Fourteen in 2014

Not only have I been bad about blogging, I also haven't been keeping up on reading the blogs I follow either.  As a matter of fact, I haven't done much at all that is school related.  This is good for me, as probably like most anyone who is reading this, I tend to spend more time than I'd like to admit planning, thinking, or creating things for my classroom.  But I found this linky today, and thought I'd join Miss Kindergarten, Teeny, and Dragonflies in First for reflecting on 14 in '14.

 

LEARNING! - I've always loved the opportunity to constantly learn new things as a part of my job, but this year I've enjoying taking on my own learning to include jumping into the TpT and Blogging World.  This learning has also allowed me to share my ideas, and to get ideas shared by other amazing educators.  This has sparked a new energy into my teaching!

 

This is going to sound cliche, but running.  In 2013 I ran a marathon, and was less than 2 minutes from qualifying for Boston.  In 2014, I barely ran at all, or did any other exercising for that matter.  I'm not waiting for the new year, I've logged a couple of runs in the last week+, and plan to do another run today.  I even signed up for the Glass City half-marathon in April to MAKE me stick with it.  Ultimately, I'd like to run a full again in Detroit this October, but I'm not making that my 2015 goal, just a hope.

 

I enjoyed running a leg in the Glass City last year with these great ladies (and co-workers).  I training minimally for this, and know that only a half marathon or bigger will really force me to get back to it.  I'm also hoping to get one of those ladies in the pic to join me.  Hint, hint....I know she will read this!

 

 A whirlwind trip with my dad and kids this summer.  2,500 miles in just over a week.  We did Niagara Falls, Boston, Acadia National Park, and checked out 30 foot tide change in 6 hours at the Bay of Fundy in Canada.  As the photographer, I didn't get in many photos, but here's one I love of my dad and kids walking along the ocean somewhere in Maine.  I love shots from behind.

 

 Speaking of shots from behind, this old photo is one of my favorites.  My daughter (now 13) going fishing with her great-grandpa.  We celebrated his 90th in July, and then lost him in September.  This photo has been my Facebook profile pic since.  It also was one of his favorite photos.

 

 

I'll keep this simple, it goes with my number 1 item, blogging.  

 

No Prep Book Groups.   This was one of my Monday Made It posts.  I've been doing informal literature groups for years, but ideas from bloggers helped me to make it even better this year.  I've LOVED seeing some students go from hesitant readers to reading monsters!  A group of boys who struggled to make 1st quarter goals, before I opened up lit groups, now choose to stay in for recess to read and discuss, and are determined to hit 200% of their second quarter goals!

 

Okay, I'm not a big pinner.  But I think I'd like to get back into this more.  I also am thinking about trying Instagram too.  I'll add these to my goals for 2015.

 

We are not big gift givers.  My husband and I don't give each other birthday, Christmas, or Valentine's gifts.  Bah humbug, I know!  My meaningful gifts are all the regular little "gems" that students make and give me.  At the beginning of the year, one of my students from last year (last two years actually because I looped) snuck an elaborate origami rose onto my desk at Open House (I have his brother this year.)  And the many emails that I regularly get from this group of students are better than any wrapped gifts I could ever receive!

 

 Hmm.  Well, since I stopped writing this post yesterday to get ready for our New Year's Eve party, the first thing that comes to mind is the root mash dish I made.  Yes, root mash, and yes (to those that know me) I MADE IT!  I don't normally cook, but my husband was one of 6 of our party guests that were unable to make the party due to a bad virus.  So, I complete the meal.  The root mash recipe I got was from Tyler Florence, who is one of our favorite chefs to watch on TV.  I used celery root, turnips, rutabaga, carrot, sweet potato, and parsnips.  It was so much better than mashed potatoes, and no gravy was needed.  So my meal was a success, even the chicken en croute.

Okay, I'll admit it looks gross in the picture ;)

 

This is a hard one, I have so many.  I'll go with Burger Bar 419.  I've only gone there twice, but the menu is so unique, I'm looking forward to going back because there are so many things on the menu I want to try.  The Sirracha-Soy Deviled Eggs are amazing!

 

I don't watch much TV.  Besides tennis, I only watch a handful of shows with my husband, and Walking Dead is our favorite.  It constantly surprises my husband that I like it, as violence is not my thing.  Killing imaginary beings doesn't bother me.  There are times where the human brutality is too much for me.  I wasn't sure I could continue watching after this season's opener (if you watch you know what I mean), but I endured.

 

Also not a movie fan.  Most from this year were flops in my opinion.  I go with The Fault in Our Stars.  The movie was cute, but it was memorable as I went with my daughter after we both read the book.

 

My Long and Lean tank tops from Target.  I have a drawer full, and wear one under my clothing almost every day, and sleep in one every night.  I don't mind dressing up, but I'm really a comfy cozy clothing person.  I change immediately when I get home from work every day.

 

Now quotes I am a fan of!  I could take forever overthinking my favorite, so I'm just going to pick one that comes to mind.

Well, now the holiday parties are done.  My house is cleaned up and decorations are down.  I guess it's time to get back in the mode of school and start working on plans for next week.  I hope you all enjoy your final days of break, thanks for reading!

