First Week Teacher Tired

Is this a hashtag yet? Tell me you don't feel it, ladies?!

It's Thursday and I have been met with, dragged around, called for help, given advice, drawn on for inspiration, admired, envied, and many, many more things in just this one tiny week. In a word: chaos!!!!!

As I have mentioned a few times, my district has adopted a new reading program. I went to a training for it ALL DAY yesterday. As valuable as I'm sure that time was for some people...I happen to luckily been born with two eyes and a decent understanding of technology. Therefore, it was a 7-hour waste of my very valuable pre-students time. I came back today feeling like I had a million things to do and still spent hours in meetings, planned and impromptu!

What did I accomplish today?

1. Nametags are finally taped and numbered on desks. 

I always wait until late in the week so that if I get any new students I can fill them in to the lineup in alphabetical order. I hate to have a random "John Bencher" at number 26...it just irks my nerves. Doesn't really even matter in the end because we all know we're going to get some kid later in the year with a last name that starts with C anyway! #amiright?)

2. Book baskets are done

I was expecting a students of mine from a few years ago to come and help out today, but I got an email early in the morning not to count on it. I was bummed mostly because I couldn't see her, but just a TEENSY bit because I was looking forward to her extra set of hands!! #imtheworst! She was going to be in charge of cleaning my book baskets and cutting out name-tags for them and tying them on with string. Either way, I got it done and they look adorable. If I remember, I'll take a picture tomorrow for you and post it!

3. Math plans finished

I updated my plans from the first week last year to include the new Place Value Detective activities I bought during the TPT sale. If you want to check them out, they are by Mary over at Teaching with a Mountain View and can be viewed on TPT HERE. Technically, in my state, place value is not an official fifth grade strand, but it's so important for them to continue to develop their understanding of place value, since it is the BASIS for all math calculation pretty much.

4. Pre-assessments for 5th grade reading and SMART Goals organized

I don't know how many of you know about SMART Goals, but they are BIG in my district. They stand for Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and  Timely. Do you write these? My school is currently acrredited with warning in reading. Because of this, our SMART Goals are going to be completely centered on reading, as is our 30 minute remediation block in the mornings. To have a remediation block the second week of school you need.......???? DATA of course. What better way to attain data than to give a pretest to students?! Naturally though, those pretests needed to be created. After our fifth grade meeting this afternoon where we analyzed last year's data and looked and fourth grade's data (to gauge where we're starting this year), we discovered that no one had a valid and reliable assessment to give us this data. I bit the bullet and made this my charge for the rest of the day, and I, "Got 'er done!"

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It was a productive day, and yet I still have so much to do. A teacher's work is never done. We'll see what Open House brings tomorrow! I'm getting excited!

Brianna

An Exploration of Genre

Hey everyone!

Happy Sunday...otherwise known as my last free-of-school-Sunday!! I head back to work tomorrow. I am both excited and terrified...probably also a little depressed. My summer was (as yours was) way too short!

Today, I've been going over my first 15 days of school I mentioned in an earlier post that my district got a new reading program. It offers a "First 30 Days" similar to "The First 20" of Fountas and Pinell. My principal feels that 20 days (much less 30) is far too many days to spend on classroom cohesion and prepping for the reading block for the year so we get a condensed NINE days. That means, roughly three mini lessons a day. I have no problems fitting this in because there is no small group reading during this time while we test the students to see what level they're reading at after the summer. Still, though, it's a LOT of information to try and squeeze into 20 minute blocks. Not to mention I am a Daily 5-er and I like to start my stamina building DAY 1, so I have to fit that in too!

In any case, to help get a leg up on the year, I also try to squeeze in a genre review during these first couple of weeks also. Since I use an interactive notebook for each of my subjects, Genre is the first thing to go into Reading.

Because this isn't actually a full blown unit, I needed to make something that got me the biggest bang for my buck. Fifth graders are expected to have a good understanding of genre already and I like to bring in some more sophisticated subgenres like memoir and the individual fictions instead of just going with the generic Fiction (realistic) vs. Nonfiction (informational).

