Monday Made It { Journeys Spelling Lists}

It has taken me all summer long to join in Monday Made It but I finally made it today!

Today I made spelling list for Journeys Common Core series for 1st grade. I'm really excited about using this new series and I wanted to create a spelling list that was differentiated. 

     I have made two spelling lists per Journeys lesson. The first spelling list is on grade level spelling words taken from the series. I added on more spelling words to make 10 regular spelling words and then added bonus words as well. In the beginning of the year lessons there are less bonus words but as the spelling list progress so do the bonus words.

The second list is an above grade level list for your students who are ready to move on and spell more within the same phonics principle. For example if the spelling words are short /a/ for the week the above grade level list will just be a harder set of short /a/ words.

To determine which students study which list I have my students take a pre-test either on Friday after their spelling test or first thing Monday morning. If they get 9/10 or 10/10 words correctly then they are on the above grade level list. If you don’t think you have enough time each week to do a pre-test then simple divide your students by their reading level. Your top 2 reading groups should be able to handle the above grade level list and your other reading groups can study the on grade level words.

Check it out!

I'm printing, laminating, and cutting to get ready for the school year! I still have 2 weeks left and plenty to do! I have a stool to paint, crate chairs to finish up, and putting it all together to get ready for Meet the Teacher.

I'm not too fussed though because I'm been making something else...non school related but very yummy. I just got this fabulous mixer as a wedding gift and I love using it! It is the only appliance I use in the kitchen! 

Delicious chocolate chip cookies! 

Hope you are having a marvelous Monday! Enjoy these last few ones before we have to wake up and be at school!

First Day { back in my room!}

I went back to school today! It was my first time over the summer!

I decided after a yummy sushi lunch with my bestie to venture back over to my school today. I had my trunk full of things from Target and was ready to find my room looking like I had left it back in early June.

Like this: 

Unfortunately, I walked into my room like this:

COMPLETE DIASTER 

I know they had to clean the floors and the tile but really....com on it is a lot of work moving furniture all over the place! I basically just moved stuff back where it was before and tried to move my desk into a formation that I liked. I'm not sold on the placement of the desks which is why I haven't put down the chairs. It's overwhelming going back in so I did what I could and chatted with my classroom neighbor and school secretary. 

This is what my room looked like at the end of the day! I'm pretty happy with the progress and will be going back in next week to put things together, organize, and get things ready before pre planning.

I just got this AWESOME new pencil sharpener I got from my warehouse order. Do you get a warehouse order from your district? We get a certain amount of money to spend on school items in our district warehouse. We place the order before school ends and then get it over the summer. I ordered this pencil sharpener, paper, folders, and binder clips. Like those rad new pencils?! Dollar spot at Target of course.

I pushed this cabinet over back to its place today. I also set up my writing area. My bulletin board hasn't changed. Can you see my new blue lamp?! I love it!

This is the back area you couldn't see from the other view. I need to clear off my kidney table and still put things up but it is coming along. 

I also got to keep this bulletin board up which is great! This is another one of my favorite boards that hangs right next to my guided reading table. 

I just bought these tins at in the dollar section at Target. I'm going to use them for my students table supplies: pencils, scissors, glue sticks will go in the tins. Then I'll have crayons in the other part of the basket. 

Well that's all I have for my first day back but I'll keep you updated as I continue to organize my room and get ready for the new school year! 

10 Things I've Learned from Teaching

This will be my 6th year of teaching and I've learned a lot! Here are my top 10 things I've learned from teaching:


1.  You will NEVER work your contracted hours. There is no way to get done all the work you need to do in that amount of time. So plan on coming in early or staying late. I usually come in an hour before school and stay thirty minutes after. Now that isn't all the time but most of the time I'm there working on plans, writing e-mails, getting materials ready, making things, collaborating, and doing paper work. There is also all those "fun" school activities like school carnival, fundraisers, meet the teacher, open house, reading night, math night, science night, plays....the list goes on.