MMI - using task cards for review

I'm linking up yet again with Tara, over at Fourth Grade Frolics, for her great linky called Monday Made It.

 

 

We've been using McGraw Hill's new reading series, Wonders, this year.  In my opinion, the best part has been the literature, and the tie in with the workshop story and paired reading selection each week.  The list of things I'm unhappy about is too long to list here.  For the second unit, we decided to start creating weekly selection tests again that are similar to ones we made for our previous series.  I've also made consistent vocabulary pages and question pages for the workshop story.  We've done these for 3 weeks now, and I've been happy with them!

 

We use the web pages that mirror the workshop vocabulary pages.  We look for context clues in the sample sentences and come up with definitions to write on the page above, and then sort the words in the chart based on how the word is used in the sample sentences.  We discuss how words can be used in different ways, and how different forms of the word create uses that would fall under other parts of speech.  I keep these words up on my vocab wall throughout the unit (you can see pics under "My Classroom" page).  The students then complete the back page, which is shown below.

 

Using the workshop story to practice QAR

This is my variation on QAR (question-answer relationship).  I think it's good for students to think about the different types of questions, and know how to successfully answer each.  This past week was the first time that I didn't have one question for each of the different types.  The students did very well.  It's hard to make a "think and search" or come up with an inferencing question in general for nonfiction.

For the selection tests, we've incorporated a variety of questions that cover all of the standards we've covered so far.  The nice thing about making your own materials is knowing that the students should be able to have success on every question.  I also like have a variety of multiple choice and short answer.  The last question ties the paired selection in the literature anthology to the main selection.  I also have coded the standards for each question to help with our standards-based grading....

 It will be so nice to have all of these done for next year!

I love task cards for many reasons.  I've amassed quite a collection that I've both bought and made.  There's a free product in my store I made about using them.  For our Friday center-type routine, I came up with a way to use these for review.  It's called "Five in a Row, and GO!" 

 

After I've covered a topic that I have task cards for, they are added to this basket.  Each set is in a baggie with an answer key.  Like "Go Fish," students take turns drawing a task card and then answering.  Another member of the group checks their answer.  If they are right, they keep the card.  If they are wrong, all the cards they have go back into the pile and they start over.  The logic is that if they can successfully answer five in a row for any particular skill, they should understand the concept.  The other nice thing about this is that students can join at any time, which is helpful since I'm constantly pulling students to work with on this day.

 Here are some boys playing this with my fragment, sentence, run-on cards.

My daughter got an idea from Pinterest and we made mugs for the special ladies in her life.  They came out great!  She did the leg work, and painting the snowmen faces.  I helped write the names on them.

And my mom helped me to get my house in the Christmas spirit.  This is such a cozy room now, that I've spent most of my day here today getting work done!

Have a great week everyone!

Toolbar Bookmarking Tip

Trying to make a "quick" post before heading out.  If I can do this quicker, I'll post more.  I'm linking up with Teaching Trio for their Linky called Technology Thursday. 

 

The Special Education teacher that I co-teach with noticed my bookmarks and asked about it.  She later said she loves it now that she has done it, so I thought this might be something worth sharing.  First of all, I use Firefox primarily as my web browser, but I'm sure this can be adapted for any browser.  

For my commonly used websites, I save them to my bookmarks toolbar.  However, I quickly ran out of space.  So I started abbreviating the names to save space.  Then, I noticed that if I deleted the preset page name altogether, just the favicon would be added to my toolbar.  Now I have many sites on my toolbar, and still have some room.  I bet you can recognize many of my bookmarked sites just by the favicon.

So, next time you want to save a bookmark to your toolbar, just change the drop down choice to "bookmark toolbar" and delete the name.  See below.

 

Happy Thursday everyone.  I did it!  Made a post in about 20 minutes:)

Five for Friday 11-28

It's been a while since I've linked up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs for her Five for Friday link-up.

 

 

Connecting with the Community with Persuasive Writing

Last year, one of my students' choices for opinion writing was to persuade me to visit a business in our town.  Several students chose this, and they did a great job.  This year I decided to make this a bigger writing task for all students.  As an added incentive, I told the students that I would deliver their paragraphs to the businesses, and they would likely display them.  At a conference last summer, one person talked about the importance of students writing for more than just an audience of one (the teacher).  It made complete sense.  The other ELA teacher and I finally finished up this project, and delivered over 100 student essays to over 25 businesses!  I live in the small town where I teach, and was excited today to see them already displayed in some places.

We gave them a green letter to hang with the paragraphs to explain them.  I'm excited to make this an annual project, and am already trying to think of another project that will allow students to feel "published".

  

No Crowds on Black Friday at the Park!

No Black Friday shopping for me!  Instead, my kids and I took the dog for a nice walk around Evergreen Lake at the wonderful Metropark that is just a few miles from our home.  We didn't come across one other person on our 1.5 mile loop around the lake!

