Falling In Love With Teaching Writing

I am so excited to be part of this Blog Hop!

This is my first and I am excited for so many reasons!

I can't wait to see all the wonderful things we all love about teaching.

Anyone who knows me loves I love reading.

I love teaching reading.

I love reading for fun.

I love talking about reading.

So, I really thought my blog post would be about reading.

However, this year I have grown to love writing as well.

I decided to talk about writing because I think many of us are afraid of how to teach it 

because we were not taught how to teach writing.

If you were taught how, PLEASE leave me a comment so I can get in touch with you!

I have always enjoyed reading the wonderful stories my students wrote for creative writing.

I even enjoyed reading the facts and seeing the excitement in their faces as they learned new things about interests they had.

My view of writing has changed completely over the last few years as our testing has changed;

therefore, changing the way I have had to look at how I teach writing.

HOW TESTING HAS CHANGED

1.  Our testing will be on the computer.  On the reading test the students could have up to 2 texts and then respond to a prompt about what they have read.  On the social studies test, we could have any primary source, map, diagram or text, that the students will have to analyze and then respond to a prompt.  On top of that, the students will have to type their responses while scrolling up and down to the text.

2. We have been told to be prepared for mainly opinion writing on both of these tests.

3.  Our social studies standards for third grade in Tennessee include THE. ENTIRE. WORLD. - geography, culture, history, government, economics, etc.  of each continent.

So, my amazing third grade team and I had to sit down and rethink how we were teaching.

HOW MY TEACHING HAS CHANGED

1.  My kids are on this blog almost every day.  I give them crazy photo prompts.  I give them social studies prompts that apply to what we are studying in social studies as well as reading. I have found the key to making this work is my responding that day to what they have written.  This usually takes me no more than 30 minutes at night (or early in the morning).  The next day, the students know they have to find their comment, read my reply and, then, reply back showing their corrections.

Here is one of our fun "Picture of the Week" posts.

When we read about Marco Polo (who is part of our social studies), the kids looked and responded to this post.

The kids fell in love with Ellis Island when we did this study.

I have seen such a huge growth already in our writing due to these additions to our day.

As a teacher I LOVE them.

I love them because they are fun to write.

I love them because they are fun to read.

I love them because I am seeing ALL my students grow in various ways.

Some of them are typing a sentence and that is a celebration.

Some of them are leaving peer feedback which is amazing!

2.  We still do the paper and pencil writing because that is critical as well.  We have had to do this for years, and I have loved them all.  (Some are up for a MAJOR facelift, but that will come. Please excuse those that aren't "cute.")  Our "saying" for our writing time has come from my 

fabulous friend/teaching neighbor, Belinda, from Third Grade to the Edge.

To Seek...

To Know...

And Thereby Grow...

We seek information through observing primary sources, websites, books, magazines, etc.

We take the information we gained and see what we know about that subject now.

We grow when we can put what we know into writing and share it with others.

We have done this with Mt. Everest, presidents, colonial times, The Star Spangled Banner,

American symbols, etc.

                         

3.  In our reading, we have implemented the reading response journals with the Power Reading Workshop plan.  Every week the students are writing in their journals about the book they have read.  Many times what they are writing is an opinion that has to be supported with evidence from the text. I saw so much growth with this last year, and can't wait to see how it helps my kiddos this year.

I could go on and on, but this has already wound up being longer than I had planned.

I want to hear from you!

Do you have any questions or ideas?

Please leave a comment for me!

2 ways to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Keep going until you come back to me!

Then you will have made it through the entire hop!

Remember you DO have until September 30 to take advantage of everything!

Thanks for visiting!

Back to School Bash: First Days of School Plans

I can't believe we are on our third week of the Back to School Bash!!

It has been a great way to see what others are doing in their classrooms for sure!

We had our winner of the TPT products drawn last week and she has been contacted, but the giveaway is not done yet! 

Keep scrolling to find out the new giveaway you can enter for the next 2 weeks!

This week we are talking about:

I usually was not a fan of planning the first day and week of school.

I dreaded it to be 100% honest with you.