First things first....the Genre Overview. For this I used a t-chart to do a broad comparison of fiction and nonfiction. I left room for notes as well as a listing of subgenres. I know not everyone makes as comprehensive list as I do, so I made two versions to suit.

Now we get into the specifics! I created a Fiction Overview and a Nonfiction overview to detail out each chosen subgenre...

I would use the one with with ALL my subgenres listed. This is the more generic version for those people who maybe wouldn't cover quite as much as I will. I did create similar versions of each that are not showing in the pictures above.

I then created two versions of Venn diagrams for each of the comparison subgerenes. I like to compare:

1) Realistic and Historical

2) Mystery and Adventure

3) Fantasy and Traditional Literature

Here are two examples...

You see that the first has a cut and paste (similar to the drag and drop option on our state tests!) and the second has an open-ended written response question based on a situation prompt.

I also created a page for Science Fiction where the student reads a summary and decides whether that IS or IS NOT SciFi and explains why.

For nonfiction, I made one organizer for all of it since most of the subgenres have many things in common. 

I'm excited to use these because I know that they are far more in depth than a lot of genre overviews out there. Using them as a quick reference guide will be perfect for my students when labeling book genres in their 40 Book Challenge log. If they have any questions, they can simply refer to these for help! 

If you like them, join my blog below and I'll send it to you for free for the next week! If you get to this post too late, fear not, there are in my TPT store HERE.

Brianna 

Classroom Reveal 2015!!

I know that this post is late considering that almost everyone is back in school by now, but so be it.

Today is going to be a lot of pictures and just a few words here and there...I apologize in advance if anything is blurry because my phone literally has a 5 megapixel camera. I'm pretty sure a Kodak Disposable from the 90s takes better pictures than this phone!! Also, the lighting in my room is weird for some of the photos because I like to have the lights off most of the day. About halfway through taking pictures, however, I realized that YOU GUYS might not be able to see it all so I flipped them on. I didn't go back and take repeat shots though #aintnobodygotimeforthat!!

Here we go....

The view as you walk in the room. I will say upfront that most of my walls are bare right now. I like to have things open so that when class is in session, we can make anchor charts together and put them up around the room, organized by content area.

Reading Nook #1: At the front of my room I have a rug with some cubes that I got for 60% at Michael's last summer #heckyeah

Reading Nook #2: As you can see, this is by my teacher closets. You would think this would be a problem but I never go in those during reading because I am usually in small group or conferencing so it actually works out okay. Those pillows do not stay on the carpet though. You can't tell but my desk is to the left of this area. The kids would be traipsing all over them to get to me during the day and I just CANNOT HAVE THAT!! I store them in a different bin which you'll see in the next photo. The kids are surprisingly good at putting them away if they are trained right from the start #thankyoudaily5

Reading Nook #3: This is my tiniest reading area and my FICTION ONLY library (I forgot to take a picture of my NONFICTION ONLY library # merp). Notice how under the desk on the right is the basket I was talking about in the previous picture. It stores all my pillows from the big carpet AND my collection of MINI PILLOW PETS (given to me by my T.A. Jennifer). The M.P.P.s are used on the tiny carpet only.

This is my personal space at the back of the room. All of my binders are labeled and organized using milk crates (more of these in a moment!). I have my Teacher Toolbox and just out of view on the right are my student mailboxes. Behind my desk I have my Homework Club and my Class Bingo, which is designed for whole class discipline goals. I can't remember if this was an original idea or if I read it somewhere years ago, so if it was your idea, lemme know and you'll get credit, I swear! 

ALSO OF NOTE: don't you love my chalkboard apple??? It was given to me by one of the most challenging students I have EVER had for Christmas last year. I HEART it :)

Homework Zone and While You Were Out. Pretty self-explanatory. This is where they drop off HW in the morning and pick-up WYWO if they were absent. At the end of the day I collect all the foldables, interactive notes, worksheets, etc. on their desk and stick it in a folder with their number on it. When they come back, it's all in there just waiting to be put in their notebooks!

