Gotta Love Weekends!

We spent Saturday at the Fall Fest, and had a terrific time.
plants, firefighters, search and rescue, bubbles, face paint

Adam said, "If our school ever caught on fire, I would call 911. They would drive the fire truck over and use their hose. I would tell them to bring marshmallows too. We could have s'mores." Ha!!

Week 3--I WILL Keep Writing!!

I am using a slightly modified version of the reading log sheet that was offered on our listserv several weeks ago and have decided I love it!! It asks them to find words they don't know, metaphors, similes, and asks questions to promote active, productive thinking as they read. The only thing is, my kids really struggle with finding metaphors...so I found a neat little ditty on grammargirl.com that served as another mini-lesson. Don't know if it helped, but I will on Monday! If you know of any other sites that might help me teach my students how to locate metaphors in their novels, please feel free to rush those links ASAP!!! I am desperate!!

We also did Janet's neighborhood map activities. I can say that I am happy that Denise threw in the questions about multiple homes/blended families to our discussion. I think I saved a lot of confusion and sadness by telling the students to add a second map if necessary. One girl told me again the next day that she was very happy I allowed two maps. Her mom's house is beautiful and is emotionally sound. Her dad has a single-wide trailer, multiple girlfriends, and up to 7 people living there at a time. We put the map and the story starters in our writer's notebooks and will add to them as we go. I thought it would be a nice way to have all of these memories fresh for whatever theme is given on the MEAP, and it will be particularly helpful to have a big list of topics when we do our memoir unit this winter.

MEAP Review is not the way I would prefer to start my year. It is laborious, time-consuming, painful, and not the best way to introduce myself as a teacher. It is also necessary. This week, we worked on "Writing from Knowledge and Experience" pieces, which we will finish early next week. I decided, in an effort to make the writing task fun, some kids will make podcasts of their work next week to put on my school website...

Besides teaching, I parent. This week my angels started a new round of swim classes, Girl Scouts, and more. On the 17th, they had school pictures, and Adam (remember, he is only in Kdg.) woke up, put on his new duds, and ran in to announce, "The ladies are gonna lo-ove this, mom!" Apparently, he liked his little Kenneth Cole sweater vest and pinstripe pants. And morphed into a teenager as he pulled each pant leg on!

Off to the neighborhood party and football game! Enjoy your week!

Week 2--Reality Sets In

Wow! This week was busy! Since it still is, and I am determined to keep up with this, I will just do lists:
The Good:

• I organized a school-wide good deed. We gave one of my favorite teachers a gift card to pay for gas. I just love this guy! Talk about dedication!! He drives 40 miles for radiation every morning, teaches every afternoon, and coaches too! He's a favorite among kids--mostly b/c he is so kind and real.
  
• Most of my students seem to be motivated to read and write. They also work well with partners. This just makes me smile!
• We survived the first week of MEAP review!

The Bad:

• Reading levels seem to be lower than last year.

The Ugly:

• I am struggling with which book reports to assign my various classes, the new technology that isn't allowing some kids access to the computer, and with the lack of time!
• I'm planning to take my kids to the State game tomorrow, but my hubby just told me that we are supposed to get 3-4 inches of rain. At least we are not taking the baby. Can you say WET?
  

Week 1--Post RCWP Teaching

I am so excited to finally get to see how my teaching has transformed since the RCWP! I am proud to say that we are using the Letters to the Next President idea in 7th grade. Many of my kids expressed delight in the idea of actually writing the President. Here's the lowdown. Most of my kids are too young to participate in the contest, so instead of entering, we are going to come back to this piece whenever we can over the next few months to revise and clarify the letters. My plan is to send them out as soon as the President is inaugurated--all 90 letters full of rich, wonderful voices expressing good wishes, concerns, and hopes from citizens too young to vote.
The dual goals of this piece are unique too--as we mine ideas, conference, and share, students will learn about each other in (ideally) valuable, intelligent ways. In the past, I have spent lots of time at the beginning of the year going over norms, expectations, blah, blah, blah. This year I decided to just do that the first two days exclusively, then discuss the expectations as we need them. I am hoping that this will alleviate a lot of the repetition and boredom at the beginning of the year (for both the kiddos and myself). It will also give me a way to model writing for a purpose and the process in general. Because the inauguration is months away, it will allow for them to see how a piece can REALLY grow in rich, meaningful ways over the course of time (and many revisions).

Already, they have listed things such as alternative energy, mental health, building strong families, and major economic issues. I imagine I'll post some--maybe through podcasting. My guess is that the kids will pay more attention to the presidential race now that they have a role in it. I also see this as a way to use the critical literacy questions to examine community opinions, campaign ads, and media pieces of the candidates. Of course, this is in addition to preparing for the MEAP and our regularly scheduled curricula!

I thought about my fellow TC's a lot this week. How did your first week go??

PS--Two things I am attuned to since the RCWP:
1. I take note of names I like for characters. I have two students that have given me permission to use theirs someday--Jack Lindgren and Levi Dunn. Neat, huh?
2. Good, true, funny, unbelievable quotes that stick with me. Try these, "No, you can't use the drumstick to clean your ear out," or "Stephen, you can't have the Lazyboy and the fan!" The first one is obviously one I said to a new kid who brought the wrong tools to English, and the second I said to a boy who was sitting in our "fancy" chair, hogging the fan on our extremely hot 2nd day of school. The one that is not something forced out of me is WAY better(said with 100% sincerity), "Mrs. Frost, how much of my homework can my mom do for your class?"