About Time!

Well, well, well...I imagine most of you thought that I had fallen off of our great, round planet!  It has been so long since I posted that I, myself, wondered if I could still do it!

So much has happened in the last three months...where to begin???  My personal and professional lives have been crazy busy! 

Personally, I have had to watch my daughter graduate from college (with a degree in Elementary Education...yay!) and move off to Ft. Bragg, NC to be with her husband for the first time in their 2 years of marriage.  My son has moved back home to attend college nearby...the nest is adjusting to his return.  I adopted a puppy from the shelter, only to have it die from distemper one month later, on the day before Christmas Eve.  I then decided to foster-to-adopt another puppy from the same shelter.  That puppy ALSO has distemper, but she is flourishing, happy, and healthy.  Of course, she requires lots of meds and nebulizer treatments.  But, hey, she's ok! 

Then, I got a wild hair to go back for my Masters in Teacher Leadership.  Yes...really.  I love learning and I am adjusting to re-entering school as a learner...but I didn't need anything "new" to do.  Right now my course is over Understanding and Analyzing Data. Wow.  But I love that stuff! Haha!

Professionally, I spent my first semester in my new position getting to know the new campus, my colleagues, and the routine.  I had the opportunity to model lessons for teachers. I was lucky enough to create an academic vocabulary plan for our campus!!!  I absolutely loved doing that!  I used our TEKS, Bloom's taxonomy, and question stems to come up with words for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade.  Our awesome teachers came up with definitions and quizzes on those words for their respective grade levels and off it went!  Since my model was based on something junior high students in our district use, I can't share with others.  But academic vocabulary is important...see what you can do for your campus!

Now, however, I get the chance to work with students again!  I provide a small group setting for selected students.  I am having the time of my life doing that!  I feel like I'm back to what I do best...teaching!  The best part is that I get to work with third, fourth, and fifth graders, instead of just fourth.  I love it!  I get the chance to introduce a skill (3rd graders), build a skill (4th graders), and perfect a skill (5th graders).  Wow!  As educators, seeing a skill from beginning to end, across grade levels, rarely happens.

I am also having to write lesson plans for our Saturday Academy.  Teachers conduct tutoring on selected Saturdays for "bubble" kids.  While they get paid for their time, they still have to volunteer to give up their day off for the good of our kiddos.  It is definitely weird to have to write plans for educated people who know what they are doing.  But I've been encouraged to write "out-of-the-box" plans.  Now THAT is something I can do!!! I loved creating a game, called "SPUNO!", out of parts-of-speech.  It's a combination of the parts-of-speech and the popular game, UNO!  I look forward to hearing about it on Monday.  If plans worked...woohoo!  If not, well...at least I have a starting point.  It can only get better.

One of the things that I seem to address in all three grade levels is context clues.  Students seem to have major difficulty when it comes to finding the meaning of new words and words with multiple meanings.  While teaching one particular group, I realized that they didn't know what "context clues" meant.  So I created an anchor chart for that! (Of course!)  I will post a picture soon, but suffice it to say, we made the connection between context clues and "in text hints".  We connected to the tot show "Blues Clues".  Even with 5th graders, I hit a three-pointer! Can you say "swish"??

I promise to get some anchor chart pics up ASAP.  Thank you for sticking with me, or joining me, even though I was missing in action!

“My blog is a collection of answers people don’t want to hear to questions they didn’t ask.”
― Sebastyne Young
 Why, yes...I think that's what mine is!

Always,

Why, yes! I will plan my life!!

Today's post is about something completely unrelated to teaching...well, maybe not completely...


I am a datebook/planner dork!  I live my life by my planner...everything I need to remember is written in there.  Call it age, memory loss...I'm ok with that!!  But my college-aged daughter is the same way! 

Well, a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to conduct a staff development on my campus.  A couple of teachers came to the meeting with planners (date books, calendars...whatever you want to call them!)  One teacher had a lesson planner; the other, a standard calendar/planner.  They were personalized. They were so very cool...I had to get one for myself!!  Since then, many of the teachers on my campus have purchased planners!  I bought one for my daughter, Megan, as well!

