almost 11:00 pm (where parents were waiting for pick-up), it was a good time had by all!  Go Timberwolves!

Most teams in the NBA support Read to Achieve, so check out the website to see if your local team has a program that your students can participate in!

Until next time,

- Miss Woodward

Falling in LOVE with books!

Have you ever come across a well-loved book?  You know, the ones where the covers are wrinkled, and the spines are barely holding the pages together?  While it makes me sad that some of my books are falling apart, it is encouraging to know that my students are loving certain books.  :)  I like to think of those wrinkled books as "well-loved".  

I recently had to repair our "Dinosaur Encyclopedia".  It's a class favorite-  a large hardcover book with amazing illustrations.  It has been read so many times, its spine could no longer support it.  :(

With a short visit to the book hospital, this favorite was back on the shelf in no time.  We did discuss how the injured book had to be treated with more care from now on.

Speaking of loving books, Miss Woodward's Class celebrated Valentine's Day by writing about books they LOVE.  It was a really easy project that you can do to spice up your walls ANY time of year!

How cute are my little bookworms?

I gave each student a piece of white card stock and had them think about their favorite book that they've recently read.  They folded it in half (if they do it carefully, they can make two folds in the center to resemble a book spine!)  Then they illustrated the front cover on the right side of the card stock and wrote about why they love the book on the left side of the card stock.

While they were working, I took their pictures.  All they had to do was look down like they were reading a book.  Then I got busy printing and cutting each one out.

Lovely little head shots.

I added two pieces of clear packing tape to each of their armpits and then secured their folded book cover.  I attached it while it was slightly folded, so it would be 3-dimensional.

See what I mean?

To attach them to the walls, I used a piece of tape on their heads, and one on each corner of the book.  I just love how the books pop out of the wall!

Some of their cover illustrations were amazing!  I could barely tell which was the drawing and which was the actual book!   :)

I love doing simple, but eye-catching displays like this!

Until next time,

- Miss Woodward

Five for Friday!

I am beginning to realize that Fridays are the only times I post.  :(  I am sorry for neglecting my blog!  Linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the weekly Five for Friday Linky.  Here's how my week went!

1.  New bookshelf!  

The Title I room was getting rid of some tiered bookshelves, and I offered to take one off of their hands.  I am so excited!  It will showcase books that relate to our science or social studies topic, as well as class-made books and other specialty books.  Yay!

2.  Lice....

Head lice seems to be a major problem at our school.  Five third graders went home with it on Thursday.  Two of those students were mine.  Then again on Friday, four more students in other grades went home with it.  The poor nurse was checking so many classes on Friday, that she didn't eat lunch until 2:30.  The tough part about the families at my school is that they think that all they need to do is treat the scalp.  They need to understand that they need to treat the scalp AND other materials in the home, like pillows, blankets, clothing, and stuffed animals as well.

3.  And then there were 17.

This year, my class started out at 21 students.  Two of those students never showed up to school, and were dropped from my list.  A few weeks ago, a girl moved.  This week, I was notified that another student moved unexpectedly.  In case you lost count, that brought my class size down to 17.  SEVENTEEN!  I begged for smaller class sizes (last year I had 28!), and here I got it.  Now it's my time to prove to administration that, for our school of ELL's, smaller class sizes is going to be the key to seeing the growth they want.  I'm up for the challenge.  Bring it on!

4.  Ordering Numbers

We started a new data cycle, which brought new skills in math and reading.  In math, we have been working on comparing and ordering numbers.  I gave each student a card with a number on it, and they had to arrange themselves in order.  It was a really quick and easy activity to pull together, and it was so funny to hear the dialogue between them.  "No!  You go over there!"  And they would drag each other around to where their number belongs.  

5.  Monster Dash Half Marathon

I have two older brothers.  One has run several marathons, and the other has been training for his first half-marathon.  Today, they ran the Monster Dash half-marathon in St. Paul.  We caught up with Dean at mile 8, and then met both of them at the finish line.  It was so fun to see the funny costumes that the runners were wearing!  I heard that there were 17,000 runners for the event today!

Me, Dean, niece Marianne, Clark, Dad, niece Ramona, and sister-in-law Elise.

Dean (left) and Clark (right).  Dean ran his first half-marathon today.

Congratulations, Dean and Clark!

How was your week?

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Revealing.... The Classroom Library!

I am so, so, SO excited to show you my classroom library!  I love how neat and organized it looks.  I am so happy I bought all of the matching bins.  I started this project last week... read about that here.

I made cute labels and started taping them on my bins.  

Because these bins had holes on the sides, I also put tape on the inside of the bin.

I made sure the labels tell students what the Accelerated Reader level is, whether it's a picture book or chapter book, and a color dot, so they can easily tell where to put the book back.

For some books, I couldn't find an Accelerated Reader level.  I put these books in a "Special Interest" bin.  I also have a bin for Hmong/English books.  The kiddos love reading in Hmong.