However, a few years ago, our school decided to do 2 weeks of character education before we started anything else.  That was awesome!

It really made the difference in how I looked at and treated the first 2 weeks of school.

For 2 years we used the book The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon.

There is a book for adults and a book for kids.

This year we are using the book The Leader in Me and the 7 Habits.

With my kids being third graders, I have been able to keep the language of The Energy Bus even though we are moving on to something else.  It has really helped.

My pictures from the first day of school must be on my big camera, so I will add those later - Sorry.

However, this is what we do since our first day of school is only a half day of school.

When the kids arrive, they see their desk looking somewhat like this.

A Superhero rubber duck from me, a bag of Lucky Charms from my partner teacher, their folder for the year, a name tag, a packet of information for the parents to take home and fill out, as well as a Welcome to Third Grade note from me.  This note welcomes them to third grade and walks them through what I need them to do this morning while I meet the other parents and children.  It has worked very well.

This is an example of my note:

From there, we have DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time.

The first week I read to them.  This year, I chose to read Third Grade Angels and The Lemonade War to my class.  We finished The Third Grade Angels pretty quickly and I liked the message in the book.  The kids really liked it.  I tend to read our read aloud books MUCH faster than the other teachers on my team, so we started Lemonade Wars after they did.

After DEAR time, we spent the first of MANY moments learning procedures.

I spend many planned moments as well as spontaneous moments teaching, modeling and practicing procedures.  If these are not learned in the first week or two of school, you are in for a rough year.

The next item on our first day of school plans involved each third grade class visiting the other third grade classrooms.  We really embrace the idea that EACH third grade child is OUR child.  Our children are not just the ones in our homeroom each day.  We want all of the third graders to know the other teachers because they will have most of them as teachers at some point during the year due to our schedules.  In this 5 minute visit, we do "All About Me" bags.  The teachers each place 3-5 items that tell about them in the bag, so the kids can learn about them.  

What's in my bag?

- chocolate

- Harry Potter book

- Burts Bees chap stick

- picture of my family

-items that show my favorite sports teams - The Braves and Alabama football

We end with our own class because that is when we give them THEIR All About Me bags.

This is their homework for the night. They can fill the bag with all things about them and can decorate the bag to represent themselves.  

The last part of the day as we wait for closing announcements and calls for buses is spent making self-portraits. I will talk more about these in the next linky party next week.

That is the end of Day 1.

The next few days are spent continuing to read our read aloud books.

A favorite is also the sharing of the "All About Me" bags.  We usually choose 3-4 to share a day.

I love this because it gives me a chance to introduce speaking and listening skills from the very first day.  We also are able to talk about what are good questions to ask.

The kids LOVE this part of the day.

I always write each child a note telling them how much I enjoyed their bag and mention

something special about their bag.  They love getting these notes from me.

I mentioned how we spend the first 2 weeks teaching character education.

Third grade is the highest grade in our school and we are in charge of the first SOAR or SUPERHERO assembly of the year.

To help with all of this, we decided to have a Leadership Camp for the first 2 weeks.

We spend about 30-45 minutes each day talking to the third grade as a whole about what is expected of them.  We also work on songs we are going to sing for the assembly at the end of the second week of school.

We put each class in their school shirt for this part so we can tell the difference.

We also have name tags on each child for at least the first week of school.

After our singing part of Leadership Camp, each teacher takes a lesson to teach to each homeroom.

Our topics are:

What is a Superhero?

A Hero in Math Class

A Hero in Specials

A Hero in Reading Class

A Hero's Behavior

A Hero's Goals

My lesson was A Hero in Reading since I am the reading teacher leader for the school.

I plan on blogging about that lesson soon.

I feel like it is very important the first weeks of school to be real with the kids and to just sit back getting to know them.  This class of mine this year LOVES to color - anything. We enjoyed sitting around the desks coloring and talking with each other.

One procedure we are harping BIG time this year is hallway behavior. 

Due to our schedules, our classes will be walking in the hallway A LOT by themselves - without teacher supervision.  Each third grade teacher made a sign with the class name on the front.

On the back is the afternoon schedule so they will know where to go.

I have been emphasizing this procedure with the Brownie Point system.