MATTH Rotations Board (T2 not pictured)

Small Group Area with Word Study board in the background. On the left side of that board I usually write different topics for the kids to write about. It normally consists of a list they can make, a What if..." open ended question stem and a "Would You Rather..."

My Writing Process and Six Traits Board (I just love to make thing POP up off the boards!)

Organization is my #favorite! That little yellow sign says "Stealing from Ms. Burch is WRONG!" Care to take a guess what I had an issue with last year??? My favorite thing in this area is definitely my color coded crayon drawers. I give each of my kids a box of crayons each year...but then they take it home for one reason or another and it never comes back. Well, that doesn't help when I do foldables and interactive notes on the daily, now does it?! So, sometimes I'll say, "Choose three colors of your choice," or "Take out a red and a blue." Either way, this allows kids to get ONLY what they need. 

This is part of my Writing and Word Work activity area for Daily 3 + Me. The binders of the left say "Mad Libs" (I store all the mad libs the kids have already written here for inspiration- after I check them for vulgarity of course) and "#NotRight" (This binder is where my kids have the opportunity to write about real things that have happened to them or someone they know that aren't right for one reason or another. It's truly amazing how open they are about it sometimes.) In the green bin are my Class Journals and on the far right are my new Reading Response Letter Journals. In the middle are mostly resources for Writer's Workshop like peer editing checklists, drafting paper, and final copy paper. In the front are my magnetic letters with white boards and behind are my Bananagrams with cork pads for sound muffling.

This is the table at the front of my room. It stores items I use daily including whiteboard, lined paper, staplers, tape, and all the bins that keep my daily math stations materials. You might remember from the MATTH Rotations board the M (math facts), A (at your seat), and H (hands on). I love to you use mild crates to make additional storage! Have you tried this?? To the right is my Power Up area. I have mentioned before that we have a mandatory remediation block each morning. While I am with a small group working on a skill, the rest of my students are rotating stations, one per day. Each one of these bins holds a different activity in the manila folder and when they are done, they stick it in the purple pocket folder behind it. You see that the last bin is already full...that's got my brand spankin' new Comp. Files in them!!

Okay...that's all she wrote on the classroom reveal for 2015. Let me leave you with one last picture...a picture we're all familiar with...

Yep...you too jam pack that cabinet, don't lie!

What did you think??!!

Brianna

Reading/Writing Notebooks and a FREEBIE!!

Every year since I began teaching I have used a Reader's/Writer's notebook.

Every year I change it.

Some things work, some things don't, some things work only part of the time. It's frustrating. I desperately want to find something that work every year so that I can stop reinventing the wheel in THIS particular case, and begin reinventing the wheel in a different area !:p (Sidebar: when are they going to invent emojis for blogging??! #whoiswithme?)

The first couple of years I went with a five-tab model
1) My Stuff
2) Reading
3) Writing
4) Vocabulary
5) Response

My stuff was(/is) mostly like reading log, Daily 5 reminder posters, quick reference genre chart, and R/W Notebook rubric for when I grade it twice a quarter.

The Reading and Writing tabs were where we put all our mini-lesson work for those subjects. This, of course, was BEFORE I was introduced to Interactive Notebooks (INBs) and all their glory.

Vocabulary is self-explanatory.

Response was where I was having my students write their weekly letters to me. This year I have put them into journal format which you can read about and see more about HERE.
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The next couple of years I went with a three-tab model
1) My Stuff
2) Vocabulary
3) Writing

Everything was mostly the same, except since I had introduced INBs for Reading and Writing mini-lessons I eliminated them from the binder and left a writing tab only for drafts and other pieces student's were working on for a grade (for organization purposes). I also took out Response because I was having a hard time monitoring it and chose to do it in small group with "Think Marks" (More on this in a different post).
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This year I have settled on a four-tab model with the following format
1) My Stuff
2) Response
3) Vocabulary
4) Writing

All tabs from the three-tab model above have the same purpose, and I am still using INBs for Reading and Writing mini-lessons. Now, I have gone back to a Response tab, but since the creation of my letter journal mentioned above, I'll be using it a bit differently. My school wants students to be responding to their reading every day. Sometimes this can be difficult when you're only being given an hour to get all small group work done AND you favor a Daily 3 model which requires working through a variety of other components other than just independent reading. I have decided that this year, my students will respond with me IN small group twice a week (using their Think Mark) and respond in their notebooks on the opposite two days that they DON'T see me in the Response section of their notebook. I created a new Reading Response Record form for this purpose trying to combine all the elements of response logs that I've seen that I liked. Tell me what you think!