When I came home from a "girls date" with Megan, my Erin Condren order had arrived!

This is my planner!

This is Megan's!

 You HAVE to check out these planners!! They are sold by www.erincondren.com !!  This company has every kind of planner you can imagine...life planners, notebooks, lesson planners, notecards, etc.  If you're organized, whatever you need can be found there!!  The month tabs are laminated and everything is held together by a thick, sturdy metal spiral.  I looovvvveeee the personalization part of it!  You can add a photo to your choice, sticker photos, etc.  This. Is. So. Fantastic.

I don't work for or get anything from this company.  I am strictly a customer.  But, sometimes, when you find an item that is so great, you just have to share with your followers!  I have to admit, their prices are a little high, in my opinion.  Especially on note cards, stationary, and the like.  BUT, you could spend just as much on a store bought planner.  It really comes down to what you want and what you are willing to spend on yourself!  I am actually going to by a couple as Christmas gifts for family  members. 

The cool weather has hit Texas, so I am off to bundle up and watch a movie or two.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Thinking well is wise; planning well, wiser; but doing well is the wisest and best of all. -Persian Proverb

Always,

A Little Note about Writing...

 Hello, all!!  It has been soooo long since I put up a new post on my blog!  I've been so engrossed in learning about my new position, and trying to do it well, that I have neglected the usual things that give me joy!  Updating this blog is one of them!

I am really growing into my new position as a Campus Instructional Specialist.  It's been challenging...I now deal with grades 3-5, instead of just fourth, so I have had to become familiar and comfortable with the different curricula.  The bonus side:  I no longer have grades or papers to grade!  My weekends are a lot less stressful because of it!!  I get to see the ways different teachers do their thing and I've seen a lot of great lessons and ideas!  The negative side:  I miss working with students, every day and on a regular basis.  That being said, I have had the chance to model lessons for a couple of teachers.  The student interaction has been wonderful!

Well...enough about me!! On to my reason for posting!!

Writing is one of my favorite subjects! (Go figure!) It's always come easy to me...the grammar, the vocabulary, the structure... I love putting ideas on paper.  I've always dreamed of being a writer...I even began a book, adding things over the last couple of years. (It's a work-in-progress, though.  It will probably never see the light of day!)  But it's fun and it's mine! Haha!  Anyway, I also love teaching writing.

Our district curriculum focuses on using Units of Study by Lucy Calkins .(This link will take you to Amazon.) Lucy is the be-all, end-all writing guru.  While I find her units difficult to follow, the ideas and methods used are solid. It's based on great ideas, if you can manage the fluff. But, that's just my lowly opinion.

I believe writing can be taught as a method.  There are steps to writing, especially with beginning writers.  When writing is taught methodically, students begin to pick up a pattern for composing a piece, whether it be a narrative, expository, how-to, etc.  We all learned to do this, in some form or fashion, when we were in school!  (Remember outlines?????)

I've had the chance to model narrative compositions for third graders (based on Lucy's units).  The group I am working with began their planning page with a "storyboard".  I love using the term; I told students how storyboards are used by the creators of their favorite movies!!!  Despicable Me, Finding Nemo...all of those movies began with a storyboard!!

Students drew pictures in student-made boxes for a story that they wanted to tell.  Then, out to the side of the box, they wrote about what the boxes were trying to show.  The next day, students used a green pencil to add to the picture...then to the sentences.  (See the pattern?? Picture..sentence...picture...sentence...)  The green pencil idea came from the teacher I am working with...she had students use green to show that they are "growing" their composition!!! Neat, huh?

Since I don't have my own classroom this year, I made an "example" so you can get an idea of the pattern...

Tomorrow, we plan to put our "storyboard" onto paper without the pictures. We will edit/revise from that copy (sloppy copy, rough draft, ...).  We will then make a final copy.

We are doing one step each day, so that students can work without pressure.  My hope is that when they revisit narratives, this process will be part of their routine.

I promise (to myself) to get back on the blogging track!  Oh...and back on the blog-hopping track, as well!!

What is written without effort is in generally read without pleasure.
–Samuel Johnson

Always,