I tweaked it to fit us a little bit.

Each time the class gets a compliment from another adult, they get to add a brownie to the cookie pan.  Additionally, the first 2 weeks of school we have a "Mystery Walker" every time we leave the room to go somewhere.  If the "Mystery Walker" does the right thing, a brownie is added to the pan.

When the pan is full of brownies, the class earns a brownie party!

I am proud to say, we earned a brownie party the first week of school!

Just look at that great line!

Another part of Leadership Camp is learning our Common Language of third grade.

Each teacher will teach a part of our common language:

whole brain teaching

12 Powerful Words

Line Up Chants

Celebrations

Attention Getters

Here is a group of my kiddos learning the 12 Powerful Words by Larry Bell.

We LOVE it!!!

The first weeks of school - 

EXHAUSTING, but oh so important!

What do you do?

Please link up with us to show your plans.

An InLinkz Link-up

On top of this, we are having ANOTHER giveaway!!!!

That's right!! You could win ONE of TWO $50 gift certificates to TPT!

Be sure to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back to School Bash: Meet the Teacher

 Thanks to everyone who joined last week for our first of four

Back to School Bash Linky series.

I know I learned a lot, and hoped you did as well.

I loved seeing how other people set up their rooms and how creative everyone can be.

This week we are featuring Meet the Teacher ideas.

It is so important for your students to know who you are

and to get off on the right foot.

Unfortunately, we do not have a "Meet the Teacher" night.

At times, I wish we did.

At other times (like this week when my room is not quite ready),

I'm glad we don't!!

The first thing we do, is send notes to our students.

Our third grade team makes a pretty big deal about it.

Some might call us over the top.

Some might call us a tad enthusiastic.

We just love what we do, and we want our students to know that.

The day we were able to send our letters out we all met in one of our rooms

to stuff envelopes.

Thanks, Belinda from Third Grade on the Edge, for the pics.

In our letters we put a letter to the student welcoming them to third grade.

We also put a picture of a superhero for them to color and bring the first day of school.

We also include a note to the parents/guardians giving a school supply list, a note from us, and

a list of upcoming dates for them to put on their calendar.

I always include a handwritten, personalized note from the teacher to the student and parent.

This is an excerpt of the letter to the student.  I handwrite my note at the bottom.

 The parent letter looks a little like this.  Again, it is just an excerpt.

Then, I include a letter about me as a person.  Why?  Belinda explains it here.

Once the letters are addressed,

(I will admit I forgot to address one of my envelopes!)

the third grade team took a field trip to the post office.

This is where some might think we are a little extreme.

However, we had a great time!

Me and Kim (my partner teacher) mailing our letters.

My amazing team looking RIGHT into the sun.
FYI - the mailboxes were HOT!!!!

Fun story.... as we were mailing these and taking pictures, one of our future third graders came to the post office with her mom.  As they drove away, the mom pointed and said, "There's your teacher right there mailing your letter to you!"  She said the little girl was so excited to see us having such a great time!

We, then, posted and shared these pictures all over social media.  We had so many comments from parents of incoming third graders and parents of future third graders.  We even had comments from people who have no connection to third grade at our school.  They just loved seeing the excitement being built!  Our excitement must have caught on because we began to see MANY pictures all over social media of students at mailboxes or on the couch receiving their letters from their teachers.

It was just fantastic to see them as excited as we were.

It has really become a favorite tradition of mine.

On the first day of school, we officially meet our students.

I meet them at the door with a lollipop note for the parents.

(See this post here for that explanation.)

The child's desk looks like this:

Third Grade Hero Folder

Parent Homework Envelope

Transportation Information Note

Superhero Rubber Duck from me

Lucky Charms from my partner teacher

(Her students have that from me on their desks.)

School Days word search

Name tag

This student has a little bit more on his desk because he is missing the first week of school due to playing in the World Series for his baseball team!  We are so proud!

I love getting my class list and thinking of how each name is going to change my life over the course of the next year.

I love seeing their excitement.

This really is a wonderful time!

Now it's your turn!  Share your ideas for Meet the Teacher by joining this linky here:

An InLinkz Link-up

Don't forget about the giveaway as well.