If you have read Word Nerds then you understand why I've got a Word Nerd Alert section. I am CRAZY PASSIONATE about kids being crazy passionate about words. I like for them to look for interesting/unknown/cool words every time they read. That section may be full or empty on a given day, but at least it's there for them to be reminded of their Word Nerd Mission!

If you're interested in it, click on the picture for a link to it.

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With all this reinventing of the wheel, I needed to update my rubric as well. It is featured as one of my freebies in my TPT shop right now so make sure you grab it! If you like the style and you want me to customize it for you, I'd be happy to do so! Email me and I'll see what I can do for you. Click the picture below to see it in my shop!

As with each year's changes, I get very excited that THIS IS THE ONE THAT WILL LAST FOREVER. Well, we'll see about that, won't we! How do you set yours up?

Happy Hump Day,

Brianna

Back to Life, Back to Reality...

I was on vacation this week in Colorado. Man, it was beautiful. Initially we decided to go there for a concert that was happening at the ever-popular and truly magical venue that is Red Rocks. If you have never heard of Brandi Carlile, do yourself a favor and listen to the snippets of her music here. The idea that SHE would be playing THERE was too good to pass up

This is my panoramic view from my seat right before her set. Tell me that doesn't make you go "ohhhhhhh!"

So, combine that venue and that artist and we were signed up with a quickness. We also got the opportunity to head to the small ski town of Breckenridge, which is super adorable and I can only imagine how crazy it is when there is actually snow on the ground. We hiked, we ate, we hung with friends...the only thing we didn't do was indulge in the *AHEM* dispensary goodies...though the shops were conveniently located every couple blocks!

While we were in Breck I bought these...

(These are SERIOUS contenders for FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL socks. Usually I wear my pencil socks, but these are adorbs!)

...and put this on my birthday wishlist...

(Who doesn't needs a new Very Bradley bag in their lives?)

UGH! It was hard to come home...but I was a little excited too. Coming home meant it was time for our 5th Grade Summer Summit. Each year my principal invites the teachers of each grade level to a meeting with her to discuss the scores from our state testing the year before, introduce changes that have been made over the summer, and ask if we have any suggestions or questions before we begin the year. The meeting was ultimately pretty uneventful, but I always enjoy it because it gets me back in the swing of collaboration! (*NERD ALERT!*)

Being the afore-mentioned nerd that I am, I of course, spent the hours of the day NOT in the Summit in my classroom. I lost hours again, guys. I was in there a long time, but if you asked me what I got done I wouldn't have a clue. I mean...I know I did tons of stuff, and I certainly never had a moment at rest, but I couldn't give you a list of my accomplishments if I tried. I just get so absorbed in what I'm doing!

I can tell I'm getting close to the end of my list of Things To Do though because I've started creating piles of papers for my first week (which is still three weeks away!). I always do copies last. I've found myself struggling this year though, because I have so many amazing resources and I just want to be able to use them all! How will I fit them all in?!

What's crazy is that I'll be purchasing even more resources tomorrow at the follow-up TPT sale! My entire store (and everyone else's) will be on sale. Check it out by clicking on the TPT window in the right margin or clicking HERE.

With that, I'll leave you with a view from the top of one of the mountains in Colorado.

Brianna

It's HERE!!

Yes, friends. Today was the day. I wasn't planning on blogging today, but I had to.

You know what I'm talking about.

I was on my way to tutoring when this sweet, delicate, feminine, HANDLE YO' BUSINESS, bad mamba-jawamba planner landed on my doorstep.