2. Collaboration is key! Everyone has good ideas and it's so great when people share their resources. Get with your team or form a group of teachers that you can rely on when you need something at school. It is also being an amazing blessing to have other bloggers to collaborate with as well!

3. Every year I've had a different theme for my classroom: safari, primary colors, nautical theme, pirate theme, and bird theme/just blue and green colors. Don't do this to yourself...pick one theme or color you can live with and go with it for awhile. I'm not changing my decor this year at all. I may add some things but over all it is not changing. This is also the first year I've stayed in the same classroom so it helps when you don't have to take everything down and move across the hall! You will change rooms...hopefully not as much as me but it does happen.

4. Always have an activity at hand. If you get done with something early move on to something else or fill in time with a fun game or brain break. Kids need to constantly be doing something! Along those same lines...if you are getting bored with an activity they probably are too move on or try something new!

5. You can never have enough books in your class library!

6. Children do not fall very far from the tree...once you meet their parent you'll understand. Instead of trying to change them become a team with them so you can get them on board with your class.

7. Someone will cry every day. It might be because Katie hurt Jamie's feelings or John pushed Jack on the ground. It might even be you who is crying at the end of the day. It's okay...tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start. Kids also have a re bound of about five minutes so usually all is good by the end of the day!

8. Organization is key to being prepared and being successful with a class full of kids. If you aren't good a organizing...go find a blogger that is and copy it girl cause you got to get it together!

9. Never stop learning! You make think you got it all down but their is probably a newer, better way of doing whatever is it your trying to accomplish. Read professional books, get into a book study, blog, go to workshops! The more you know the better your teaching will be!

10. Teaching is a profession like no other! We're not in for the income we're in it for the outcome! I love my students so much and could not imagine myself doing anything else but teaching!

Busy Summer { trainings: Kagan Cooperative Learning, Go Math!, and district requirements}

The month of July has not real slowed down this summer at all! I am continually busy! Last week I went to a Kagan Cooperative Learning workshop all week! I loved it and can't wait to try out new structures and let you know how they go! Dr. Kagan came into our workshop one day-pretty awesome he actually goes to them and speaks. He also signed my book! I can't wait for our next training during pre-planning!

 Yesterday I had a training on GO MATH! our new math series that is aligned with Common Core. It was very overwhelming to hear all the information about the series and I'm wondering how I'm going to use it all. I'm starting off with with the pacing guide and looking into my teacher edition for guidance. I like how the series incorporates math centers though and even gives to lots of resources and tools to get your started. Now this will not replace what I currently have for math centers completely. I will still keep my hand on games in place and add in the series math games. I think I'll be using the computer games for interventions (Soar to Success) and then stick to Moby Math since that seemed to fill in the gaps, keep students motivated, and pushing them to to their full potential. They do have math games in the series but you can't control what they go on when they play the games so they may be just fooling around and not doing what their supposed to. Most of our resources are online because our district in trying to move to digital curriculum. This is good because I can use everything with my smart board and look at the information now before I actually have the books and materials. This is not good because as I said it can be very overwhelming looking at all the information. I really like how the pacing guide leaves one day to introduce the new chapter and pre test the students and two days for assessing the students (practice test/review and actually test.) This is my pacing guide for the math this year.

