Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Wild About Teaching Giveaway!
Lacey at Wild About Teaching is having a massive giveaway to celebrate 500 followers! Check it out!
CBD is Amazing!!
I must give a shout out to Diana at Custom Blog Designs! She made my blog vision become a reality and was so wonderful to work with!! Check her out at:
What is this Daily 5?
Seriously?? Am I that out of touch with reality? I started my summer vacation just a little over two weeks ago and in that small amount of time, I have become immersed in the blogging world and reading about Daily 5. Needless to say, I have ordered the books Daily 5 and Cafe and am now eagerly awaiting their arrival. I heard the Daily 5 mentioned once this past year in conversation with a teacher from another district, but I had never heard of it and then never researched it further. So now, I feel like I am really behind the eight ball!!
I will begin teaching my 13th year this fall, but have only been teaching ELA for four years in a self-contained fourth grade classroom. The other eight years I taught 6th grade math and social studies. Preparing for four subjects everyday in fourth grade has been quite overwhelming but I love how exciting my job is! I just wish I felt better at it because these past two weeks I have felt quite inadequate.
I know I haven't received the books yet, but my number one question from reading information about Daily 5 is why does everyone has book bins? I have encouraged my students to choose one chapter book to read at a time. Sometimes we are also reading a novel in class and this is plenty for a fourth grader to be reading at a time. I know I don't like to start more than one chapter book at a time if I am truly enjoying what I am reading. We spend time discussing how to choose a chapter book and I have a few hundred in my classroom library marked with AR levels. They are to take home this chapter book each night and bring it to back to school each day as they would with their homework folder. I can't keep the books in my room because we started grouping for reading this past year and I have the top readers from the grade come to my room for ELA only 80 minutes each day (which is another whole topic of discussion in itself!). The students need their free reading material for their regular homerooms during DEAR (drop everything and read) time since my students do not have AIS (academic intervention services).
So, I guess to sum it up, I have the following questions if any of the fellow bloggers would be willing to provide guidance and suggestions for. Please be patient with me as I am a brand new blogger:)
1. Do students bring their books home to read for minutes at night? (My students must do this and record the # of pages read on their reading calendar).
2. Do students have a recommended number of books they must read each month or other time period? (My students must read 4 chapter books a month and score 70% or higher on AR (accelerated reader) books over 250 pages count for two books but for the top readers, the AR level must be 4.0 or higher beginning in November).
3. How do teachers check for comprehension of books read? (I use AR to check for comprehension).
Any help would be appreciated and I am very anxious to get started! I am also trying to follow along with this book study. It is wonderful! THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!
I will begin teaching my 13th year this fall, but have only been teaching ELA for four years in a self-contained fourth grade classroom. The other eight years I taught 6th grade math and social studies. Preparing for four subjects everyday in fourth grade has been quite overwhelming but I love how exciting my job is! I just wish I felt better at it because these past two weeks I have felt quite inadequate.
I know I haven't received the books yet, but my number one question from reading information about Daily 5 is why does everyone has book bins? I have encouraged my students to choose one chapter book to read at a time. Sometimes we are also reading a novel in class and this is plenty for a fourth grader to be reading at a time. I know I don't like to start more than one chapter book at a time if I am truly enjoying what I am reading. We spend time discussing how to choose a chapter book and I have a few hundred in my classroom library marked with AR levels. They are to take home this chapter book each night and bring it to back to school each day as they would with their homework folder. I can't keep the books in my room because we started grouping for reading this past year and I have the top readers from the grade come to my room for ELA only 80 minutes each day (which is another whole topic of discussion in itself!). The students need their free reading material for their regular homerooms during DEAR (drop everything and read) time since my students do not have AIS (academic intervention services).
So, I guess to sum it up, I have the following questions if any of the fellow bloggers would be willing to provide guidance and suggestions for. Please be patient with me as I am a brand new blogger:)
1. Do students bring their books home to read for minutes at night? (My students must do this and record the # of pages read on their reading calendar).
2. Do students have a recommended number of books they must read each month or other time period? (My students must read 4 chapter books a month and score 70% or higher on AR (accelerated reader) books over 250 pages count for two books but for the top readers, the AR level must be 4.0 or higher beginning in November).
3. How do teachers check for comprehension of books read? (I use AR to check for comprehension).
Any help would be appreciated and I am very anxious to get started! I am also trying to follow along with this book study. It is wonderful! THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!
Monday, July 9, 2012
Our Living Room Journey...
Well, this is my first attempt at blogging. Here it goes! We live in a small, rural community of older homes in Western New York. Our home is a 1916 American foursquare. I would like to share some of our experiences (exhausting, frustrating, joyous, and rewarding) renovating our home since we moved there in October 2003. The most recent renovation we completed was the living room.
This is what the living room looked like when we bought the home (sorry for the photo quality...it was 2003 and our camera wasn't digital then!).
This is what the living room looked like when we bought the home (sorry for the photo quality...it was 2003 and our camera wasn't digital then!).
So, the first job we tackled in 2004 was removing the border, painting over the pink (which was painted over wallpaper), and painted the white fireplace. This is what it looked like for awhile:
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