A Week of Thanks: T

Today, I wanted to quickly link up with the amazing bloggers at Blog Hoppin' for their Week of Giving linky. A short and sweet blog post for a short and sweet week. I like it!

Today, I'm thankful for... 

I can't express how grateful I am to work with  my teaching partners. We've been together quite a while now and I can't imagine working with anyone else. We all have that Type "A" personality but we make it work. We plan and work together and I can't thank my "P's" enough for all their help over the years. From co-teaching and planning, to integrating science and language arts lessons, writing a technology grant,  picking up copies, prepping for a sub, or helping run RTI Reading Groups during intervention, I have fabulous partners! I have learned so much from each of them over the years. 

Amie, Michelle, & Chelsea - Thanks for the help, support, and doing what's best for kids!

This comet loves her Team & Teaching Partners!  

We had to take to take multiple shots because of all the one-liners... 

We're worse than the kids!

Sunday Scoop & a TPT Sale!

 Okay, who else is excited for a TWO DAY week? As I was reading some blogs this morning, I saw several teachers have the entire week off... lucky! I'm excited to link up with The Teaching Trio for their Sunday Scoop linky before my short week!

Okay, so my dishwasher is currently assembled in the middle of my kitchen! Yikes! Some piece broke off the "little strainer basket" so now it won't latch properly and complete a load. This is just not good timing. Thank goodness for a pretty handy boyfriend. Besides, the dishwasher drama, I'm excited to prep for a TWO DAY WEEK (whoop whoop!) and do a small load of laundry for my two days of teaching.

I'm hoping to get a little pre-Thanksgiving cleaning done around the house today and tomorrow. I need to get things picked up so we can bring out the Christmas decorations. I figured the Christmas decor would bring me some cheer as I grade 55 Realistic Fiction pieces over break. I just finished one piece and now on to the second piece... I feel like I live with a basket of graded work hovering around me like a black cloud. Anyone else have this same feeling?

Last, I'm happy to announce I'm having a pre-Thanksgiving sale over at my Teachers Pay Teachers store! I just finished another set of interactive notebook pages, this time for Language Arts. Head over and check out  my Character Unit Interactive pages! I've also put my Maya, Inca, & Aztec pages on sale as well! Check out the previews for freebies!

Here's a little preview.... 

I'm working on some more Social Studies pages currently but they will probably not be finished until after my turkey coma this week! You can visit my store and sale here. Hope everyone finds great deals on Black Friday & Cyber Monday!

Don't forget to check out this week's scoop!

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving,

Sunday Scoop

Up early to get some work done but I'm taking a little blogging break. I'm excited to finally have something to link up with Teaching Trio's Sunday Scoop linky! I've been actively reading everyone else's linky posts but I haven't had much to say to get in on the action myself!

So here's my Sunday Scoop:

So, Sunday's are my get down to business days usually. Today, I need to lock myself away to finish grading the last of my essays. I also need to send home my minutes update for Learn2Earn.org (check my previous post here) since we had a party on Friday and didn't get to see all my students.

I just can't brag enough about Learn2Earn. This website has been such a blessing for me and my students. Seventeen more responses awaited me this morning; I graded 48 on Friday. Couldn't be more proud of this student's reading success as I logged in this morning! Using text evidence to explain his answer and all... #fillsmyteacherheart

We also just got sent a long list of emails about meetings for OTES prep, IEP meetings, RTI meetings, and staff meetings for the remainder of 2014. I brought my planner home to write them all down. I just can't remember all these places and times without writing it all down and putting it in my digital calendar as well!

I'm hoping to spend maybe an hour or two grading or enjoying break to finish Mad Men Season 2. I got hooked yesterday and marathoned through nearly all of Season 2. Just three more episodes to finish up. What was life like before Netflix?? I also want to get all the dishes put away and cleaned up. We went to a friend's house for a game night yesterday so all left over dishes are still in the sink from prepping party foods and yesterday's misc. dishes. Thank goodness for a reliable dishwasher!

Last, I'm happy to write sub plans this week! I'm taking my first personal day of the year. I don't always take my personal days but this year, I'm taking some time to get my hair cut, go Christmas shopping and just get my life organized. I have all sorts of appointments I need to book and places I need to call and there just never seems to be enough time in the school day... Hopefully, it'll be a fun day to get recharged and get some things done before the holiday craziness starts up!

How are you spending your Sunday?

A Bookish November Currently!

It's November! I love getting caught up on the blogging world each month with Oh Boy Fourth Grade's Currently. Farley, Thanks for hosting & making this community a great place to share love and ideas!