I just love how this library came together!  Every time I look at it, I smile.

What leveling system does your school use?  How did you organize your classroom library?

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Book Box Solution

Do you use book boxes to hold the books students are currently reading?  When I first decided I wanted to use book boxes, I found some nice plastic ones at Target for $3 each.  My idea was that I could use them for a few years.  It added up to get 30 of them!

Here is a MUCH cheaper solution!  I took a trip to IKEA, and found these cardboard boxes.  They came 5 to a set, for $2.  Let me just lay that out for you...

30 plastic book bins x $3 each = $90

30 cardboard book bins (6 sets) x $2 per set = $12

Yeah, I think I made a better choice.  :)  If you don't live near an IKEA, don't fear!  You can buy them online here!

They were super easy to put together!  Literally, about 15 seconds assembly for each box.

During the first week of school, I am going to have my students decorate them.  Then, at the end of the year, they can take them home!

Do you use book boxes?  Where do you get yours? Do you use them with Daily 5?  I am excited to try Daily 5 this year!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Book Organization

I am so excited to get my classroom library organized!  Last year, some of my books were labeled, and some weren't.  Books were always in the wrong bins.  And, worst of all, my students didn't know how to choose a "just right" book based on their reading level.  So, I decided to change that.  Time to get organized!

Last time I was in my room, I looked online and labeled each book with a sticky note with the Accelerated Reader level.

Today, I organized all the books into piles by level.  I had a pile for Level 1's, Level 2's, etc.  Then I put colored dots on each book.  As you can see, all of my Level 1's are bright green.  It was super quick and easy to then write the level on each colored dot.  (This was also a good time to make sure I had my name written on each book.)

Next, I bought these plastic bins at Target.  They were a little spendy... about $3.00 each.  But I am glad I got them!  They are durable, and I think they will stand up to the wear and tear by my little kiddos.

Right now, I have two for each level- a larger teal one for picture books, and a smaller white one for chapter books.  Once I put all of my books into their appropriate bins, I realized that I need more white bins for chapter books.  Can you see them all stacked up on top of the bin?  Maybe I need to stop buying books for a while...

My next step is to create labels for each bin.  I will let you know when my labels are done and listed in my TpT store!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

I'm Back!

Blogging world, I'm back!

I have finally gotten back into the swing of things!  After a long (and very restful) summer, it is time to think about school again.  For my school, teachers don't have to report back for another two weeks, and school starts a week or so after that.

This week I attended a three-day conference about implementing Core Knowledge into your classroom instruction.  My teaching partner and I got some great ideas and were able to map out our year's curriculum!  What I like about our map is that we are using our language arts block to teach science and social studies content.  It should be (fingers crossed!) a very nicely integrated time of the day.  If you want to know more about Core Knowledge, visit their website here.  I am excited to challenge my students this year!

The conference ended yesterday, and now I am just PUMPED to get back into the classroom and implement all of these new ideas I have.  So.... I spent my day at school today!  My partner and I got a lot done!

First, we copied, cut, and bound 65 of these lovely spelling dictionaries.  It was quite the undertaking!  This is one of my favorite purchases from TpT... check it out here!  

What I liked about this dictionary is that, along with the a-z pages, it included pages for special categories of words, like "family", "pets", and "friends".  I think this book will be awesome for my ELL lovelies to ensure that they are spelling common words correctly.

We also looked at each of our classroom libraries and labeled our books using the Accelerated Reading scale.  I just used a sticky note for now.  Later, I will go back and add colored circle labels that the students will look at to find their "just right" book.

It's been quite a day!  I am excited to start re-arranging and decorating my classroom... but, there is a small chance 3rd grade might be moving to different classrooms.  Crossing my fingers that that's not the case... I don't want to move all of my stuff!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

End of the Year Gifts

I am so excited to share with you the gifts I gave my students at the end of the year!

It gave me so much joy when I gave them blankets for Christmas, so I wanted to give them something special to end the year.

First, I found drawstring backpacks here from Oriental Trading.  These were generously paid for by my parents... Thanks Ms. Teresa and Mr. Woodward!  I knew the kids would love having their own backpack that they could use through the summer and into next year.

Then, I used leftover notebooks and wrote each student a personal note inside.  I also included a little baggie of mechanical pencils (I went with mechanical because I couldn't count on the kids having pencil sharpeners at home).

I went to Goodwill and bought each student a book to read.  I made sure it was something they were interested in, and at their reading level.

Lastly, I gave them a stamped and self-addressed envelope, and encouraged them to write me letters.  All they have to do is write the letter, seal it, and put it in the mailbox!

We have only been on summer vacation for two days, and I have already received four letters!  One was even from one of my most difficult students, who struggles with reading and writing.  I am so proud of him that he wrote me a letter!

Until next time,
-Miss Woodward

Book Binder, My New Best Friend...

I have spent the last few days binding countless books to wrap up the year.....

I have to admit that I kind of actually like binding books!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward