Get on the Energy Bus!

Last year our school took on the theme of

Get on the Energy Bus!

This was taken from Jon Gordon's book, The Energy Bus.

There is an adult version as well as a kid version.

As a faculty, we read the adult version over the summer.

Then, as a school we spent the first 2 weeks of school reading the kid version

and talking about character education.

It. Was. Fabulous!

As we went on last year, we learned some things to do and not to do, so

 we decided to do it again this year.

We had a day of professional development this week and Joy (the driver of the Energy Bus)

dropped by to give us a little pep talk.

As we were waiting for everyone to arrive, we took "selfies" with Joy.

Let me just say how blessed I am to be able to work with these

AMAZING

people!

Part of our INCREDIBLE Sped Team

Mrs. Spring, our assistant principal

Part of the Kindergarten team

Third Grade and Second Grade unite!

Joy, one of our newest bus riders, meets Joy, the driver of the bus.

Best Picture of the Day! Our Kindergarten Readiness teacher, Mrs. Michelle and Joy

Joy and Me!!!!

Mrs. Kim, our principal, and Joy

We are ready for the year to begin as we all are on board!

Let's Enjoy the Ride!

Summer Book Club: Reading in the Wild Chapter 1

I really am working on doing better about my blogging on here and one way I am doing that is by joining The Brown Bag Teacher as she and others host a summer book club.  We are reading Donalyn Miller's book Reading in the Wild.  I read her book The Book Whisperer this spring and have GRAND plans of implementing it into my classroom this fall, so when I saw this opportunity pop up, I had to go with it.

The point of the book is growing wild readers.  I will admit it - I AM A WILD READER!  I can't help it!  I read whenever I get the chance.  I will read to myself.  I will read to my two children at home.  I am the teacher that will read aloud to my children in my classroom for 2 hours when they are suckered into a book as well!  Guilty!  I want my children - all of my children - to leave my room with a love of books and reading.  I had never had the thought though of what I am doing in my classroom is developing them into lifelong readers and that hit home.

So, I have been wondering.... what can I do to instill that in my classroom this year?  I love the idea of teaching them to take moments to read.  It can be 5 minutes here or there.  It doesn't have to be for a solid 20-30 minutes.  Third Grade Bookworm has a great mini-lesson that I will be using for sure showing kids the times they can take to read.  I want this for my room.  I want to see kids pulling books out when they have just a second or two to sneak in a few pages or even paragraphs.  What has been the best way to monitor what your kids are reading (and to make sure they are actually reading)?

My question is how... We have DEAR time in our school.  The first 15 minutes of the day is set aside for everyone to read.  I have 2 90 minute reading blocks.  Each 90 minute block is divided into 3 30 minute sessions where the kids rotate from me to independent work to a third block of time.  During that time close to 35 kids will come in and out of my room.  I teach a structured reading series that is practically scripted for me.  However, my principal trusts me and is allowing me to use one of those 30 minutes blocks as a chance to sneak in some more independent reading time.  However, is that enough?  Will it work?

Help me... What has worked in your room?  I am eager to learn.  I am eager to try.  I am eager to develop wild readers in my room this coming year and every year.

I am just trying to cook up some success...

Let's Try This Again . . . .

I have really wanted this to go well the past few years, but as you can tell - 

NOTHING 

has been done! I really hope to remedy that this year!

I have all kinds of things going on in my head.  We have been out of school for a week now - that's plenty of time to have off and to start thinking about things again, right?  So, as I sit here at my dining room table and think to myself what needs to be done next year, this is what is going on in my head . . .

Welcome slide on smartboard for each morning...

Goal setting...

What do I want from my students in reading?

What do I want from my students in writing?

What do I want to do differently in my room?

How am I going to incorporate vocabulary on a regular basis?

How can I be a better teacher?

How can I use notebooking in my room?

How can I use Daily 5 in my reading that is structured for me?

How to better use reciprocal teaching?

How am I going to incorporate project based learning?

And I am sure that this is just part of what is going through my mind.  So, if any of you are still out there that check my blog (I would have stopped a long time ago), what do you have to say on any of these subjects?  Help a sister out!

Just trying to cook up some success . . . 

Mrs. Becky

Getting Ready for a New Year

As I type, I am sitting in Nashville, TN, in my brother-in-law's house enjoying family time, but really wishing I was at the baseball field watching my 8 year old son's All-Star team playing baseball in the state tournament.  However,  because of a monsoon that decided to hit Middle Tennessee in mid-July (which I really am thankful for because we needed the rain) we have not played a game in two days! YUCK!

Now, I am NOT worried ONE BIT about when I am going to get things done in my room.  I mean, really, kids DON'T come to school in less than 3 weeks, and I am NOT sitting 2 1/2 hours away from my room.  However, I know that family and friends will pull together if I need to and things will be wonderful!

I have been able to get a lot of work done on my classroom - just not IN my classroom - while I am sitting watching the monsoon happen.  I am excited about my classroom this year.  After my 9 year maternity leave, I am anxious to have my own room this year. Anxious . . . excited . . . nervous . . .you name it, I am probably feeling it.  I can't wait to share with you the progress the room has seen, but for now (since there has been no progress made IN the room), I will share with you what I have been creating for the room.

I am doing a chef/bakery theme in the classroom.  It was inspired by the Sisters and their CAFE book.  That is how I plan on doing my reading this year, so I thought it would be a cute yet "grown up" theme for the third graders that get to be in my room.

Check out my TPT store to see the calendar headings I have made as well as the calendar numbers I have made to go with them.  I am super excited about it and can't wait to show you pictures of them actually up on the board!!!!

Our Reading Christmas Tree

To say that our principal loves reading and wants all of our children to love reading is a MAJOR understatement!!!  She is doing wonderful things to encourage everyone in the school to read and to love reading.  For our Christmas PTO meeting, she decorated this Christmas tree with all of our favorite book characters.  I thought it was just precious!!!

Isn't she great!!!  I have a lot of trees in my house at Christmas and one day I want to have a tree like this - doubt it will happen, but, hey!  Here's hoping!!!

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!

SNOW (yes, not a typo) in November

What a surprise!!! Anytime we get snow in West Tennessee we are excited because it just does not happen a lot! However, when the weather forecast calls for 3-5 inches of snow on NOVEMBER 28 - that causes a lot of excitement.   We were not sure when (or if) it would come, but about 1:45 it came!!!! These pictures don't show a whole lot but by the time I left school - the ground was COVERED!!!

The kids LOVED being out in the snow for a little bit.  We took black construction paper to see if we could catch snowflakes to see the different patterns.

Even Ms. Jill and I LOVED being out in the snow!!!!  Who are the coolest (ha ha) teachers?

We shall see if we have school tomorrow . . . .