So here's my November Life...

I love country music. I love Zac Brown Band. Seems appropriate that I'm listening to the radio while blogging & enjoying both my loves.

Okay, I know I've already blogged about my new "online reading logs" but if you need kids to "log" minutes, check out Learn2Earn.org. It's been a huge motivator for many of my reluctant readers. The conversations kids are having about books - it's exciting me! I love that my students are wanting to read for the purpose of reading (and buying some new stuff for their owlvatars). It's also great for my students who already love reading to share that love with the rest of the team. Additional Perk - I'm also loving the ease of "grading" these logs. Seriously, you can set a date range and it'll tell you the minutes logged and the average response on your questions. It does fiction and nonfiction. As a teacher who ditched logs and then brought them back in compliance with our district's reading initiative - this is awesome! Check out my Online Reading Log post!

In the words of Jack from Love that Dog, "This is the BEST, BEST, BEST DAY!" Today was Donalyn Miller Day!

Scholastic brought her into our school as part of a book talk tour. What?! I'm not sure how our school got so lucky but you better believe I was sitting front and center taking it all in. It's wonderful seeing research and affirmation backing up great things happening in our classrooms! Plus, as a reader and book lover -- she's speaking my language. And she's so nice! My OMG moment was chatting it up for 10 minutes-ish in the parking lot.

Her entire presentation can be found on BookWhisper.com under the heading "Projects &  Presentations." Which is great because my "after school brain" forgot a notepad!

Now, photos to document this awesome day!

 

Enough said. I still have a stack. I'm the slowest grader ever!

 Okay, before I hit up the Nerdy Book Club... I need some new books or series to get into! I just picked up The Fourteenth Goldfish at book fair. But I'm trying to find some other series books that might be new or interesting to add to my Nook. I've finished Maze Runner and I need something else... The One and Only Ivan? Shiver series? What's rocking your reading world?

I'm finishing up If I Stay as my own personal read. I know there is a sequel but I still need to see the movie. I'm one of those people - even though I always, always hate the movies.

 But, speaking of reading.... What are some great picture books that you're using in you classroom this month?

We just read the Ralph Fletcher collection of...

... as part of Realistic Fiction Writing unit. The kids are loving the figurative language and show not tell, plus, even big kids love picture books!

What's your November life like?

Spark Student Motivation: Online Reading Logs!

I've been absentee blogger lately because I haven't felt that I've had much worth sharing as of late. But today, I'm excited to share a new website for logging reading! Thanks to Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for hosting one of my favorite linkys, Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!
Joanne is amazing, she has so many great ideas for "big kids" -- so hop over and check out her blog!

Okay, back to the amazing reading find! My teaching partner, Chelsea, deserves all the credit for finding this gem as an ad on Facebook. The website is called Learn 2 Earn. The website was designed for reading fundraisers. Students are able to log on the the site and for FREE log minutes and books they've read. Then, they can gain sponsors for the minutes or books they've logged. However, after playing around with the site, my teaching partner and I discovered, it'd be great for our online reading logs! Teachers can create a class "tree" for free and easily set up student accounts. They even have a way to print out a class set of directions and user names and passwords for each student. We've been thinking about going digital because this year our paper version was a real struggle for many of our kids and not very motivating. We do have our 40 Book Challenge in place but that hasn't had the pull as it has in years past.


So, what's just so great about Learn 2 Earn ?... 

I think pictures are worth more than words. Here's some of the features like an "Owl-vatar", owl shop, and profile page that had my fifth graders begging to use the iPads during our "Friday freetime" at intervention.

Why is this great for teachers?

As a teacher, I can post questions for students to answer. You can choose from Common Core Aligned questions by grade or write your own.

When students can respond they show up in my digital turn in tray. You can navigate through the responses one by one or see them all in your "news feed."  I can score the responses online and provide feedback. Teachers can leave visible comments or leave comments just visible to the student who wrote the response. Students can also comment on each others' books to create a reading dialogue outside of class (WHAT?!). Think of this like a safe Facebook Page all about books!

We just launched this Friday and when I woke up today, I had over 40 responses to review and score. Now, many students did not do a stellar job with answering some of the responses completely - but with the invisible comment tool, I was ale to leave them messages to fix their work so it could be re-scored. My biggest take away was that my students were excited about reading and recommending books to each other -- that is priceless! We can work on extended responses from there!

Need a Freebie?! Here's a copy of our directions/requirements (pdf version and word version) for our students if you're interesting in starting your own Learn 2 Earn.org Whooos Reading Class Tree! 

What gets your students motivated to read more?