  

Decoding Fun with Nonsense Words

 If you've read my others posts, you'll know that my Friday is a "center" type day.  I've loved this opportunity to be able to pull groups of students for a variety of purposes.  I'm constantly adding to my "Choose Your Challenge" board of choices for the students.  I finally got something for our decoding choice.  I made a series of beginning and ending sound sticks that students can put together to make nonsense words (with an occasional real word).  I adapted this from a flip book I made for my own children growing up.  I put great care into making sure that no inappropriate words can be made with the placement of any two sticks!

 

 

Unlocking Cell Phones!

Cell phones for kids: I caved in and got my daughter a phone when she entered 7th grade.  I always said she'd get one when she needed it, and cross country every day after school seemed like the need was finally here.  I put her on a Virgin Mobile plan.  It is a great deal!  If you set up auto payments, it is $30 a month for unlimited text and data.  Of course the lower end Smartphone I got her wasn't what she wanted, and I again caved and upgraded her to an iPhone when she broke her arm the following summer.  Now my son is getting to that age.  The downside of Virgin Mobile's cheap monthly plan is that you pay A LOT for the phone (price of not having a contract).  Today I researched unlocking phones.  We have a couple of other iPhones around the house that are tied to Verizon, and have been keeping them as back-ups.  Well, today I paid $45 to have it unlocked so that I can use it with Virgin Mobile.  Hopefully this works, it will save me a lot of money.  Here's the site I used, in case anyone wants to check it out.  *I'm not being compensated by anyone for anything in this post!

 

Bloglovin' Feed - A Wonderful Start to My Day!

I love Thanksgiving, but this year was a bit rough for me.  Nothing big, but had to deal with some family drama that was for nothing.  One of them involves use of FB.  I love how FB allows me to keep in touch with family and friends near and far.  However, people use Facebook in very annoying ways.  I can overlook annoying, but there's something I can't overlook.  People read something shocking on FB, and share without thinking or fact checking.  Fake stories are made up with an agenda to attack some group (religious, political, or other).  This propaganda needs to be stopped, not passed along.  It divides us as a people, and isn't productive in anyway.

What I've loved about my entrance in the blogging world recently is that everything I've read HAS been productive or positive.  Thank you to all the bloggers that I follow that give me something to read each day that is worth my time and inspiring!  

MMI - Interactive Book Browsing

I'm linking up yet again with Tara, over at Fourth Grade Frolics, for her great linky called Monday Made It.

 

Before I begin, I'll add that I made new MMI buttons to match my blog.  Super happy with the way they turned out.  It was a great opportunity for me to play around more with the instant alpha tool in Pages.

 

For those of you that have read my previous posts, it might seem like I'm mentioning my Readbox a bit too much.  If you haven't read them, my last post was about teaching students to be "Active Readers" to launch my book group format.  You can check it out here.  Well, I think this will be my last post about it.  What I'm sharing in this post is the way I figured out how to let my students browse the available books for them to read in small groups.  

Last year I put a lot of effort into a book that the students could look through.  There was A LOT of time involved because I wanted to level the books, provide a summary, give AR point value, and direct them to the correct bin.  The biggest problem with this was adding a new novel set...  Now, students can use an interactive Keynote presentation.  Adding a new novel is as simple as adding a new slide to the presentation.

This is the first slide, and where they begin.  I did not come up with these color choices!  They click on whatever color marks their reading range and they go to the slide that shows all books for that level.

 

Obviously, one more book and I'm out of room for this level.  Then, when they see a book they are interested in, they touch it to go to a slide with more information.

 

The book slides have all of the information that I had in my book from last year.  The other nice option I took advantage of was saving as a PDF and emailing to my students.  In a PDF, the buttons are all clickable.  So students can browse the collection from anywhere.  Of course it looks nicer on the iPad screen.  I'd like to thank my teaching partner Shane for helping me figure out this great way to organize my novel sets.  If you haven't yet checked out his blog, head on over to Math is FUNdamental and see what he's been up to.

On Tuesday my husband turns 50!  Yesterday I had a party for him.  It was a huge success, and he had a wonderful time.  We had 32 people and a ridiculous amount of food.  I'm grateful to my amazing sister and sister-in-law who helped in so many ways.  I tried my best to snap photos, but few came out well at all:(

 

I really wanted a nice picture of me (on left), my dad, and my sister.  My dad just kept making a stupid smile.  Oh well.

 

Here's a great picture of my handsome husband (on the right), his older brother (who doesn't look happy about this picture), and his 2 nephews in the middle.  My husband is 9 years older than me, and he is the baby in the family.  Therefore, most of his nieces and nephews are very close to my age and insist on calling me Aunt Mary.

As usual, I've made many more new things for my classroom.  But I haven't had the time to polish them and get them TpT ready.  As my phone cha-chinged earlier today (notifying me of a TpT sale) my son began strategizing for me.  He told me that I should bundle some of my products.  I let him know that I do have a few bundles, but he got me thinking.  Lately, a few of my language products have been doing well, and I've had some people buying several different products.  So, I decided to make a bundle of my most popular products.

My new ELA bundle

At least I got a chance to use some of my newly purchased Ashley Hughes clip art and backgrounds! You can check out this product in my TpT store.  My son just snuck up on me and saw I was creating a bundle and said, "I'm proud of you mom."  He's so funny.

Have a great week everyone!