I was so excited, I.PUT.IT.IN.THE.FREAKING.CAR.WITH.ME.

I tried to remain strong. While my student was working independently I opened it, just to take a peek. I didn't mess with the tissue paper. I just teased myself by looking at the assortment of cute stickers and things I got with my invoice on top. I am a glutton for punishment. Ugh! It nearly killed me to wait until I got home to open it.

 Voila! Customized to my color selection. Personalized with my name. #teachersheaven

#tabsfordays #hellaorganized

I was super lucky. I ordered mine on the 29th of July, and having missed the Back2School sale, I was bmmed because this fresh slice of teaching necessity right here is costly. Lucky for me though, I Google'd "Erin Condren Coupons" and found one that worked 100% of the time thus far using code JULY25. I popped that into the "Promotions" box at check-out and PRESTO CHANGE-O, 25% off my order!

I got busy immediately...this is August so far. 

I bought the pack of perfectly sized sticky notes to place into my monthly calendars, BECAUSE OCD AWESOME! I even backdated stuff, just to feel MORE organized and successful. Have you ever done that? Made a To Do list that included items you had already completed, just so you could have something checked off? Don't lie...you totally have. 

I was thinking to myself that I was going overboard on the stickies and that I needed to ration them carefully when I realized that there are more stickies that I got for free in the back of my planner. They were even already conveniently labeled with things like "Fieldtrip" and "Assembly" and "Meeting," along with dozens of blank ones in an assortment of colors that Crayola would be jealous of! 

If you decide to buy one, click this link. You'll get $10.00 off your first purchase! Totally worth it!

Okay, I have to go. I need to get back to me (super appropriately named) Life Planner.

Life is good today, friends. Life is good.

Do you Erin Condren?

Brianna

WARNING: The Back-2-School TPT Sale is Dangerous!

First blog post ever, and boy, it's gonna be a doozy!

I don't know about you folks, but I like to spend money like it's going out of style WATER when there is a sale going on at Teachers Pay Teachers! There are too many products for too many uses by too many exceptionally talented educators. Good Lawd, SAVE ME from all the damage I can do...to my paycheck that is.

I scored some amazing goodies this past weekend. Here are a few that I picked up... 1) Comp. Files (Aug/Sept) from Ms. Leslie Ann over at Life in Fifth Grade

This product is going to help me take my morning remediation stations to the next level! I've decided to set them up similar to her suggestion using a file folder, but I'm going to laminate and hole punch the tops of the folders twice so that I can insert binder rings. Then I'll print all of them out, mix them up and stick them inside the folder, looped into the binder rings. During remediation, the students who are at the Comp. Files station can work through them at their own pace for the whole month of September. Then **HOPEFULLY**, by October, I'll be able to pick up a new set from Ms. Leslie Ann and start the process over again!

2) Math Sorts (4th and 5th Grade) from Jennifer Findley at Teaching to Inspire in 5th

These two sets are going to help me make my interactive notebooks that much more interactive. I couldn't decide between the two sets because there was so much to offer, so I just got both!!

 3) Practice and Assess for Poetry and Grammar by I'm Lovin' Lit

I have already purchased ALL of her Interactive Notebooks and a couple of her other Practice and Assess pieces, so I thought it was high time I gather the rest of the collection. Seriously, I use her notebook pages for almost EVERYTHING I do in my reading and writing blocks. They are creative and spot on with the skills I teach. Even if they weren't, she gives you the templates to make changes if you need to!
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When I say that's not even half the stuff I bought, I'm not kidding. Insert "KID-IN-A-CANDY SHOP metaphor here.

I am one of the few who haven't gone back to school yet. Believe it or not, I can't even get back into my classroom until next Monday!!! I can't help that tourism is a large industry in the region where I live. Schools don't re-open until after Labor Day for that exact reason. Some might consider me lucky, but those of you who are already back, just remember, you'll be done several weeks before I am.

If you are already back in school, I' hope it's been a great first (or second) week and that you see incredible potential in the little minds in front you.

Happy Hump Day!
Brianna