I want to share with you how I take notes when I meet with my students during Reader's Workshop. I used to carry around a large binder (think 3 inches wide), but it was too bulky! I felt that it got in the way of my conference. And, if I was meeting with a group of students, I was ... Read More
Maternity Leave Binder
If you read my blog, you know that I like to be organized. Like, super organized. So knowing that I would be out for the end of the year for maternity leave was leaving me in a bit of a panic. I knew that I wanted all my information to be in one place for my sub, but wasn't quite ... Read More
Lesson Plans with Pinterest
I use Pinterest all the time to help me develop my lesson plans. Here are some examples. The way our curriculum is written is a tad confusing to read. I re-typed the key concepts into a table, using one page per trimester strand. Then, I scoured Pinterest for anchor charts, multimedia activities ... Read More
I Should Not Have Read this Book…
Over Christmas break, I caught up on a little {okay, a lot} of professional reading. I was looking to make some changes in my classroom and looked to the experts for help. First on my list? Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess. I had purchased this book over the summer, but ... Read More
A Fresh Start
Technically we went back to school last Thursday. However, we got out early and then had a snow day on Friday. So I'm calling today our official first day back. We got off to a fresh start! I used an idea that I found on Mrs. Robinson's Classroom Blog. She had her ... Read More
Winter Ornaments
My students made some pretty awesome Christmas decorations this week, thanks to my fifth grade team! These are projects that they do every year, but it was brand new to me. The first was a stained glass ornament. To make these, the students traced a printed design onto an ... Read More