The Reason I Haven't Posted...

in a while is because of my unit planning. This week I am starting to teach the two unit plans I have been working on for math and language arts. My math unit is all about whole numbers and decimals. I have incorporated several meaningful activities that I hope will engage the students. My math unit was much easier to plan because I had a book to follow for suggestions and lesson ideas.

My language arts unit was much harder to plan because I didn't have much to build from. I decided to spend my unit working on literature circles. Each day the class will learn and discuss a role they will have to fulfill later in class once they are broken into particular groups. I want students to model and practice each role before I send them to work on their own. The first day was much more time consuming than I anticipated and it may take me longer to get through each role than I had thought. I hope I am not over my head with this unit!

I will try my best to update my blog in the next few weeks as I continue to teach my units. I'll be especially busy this week because of parent teacher conferences and Halloween, what a week!

Classroom Set Up

I figured I would try my video camera out that I have on my computer to show all of you how my classroom is set up. This is a really quick video I took today from what I see during most of the day while I am at my desk. I really wanted to post this so I can get used to video taping with my computer and so I can figure out how to make my blog more technology friendly. Hope you all enjoy it!

Assessment Idea

I am using a notecard system to keep track of my students' progress during my math and literacy units. I am keeping these notecards together by using a binder ring and am focusing on 5 or so students each session. I am thinking this will be a good informal assessment that will be very useful come parent conference time. I am also thinking about using another set of notecards to assess students classroom behavio0r (also great for conferencing). Hopefully these informal assessments will be useful, we will see! Check back later to see if they work as good as they sound...

Good News From Mr. Kay

This is something I picked up from my graduate class and I think will be really useful in connecting with and getting to know your students. Every week or so I am choosing 6 students that I will write a postcard to. I try to pick students that I think did something really impressive but may not always get recognized by me or my CT. I mail the postcard home and hope that the students really take pride in what I wrote to them. These postcards serve as a great way to show your students and their parents that you care and are involved in making them better students and people. This activity also makes you find something good in every student in your room, not just the outstanding ones!