I Was Born to Make a Difference

At my school we have faculty meetings every month. Each team leader is responsible for the "inspirational message" at a meeting. I saw this TED Talk this summer and knew it would be perfect for my message so I asked for the month of September. I am thoroughly exhausted, cried all the way to work last Friday, had a panic attack after I got to work last Friday, have watched several colleagues break down in tears and I myself am on the edge of a nervous breakdown! But I am reminded, from Dr. Rita Pierson, that I am an educator and I was born to make a difference!

Celebrity of the Week

 

I haven't done "Celebrity of the Week" in a couple of years. I need to start back up because I always had positive feedback from parents about the program. Someone emailed about it since mswinston.com is now retired so I figured I'd blog about it.

 

 

Celebrity Poster- The Wednesday before their week, two students will get a poster to complete over the weekend. On Monday morning they will share their poster during morning meeting with the class.

 

Celebrity Book Pick- On Tuesday our celebrities will share their favorite picture book with the class during morning meeting.

 

Celebrity Share- On Wednesday our celebrities will bring in 3 special items from home to share during morning meeting. Examples include photographs, favorite books, favorite movie or anything else that is important to them. 

 

Fan Mail- On Thursday the class will present our celebrities with a homemade book made of letters that they have written to their classmate.

 

VIP Treatment- On Friday our celebrities will be our line leader and helper for the day. They will also get to sit anywhere they choose during the school day.

 

I've uploaded the documents onto Google Docs at this link

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B3EdWT-xPuMIVXdpank2bjdBYkE&usp=sharing



Favorite Free Items (gathered from Pinterest)

There's a lot of great ideas on Pinterest...some free and some paid. I've found some great things for my classroom for FREE. Here is a couple of my favorites...


Can't wait to use this resource when I teach the Scientific Method.




Great Bucket Filling Packet!

Scientific Method Posters



Daily 5 Posters and Resources, will work with any reading workshop model though.




Great Math Station




Great for morning meeting, printing them out right now so I can laminate them before school tomorrow!



 What free items have you found on Pinterest?

Team Gifts

I still have 15 more days until teachers report back to school. My classroom is finished, my long range plans completed and steady marking things off my to-do list in preparation for a new school year! Thursday is our first team meeting. Very informal, held at someone's house. We'll have a pot luck lunch and discuss school items, we have two new teachers to our team/school so I wanted to meet so they could get some of their questions answered and talk about things such as field trips and homework and what committees we're going to serve on.

I'm excited to share my team gifts with you! I ordered t-shirts from this company http://teachertshirts.spreadshirt.com/ and as always I had to order some cookies from my favorite shop on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/acookiejar?ref=search_shop_redirect. Her shop is on vacation at the moment but you can look at her feedback and sales to see pictures of her work. I've ordered Valentine Owls, Hungry Caterpillar, Apples and now "Candy" themed cookies with a "3" for 3rd grade! I will be ordering again, probably for Christmas. Trust me, it's worth every penny, these are the best cookies you will eat, plus they have disco dust on them to make them sparkle!

The gift tag says "It's a treat to have you on the 3rd grade team!" and I added some Chevron tissue paper since that's my new obsession. Okay, now for some pics... would love your feedback!

 

 

 

 

Team Building

First, I have to share a deco mesh wreath I made for my classroom door. Look at my classroom tour to see the spiral deco mesh wreath I created!

Apple Deco Mesh Wreath for my classroom door

Leadership must be my "theme" this year. I'm team leader, a mentor to a beginning teacher and I've been accepted into the VCU Clinical Faculty Program (VCU will train me to mentor their student teachers in my classroom).

I haven't been team lead in years, 6 years. Now I'm at a different school, on a different grade level, working with different teachers. I really want to focus on building team morale. We're having our first team meeting next Thursday and I'm very excited. I purchased some team gifts and we're going to have a pot luck lunch and talk about some basics before teacher work week begins August 26th. Basically we don't get to work in our rooms until Wednesday afternoon of that week and Meet & Greet is Friday morning, good thing I'm finished!

In the past we've pulled names and that person was responsible for purchasing a birthday cake for the name they pulled. Then at Christmas we do a Secret Santa all week and do a breakfast reveal that Friday. This year I'm thinking of doing more.

First of all we're going to fill out these sheets. Then I'm thinking we'll pull names and that's going to be your "Secret Pal" for the year. Then we'll give gifts/treats at...

-Halloween (1 day)
-Christmas (1 week)
-Spring (1 day)
-Teacher Appreciation Week (1 day)
-End of the Year (1 day)
-Birthdays

Click the link above if you would like to download the sheet. What do you/ have you done on your team to build team morale?

Classroom Tour

I am so happy to report that my classroom is finished! I can now enjoy the rest of my summer vacation...all 24 days left of it!

view from the door

math workshop area: Mountain Math, Math it Up

classroom library

content vocabulary word wall

workstations

spiral deco mesh wreath

my desk

my name sign

guided reading materials

guided reading area

nonfiction text features

reading strategies

reference resources and puncuation

writing area



view from guided reading area

view from corner

view from sink

side view of my spiral deco mesh wreath... can you tell I love my wreath!

Long Range Planning

I only have 4 more days of summer school then I can start my mini vacation. I've got 3 workshops to attend before teacher work week which starts August 26th. I spent four afternoons last week setting up my classroom, my friends think I'm crazy but I want it over and done with by the end of summer school so I don't have to think about it while on vacation. I don't know about you but our teacher work week is filled with meetings and professional development and that leaves very little time to unpack and set your room up.