2012-2013 ECBOE First Grade GO MATH! Pacing Guide
	First Nine Weeks	Second Nine Weeks	Third Nine Weeks	Fourth Nine Weeks
Dates	August 20-October 19	October 22-Dec. 20	January 3-March 8	March 11-May 23
Instructional days	44	40	46	50
Benchmark dates				April 8-19 (ARMT+)
Chapters	1-4	4(cont.)- 7	8-10	11-12 Getting Ready Lessons
	Chapter 1   (12 days)	Chapter 4 (6 days cont.)	Chapter 8    (15 days)	Chapter 11     (8 days)
	Addition Concepts Domain: Operations and Algebraic Thinking CCS:  CC.1.OA.1    CC.1.OA.3 CC.1.OA.6   CC.1.OA.7	Subtraction Strategies Domain: Operations and Algebraic  Thinking CCS:  CC.1.OA.1    CC.1.OA.4  CC.1.OA.5     CC.1.OA.6	Two Digit Addition and Subtraction Domains: Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Number and Operations in Base Ten CCS:   CC.1.NBT.4   CC.1.NBT.6    CC.1.OA.6	Three-Dimensional Geometry Domain: Geometry CCS:  CC.1.G.1    CC.1.G.2
Assessment dates
	Chapter 2  (12 days)	Chapter 5  (12 days)	Chapter 9  (15 days)	Chapter 12   (12 days)
	Subtraction Concepts Domain: Operations and Algebraic Thinking CCS:  CC.1.OA.1    CC.1.OA.6   CC.1.OA.8	Addition and Subtraction Relationships Domain: Operations and Algebraic Thinking CCS:  CC.1.OA.1    CC.1.OA.6   CC.1.OA.7    CC.1.OA.8	Measurement Domain: Measurement and Data CCS:   CC.1.MD.1    CC.1.MD.2 CC.1.MD.3	Two Dimensional Geometry Domain: Geometry CCS:   CC.1.G.1    CC.1.G.2   CC.1.G.3
Assessment dates
	Chapter 3  (15 days)	Chapter 6 (12 days)	Chapter 10   (16 days)	Getting Ready Lessons 1-11 (10 days)
	Addition Strategies Domain: Operations and Algebraic Thinking CCS:   CC.1.OA.2   CC.1.OA.3 CC.1.OA.5   CC.1.OA.6	Count and Model Numbers Domain: Number and Operations in Base Ten CCS:  CC.1.NBT.1   CC.1.NBT.2 CC.1.NBT.2a  CC.1.NBT.2b CC.1.NBT.2c   CC.1.NBT.3	Represent Data Domain: Measurement and Data CCS:  CC.1.MD.4	Review Projects: Make a Math Facts Strategies Book Numbers Around Us
Assessment dates
	Chapter 4  (5 days – 11 days total)	Chapter 7  (10 days)		Getting Ready Lessons 12-20 (10 days)
	Subtraction Strategies Domain: Operations and Algebraic  Thinking CCS:  CC.1.OA.1    CC.1.OA.4   CC.1.OA.5    CC.1.OA.6	Compare Numbers Domain: Number and Operations in Base Ten CCS:  CC.1.NBT.3    CC.1.NBT.5		Review Projects: Measure and Graph Building Shapes
Assessment dates
I've also being doing our district trainings this summer online. They are not required bust supposedly we get paid for them...I'm not holding my breath but I do hope so since I've spent a considerably amount of working on them. There are five classes in all. One is on building effective teachers (check) new district requirements the VAM model (check) , teaching ESE (check just finished today after 5 hours), a technology course (just started), and a Common Core class either on ELA or math. The classes are like online college courses with videos, articles, and quizzes. They aren't too bad just take up time! I hoping I can slow summer down a bit! I've only gone to Target once! I bought some tins to hold supplies in for table materials, a new plastic container, stickers (of course! I can't help myself), foam apples (for back to school/Johnny Appleseed theme stuff), and a new pictures frame to hold our wedding photo in for my desk. I saw a great blue lamp there I will probably end up purchases because one of lamps just didn't make it last year. It was at least 10 years old so it's no big loss. I also saw some great storage bins but need to decided if I actually need them. Which leads me to actually going back in my classroom and organizing/putting back together everything so I can truly decide if I need anything more! So tomorrow I might go back to school if the floors are cleaned and get some work done. If my classroom isn't clean and ready though....I think I'll bake, clean my house, and get ready for Wine Down Wednesday at my house with my best girlfriends.