Happy Spring Break!

It is that joyful time of year for teachers - Spring Break time! I have absolutely nothing planned in terms of "work" except for some final edits to my book which should be out in June - fingers crossed! I am relaxing, reading, catching up with friends, and taking a girls mini road trip at the end of the week. What are you doing to recharge this break?

When we go back to school it is "crunch time".  One month before standardized testing arrives. I remember how stressed out I used to get over this.  I'm not gonna lie, my blood pressure is a little higher the week of the tests, but at this stage of the game I refuse to allow testing to be the bane of my existence. I have taught my heart out all year long, my kiddos have heard and absorbed all year long and gosh darnit if they don't know it by now, they ain't gonna! We spend the month of April immersed in music/poetry, in a novel called The Breadwinner, and do some reviewing for Social Studies through wax museums and my "Join the Club" review - watch this spot for more info to come!

So, this Spring Break, remember to recharge, relax and spend time with people you love and cherish, and go back to work with a renewed energy and passion for LEARNING, not just reviewing.

Testing Bulletin Board

It is hard to believe that testing season is upon us! We had our state test in Writing today which is always so nerve wracking - so much depends on that prompt!

To keep motivation high leading up to the test, I used a site called. Face In Hole.  There are TONS of pictures to insert "faces" into. Since we had just wrapped up World War 2 and students loved learning about Rosie the Riveter - that is the face I chose.

The theme of course is "We Can Do It - PASS Testing!" and all 40 of my students got their faces in place of Rosie.  They loved seeing it go up and before I covered it up this morning we all reminded ourselves that we could indeed get it done well today. This is a great new site for teachers to have some fun with - not recommended for student use though. Some of the missing face pictures are a little - ahem - racy. I envision lots of good end of the year boards and picture taking this year! Happy test season to all.....

The Test Ladies!

Our state writing test is only a week and half away *sigh*. I wish I had more time - they just never seem quite ready enough! Does anyone else ever get nervous about this one? I am hoping that once we go full Common Core and we are all on the same page so to speak that this testing area will get less stressful and less subjective....anyway....I digress.

Today we had the Test Ladies come visit us in 5th grade! All year, we make sure our students understand that we are not the ones grading their standardized testing - we just give it and ship it away to some magical place in the State House where the "test ladies" grade it.  We have no idea who they are or what they are like - just that they are responsible for the grading.  What better way to further get ready for testing than to have those ladies come say hello and talk a little about writing!!!

We have from left to right - Cheery Check it Over who stresses the importance of proofreading for conventions, Priscilla Prompt who deals with students that stray off topic or write about something other than the prompt, Laverne Length who "blings" it out and adds details, voice and stretches her writing and last, but not least, Penelope Prewriting who is always stressed out to the max because students have prewriting and skip it and it is SO important!

We stayed like this all day, held a special gathering at 2:00 to go over some poorly written pieces for each lady to respond to, and all our students were proud to say that they were the team that had the special teach- oops I mean - visitors today! Happy Testing Season - make it memorable!

Book Clubs

In the past 5 years, I have occupied 3 different classrooms.  That's a lot of moving. And every time I move, I lug around this huge box of all the small group sets of Scholastic books I have accumulated- telling myself THIS is the year I will have the courage to do classroom book clubs that are student centered and guided.  Well, the time had come.  It was....book club attempt time! Happily enough - I was not disappointed!

I put out all the books I had 6 or more copies of. We had a "book pass" and all the students got to touch and look at and read the backs of all the books. Then it was choice time! The choices that "won" were:  Sign of the Beaver, Lunch Box Dream, Masters of Disaster, Eleven - in Block 1.  In Block 2 the winning choices were: Hatchet, Riding Freedom, Chocolate Fever, Inside Out and Back Again, Mixed up Files of Basil Frankweiler.

Now what??? With the help of Laura Candlers Book Club project Candler - we all devloped guidelines for this undertaking.  Groups were to make up their own homework if any, all group members were responsible for all work, they would grade each other at the end, and our discussions would take place on Edmodo.

Truthfully, I was still nervous.  What would happen when Billy didn't do his work? What about when Susie just wouldn't participate - or Trish took over? Truthfully - some of this happened. And I was so proud to be able to sit back and watch THEM work it all out! We had developed such a good community, that they all owned this project 100%.

I created small groups on Edmodo for each book. Students held online discussions after reading some chapters. I only interfered when it seemed their group needed a little more direction.  Everyday, I met with 2-3 groups to read and do a first hand check on things. Amazingly, after 3 weeks, almost all the groups were done or close to being done. At that time, I stepped in a little more to assign homework so all would be finished.  I then gave out the "Book Club Project" requirements.  This was a total choice project - groups had to choose projects that would add up to 100 points. They would need a minimum of 2. They had one week in and out of school to get projects ready - and then they presented everything!

My principal came to watch the finished products, and was so impressed not only with the projects, but the levels of discussion my students were able to have about their books, their work, their ownership and why they LOVED book clubs - she wants us to take what we have done and present it at a board meeting!!!

Want the book club project requirements? I'd LOVE to share them with you - leave me a comment below with your email and they are YOURS!

Happy End of February!

Congratulations Winners!

Congratulations to Annette Prejean who won the Starbucks gift card, and to Randi Hubbard who gets to go shopping on TpT!

Thank you to ALL for liking my Facebook page, as well as following my blog! I promise many more new ideas, especially focused on integrating subject matter with the Common Core! Enjoy lesson planning Sunday.....

Giveaway Time!

I am long overdue for a giveaway!!!!! So, take your pick and enter to win a Starbucks card or a TpT card so you can get whatever goodies you want! Spread the word and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Immersion

I am a huge believer in the power of the "hook" to get my students fully engaged in class.  Recently we were studying the Roaring 20s, so I decided to turn my room into a speakeasy!

One trip to Wal Mart to buy a huge black tarp, some grape juice, sparkling water and the dollar store for black tablecloths and voila! I covered my window with the black tarp so it was totally dark in my room ( I only have one window thankfully!) I covered the front of my door and made a little flap on the inside for my bouncers to check passwords. Final touch were some red dice lights on sale at the party store!
I had some flameless candles to add to the tables for a final touch.
Needless to say - the students were so excited the days leading up to this that some of them dressed up even though it wasn't even mentioned!

We went about our daily routine in this set up and during official Social Studies time, we entered the speakeasy time.  All students had to have the password before entering which was Prohibition.  I had 2 bouncers at the door to check to make sure no one was trying to sneak in, especially authority!

We made "mixed drinks" with the juice and sparkling water and then - a pounding on the door!!!! Oh no!!! It was the fuzz!!!! I had secretly arranged a parent who is a police office to arrive and bust us up - it was classic. All the kids ran to my desk and pointed the finger to me! It was funny to see them all throw me under the bus like that. He talked to them a little about the consequences for bootleggers, why alcohol was bad and went on his way. We carried on about our day - just in a different setting! 

Changing your room just a little to shake things up is a guaranteed way to engage your students.  I know my students will always remember our speakeasy day and we got so much accomplished in terms of work because they were so focused in this new setting! 

Having 2 teachers dress like a flapper and a gangster didn't hurt either. =)