It's Late, but.....CURRENTLY

It's super late, but I've feel like I'm finally breathing again (See previous post: Coming Up for Air).

Here's my {CURRENTLY} for September...

Just think, in less than a week, I'll get to do another one!! :)

Brianna

Monday Made It!

Yay! **First Monday Made It Post** Yay!

Yay!!

So, for anyone who has been reading, you know that today was the first day I was allowed back into my classroom. You know what I made a lot of today?????.....

TRASH!!!

I cleaned....and I organized...and then I cleaned what I organized. Rinse. Repeat.

I made two of those huge, heavy-duty Christmas-Party-Chaos full to BUSTING!!

Too bad I didn't take a picture of it...if I had been thinking about this blog post when I left my room as I was while I was IN my room, then maybe I would have...but I didn't. I know...you're sad ecstatic you don't have to look at my trash!

Onto the real stuff...

I finally got to bind my Reading Response Letters. I originally got this idea from Ms. Leslie Ann over at Life in Fifth Grade...you can read more about HER idea here. Since nothing works for one teacher EXACTLY how it works for another, I decided to put my own spin on it. 

My students write letters to me once a week about what they are reading. I have a double resource day on Wednesday which gives me a weird 20 minute block right at the end of the day which is pretty useless since it's too short to do a lesson because of pack up/dismissal. This, I decided was the perfect time to do my letters. Additionally, every OTHER Thursday, I am pulled from my classroom at 2:15 for planning. My TA always needs something that the kids can do independently that actually interests them...**CUE READING RESPONSE LOGS**.

Here was the final product...

I know that the second and third photo are hard to see. Photo two is my prompt page. This is MY personal letter to THEM (reminding them of letter format first and foremost) giving them some ideas as to what I expect and what they can include, as well as some sentence stems. The third photo is my template for the letter. Depending on how experienced your children are with letter writing, they might just needs a blank piece of notebook paper. For my kids, however, they need a little assistance. 

My students have been reading and responding in letter form for several years, but only on a separate sheet of paper...therefore, I must admit, my format needed a little spicing up. I'm so excited to try them in JOURNAL FORM this year. So I took the time to redo the letter and prompt page in publisher and make it look all pretty. My templates are available on TPT here.

My third Monday Made it is another spin off creation. This one also comes from Ms. Leslie Ann. I have posted before about her Comp. Files. Today, I finally made my own. My school has a mandatory remediation block from 8:30-9:00 am every day. During that time, I pull my lowest students to review a skill they are either currently struggling with or scored poorly on a previous assessment. Meanwhile, the rest of my students are doing daily stations, one rotation per day. I figured that these Comp. Files were PERFECT for this because I can rotate them out each month. 

I decided to put ten passages in the file folder and the students will have the entire month to complete them. Ideally they will complete them two at a time, one set of two each week. I decided to do half non-fiction and half fiction. There were more nonfiction passages than fiction in her first collection, but that was okay. I was able to weed out a few passages that were content related to things we will do LATER in the year and will insert them as applicable. If you don't know about Comp. Files, you can check them out on TPT here.

Okay...I have one more Monday Made it...but it's more like a MONDAY IN THE WORKS so hopefully I'll be able to post about it next week.

Hope your Monday was as successful as mine!

Brianna

Assess Me Linky: Week 2

My mom is in town for her 60th birthday....and is currently taking a nap. My other half is watching golf while simultaneously reading a book. I have a few minutes to myself!!

I saw this on my **New Friend** Science Beans in the Middle's page and I decided maybe I needed to get in on this action. I think these Link-ups are going to be my favorite thing about blogging. Hopefully...eventually...more people will be reading my page other than just me!

1. Jeans because even though it's summer, my thighs are my own personal body image issue. Thunder thighs make skirts a tricky purchase...and a slightly uncomfortable option sometimes...big in the waist, tight in the hips.

2. Earrings because even though I love necklaces, when I don't have earrings in, I feel NAKED. It's similar to how I feel without a watch....

3. JZ's Big Pimpin' for sure. I am a product of the 80's so by the time JZ came around I was actually enjoying music. I remember my friend Lauren and I singing in the car one day with the windows rolled down and we saw some guy drive by in his Plymouth Breeze trying to look cool with "Big Pimpin' on the stereo. Needless to say we followed him and started singing, "Big Pimpin' in my Plymouth Breeze..." down the parkway. Oh...to be a teenager again.

4. Silver because SILVER.

5. City because that's wear I was raised (right outside D.C.) and because I find that I appreciate the country when I get to go and get away from everything. I feel like I would take it for granted if I was there ALL of the time.

6. Online because right now all I do is sit on the computer and plan, plan, create, plan, create, plan.

7. Showers because I don't have a stopper in my tub currently :(

8. Open book because it's how I've always been...I literally know no other way.

9. Busy bee because who isn't right before Back2School??!!

10. I can always do without breakfast, but dinner? Dinner is what I look forward to all day. Time with my other half, yummy scrumptious food. What's not to love?

11. Tea because I love tea. It reminds me of my grandmother, who is essentially to me what Ghandi was to the peace and tolerance movement.

12. Night Owl. but only until school starts. I'm already training myself to get up a little earlier each day to get back in the swing of things.

13. I get "Done Up" like ONCE a month. Undone is my natural state, and I like it that way.

14. Thunder because that rumble feels good in my soul.

15. Flats because I'm practical. #honesty

16. Normally, I would have chosen airplane...but my better half and I have taken a LOT of road trips already this year and it has been amazing for our relationship.

17. Girls because Zoey Deschanel's character kind of annoys me MORE than Lena Dunham's.

18. Central Air because August in Virginia Beach is nothing if not STIFLING.

Thanks for reading! Hope your weekend rocks! Guess what I'm doing tomorrow? Playing bingo!! Sound lame? Check out this photo from last weekend.

 Don't knock it till you try it, friends.

Brianna

CURRENTLY for August

Hello, my name is Brianna and I am....a CURRENTLY virgin.

This is my first one! FAKE IT in the big time blogger world until you MAKE IT in the big time blogger world!

I have been reading Farley's blog for years...now I'm joining her and everyone else. Pretty awesome.

I am currently wondering (for the second time in as many days) what in the world my puppy is dreaming about. He's not really a puppy at NINE years old...but in my heart, he'll always be one. #amiright? #IAMSORIGHT

I am LOVING the peace and quiet in my house right now. I can just make TPT creations...BLOG...make schedules, To-Do Lists...it's a teacher's heaven.

I am thinking that probably I will forget to blog once school starts. I don't want to though...somebody....anybody take pity on my young blogger self and keep me on track!

I am wanting Quicken to hurry up already. Mama needs some savings!

I am NEEDING...and I express that in all caps for a reason...to take a shower and start my day outside of my teaching black hole. I'm not kidding...I get sucked in, never to return some days...it's bad.

Finally...as my R.A.K, in Target yesterday I spotted these #adorbs little owl cutouts and stamps. Not being an owl person myself, but recognizing their appeal, I immediately texted to see if a colleague of mine wanted them, and picked them up for her on the spot. SOOOOO CUTEEEEEEE!

Okay...my first CURRENTLY is complete. Hopefully, I'll still be around for the next one!

Brianna