Enter here to win some great things!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to School Bash Linky Series: Classroom Set Up

I am so excited

(and WAY nervous)

to be part of my very first linky series and giveaway.

For the next 4 Wednesdays, we will be linking up with teachers to share

great back to school information as well as

GIVEAWAYS!!!!

You don't want to miss this!

This week it is all about 

This is something I agonize over each year as I walk into my room for the first time.

Unfortunately, there is not much I can do differently with my room because of the design.

Luckily, I love how my room has worked for me in years past, so I don't have to do

a lot of major changes.

Before I start, the pictures I am using are NOT what my room looks like at this moment in time.
My room, sadly, is not photographic ready.
Come back later for a TRUE classroom preview.

Basically, I have 3 things I am adamant about in my room.

1. Groups - we do a lot of group work in my classroom, so I want the students

to be able to be together.  I think it is critical that the students have a space that allows them to work independently as well as in a group in a moment's notice.
Therefore, I have my students in groups of 6.  I am also blessed to have 18 students, so
3 groups fits in the room as well as fitting my needs perfectly.  You can see part of the desks area in the bottom right hand corner of the picture below.  I have placed a small bookshelf at each group of desks to hold items that groups may need.

You will also see the yellow group table.  On this table, the students find their group boxes and assignments for the day.  Everything they need to get started is in their box. This has worked beautifully!

2.  Teacher Table - When I got my own room (the first year I team taught with a teacher and we shared a room), I got rid of my desk and decided to use my horseshoe table as my station.
I have not missed it ONE. BIT.  This area is close to my fire window, so I can't put a whole lot around my table.  I have what I need at my reach and really would not change it for the world.

You will see I do have a bookshelf or two with items that I need
 as far as books and notebooks are concerned.
You will see at the end of the table that I have a white crate with a lid.
This crate holds seasonal books.  On top, you will see a black crate.  Inside this crate, I keep
notecards, my supplies and bookmarks.
On the other side, is another white crate holding reading games I can get to at a moment's notice.  On top of it, is another crate holding files for me - each group has a file located here, each student has a file, etc.  This has worked WONDERS!!
I really do love this area of the room.

3.  Library - My entire room centers around this part.  Being an ELA teacher, this is the most important part of our room, and it quickly becomes the favorite part of the room of the children.  I try to make it as comfy as possible and as accessible as possible as well.  I have between 2000-3000 books in my library and more set aside for special holidays and special units of study.  Boxes of different sizes work wonders for organizing the books by author, theme or genre.
Yes, I have all of those in my library.

If there is anything, you have questions about, please comment and I will get back with you asap.
It may also inspire a future post on the blog!
Thank you for visiting and/or joining this
BACK TO SCHOOL BASH!

See you all next Wednesday for more!

Don't forget this is a linky party AND a giveaway.

Here's the giveaway part.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

I want to see what YOU do now...
Please feel free to link-up with us and share your AMAZING Classroom Set-Up and Organization Ideas!  We simply ask that you follow these simple rules:

• Save the images above and use them on your post to link back to our party!
• Enter your link below and encourage your friends to do the same!
• Be a friendly blogger--> visit other blogs in the Linky party and leave thoughtful commentary to the 2 blogs ahead of you and at least 1 behind you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Celebrating with Lindsey

Last year I met Lindsey through our SLANT box participation.

She was AMAZING in our correspondence as well as putting together a GREAT SLANT box!

Since then, we have kept in touch via Instagram, email and her blog.

Now, she is celebrating her blog's second blogiversary with a MAJOR bash!!!

That's right, folks!!

LOTS of freebies of all kinds coming your way!

Yours truly, donated one of the items up for sale - 

my best seller, The Preamble Unit!

Now, what are you waiting for?
Head to Lindsey's blog NOW by clicking here to register for all these great things.
Not only could you win something great,
you will get some amazing ideas!!!

12 Days of Christmas GIVEAWAYS!!!

What a great Christmas present!!! Check it out and join in on the fun!!! I can't wait!  Check out Oh Boy 4th Grade for all the details!