 

I've also done my long range plans for next school year. Now that I've taught third grade for two years I finally have a grasp on what to teach when. I downloaded the template from Ginger Snaps and filled in my information. You can click on the picture to take you to all my plans for the year.

 

I've also been busy creating stuff for my classroom, I blogged last week about the spiral deco mesh wreath I created as well as classroom signs and balloons for the Krazy Straws I purchased for my students birthdays.

Have you been working on anything for your classroom?

Spiral Deco Mesh Wreath

Saw this on Pinterest and knew I had to make one! I bought a small wire wreath from Hobby Lobby but after adding the mesh it grew to almost 4 feet in diameter! Can't wait to hang it on my classroom wall at school!

Spiral Deco Mesh Wreath: Before Ribbon

Spiral Deco Mesh Wreath: After Chevron Ribbon

Birthday Krazy Straws

Time for another Pinterest Inspired Idea... I usually give my students a birthday bag with a book of their choice, stickers, pencil, certificate and a couple pieces of candy. This year I decided to make them birthday krazy straws after seeing it on Pinterest. I purchased some birthday themed scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby and used my Cricut Create a Critter Cart to make the balloons. Then I attached the balloons to the straws.

Owl Chevron Name Banner

Per my post earlier in the evening (http://jessicaywinston.blogspot.com/2013/07/chevron-name-banner.html), I've been busy making name banners for the new school year. I just finished one for my teammate who has an Owl Theme in her classroom and I must say it turned out really cute. I think the Gray really brings out the other colors, now I kinda wish I had used Gray instead of Yellow... but oh well. She's going to be thrilled when she sees it! Can you believe I saw a shop on Etsy selling these for $30... I made it for under $5!

Chevron Name Banner

Can I just say I love Hobby Lobby!! I was there yesterday and they had Chevron Scrapbook paper in Black, Gray, Orange, Pink, Yellow, Dark Blue, Turquoise and Green. So I decided to create me a new name banner for my classroom, I'm not sure if I'm going to hang it over my door way, on my desk or all the wall in the classroom but I'm super excited with the way it turned out. I used my Cricut to cut out the shapes and letters (Sweet Treats Cart and Cherry Limeade Cart). I'm making one for a teammate of mine and I'll post that one when I get finished.

STEM Conference 2013

Last year I attended a two day conference at our regional Math Science Innovation Center for grades K-3. Afterwards I blogged about the keynote speakers, the writers of Picture Perfect Science Books. If you haven't read that post, hop on over and do that now, Picture Perfect Science. I learned a lot from that conference and was able to used what I learned to create Children's Engineering Design Briefs for my Social Studies content and got some great ideas on picture books for Science content. I had the opportunity to attend another conference this year geared toward 3-5 and loved every minute of it.

The author's from Picture Perfect Science came back and showcased some additional lessons. We even received a free book of our choice. Last year I purchased Teaching Science through Trade books (my favorite of all 4) and More Picture Perfect Science. My colleague, the one who's actually taught Science to my students the last two years, purchased Picture Perfect Science. Since I had access to the previous three books I chose the new book...Even More Picture Perfect Science. Since my colleague is moving back to second grade I've decided to take on the science instruction of my own students. So I'm looking forward to integrating my curriculum even further using lessons from all four of these books.

I hit math really hard this year... it was my professional goal. I read the book Number Talks and implemented monthly number sense quick checks (blogged about all that here) and my students number sense increased 100%! But they still struggled with Fractions so I was excited to hear about this book, Beyond Pizza and Pies: Supporting Fraction Sense. Guess this will be my summer read. I was looking for a professional book and I think I've found one. I'll keep you posted.  

Last but not least I learned about a company that creates a cross-curricular way to teach Children's Engineering (to those of you who don't know, I teach in a Children's Engineering and Design Technology School, I'm required to do engineering activities). It's called Engineering is Elementary and each kit ($50) comes with a multicultural storybook and teachers guide. I actually won the Balances and Forces kit at the workshop! I think I'm going to donate that to the 5th grade team, I could use it for sure, but it really ties in to their Science Standards. I looked at the 20 units and decided to purchase one for each strand (Physical, Life, Earth and Space)/one for each quarter. I settled on Ecosystems, Water, Simple Machines and then Solids and Liquids as a fun 4th quarter review. Below is the lesson plan structure:

Preparatory Lessons (20-30 min): The preparatory lesson is designed to prompt students to think about engineering, technology, and the engineering design process. If teachers have done little with engineering and technology in their classrooms, we suggest that they start an EiE unit with this short introductory activity.

Lesson 1, Engineering Story (60-90 min): The first lesson sets the context for the unit through an illustrated storybook. A series of questions to promote student reflection before, during, and after the story encourage students to reflect upon the story and its engineering components and reinforce literacy skills.

Lesson 2, A Broader View of an Engineering Field (30-40 min): The second lesson focuses on helping students develop a broader perspective on the unit's engineering field of focus. Through hands-on activities, students learn more about the types of work done by engineers in these fields, and the kinds of technology they produce.

Lesson 3, Scientific Data to Inform Engineering Design (40-50 min):The third lesson is designed to help students understand the linkages between science, mathematics, and engineering. In this lesson, children collect and analyze scientific data that they can refer to in Lesson 4 to inform their designs.

Lesson 4, Engineering Design Challenge (1-3 sessions of 40 min):The unit culminates with an engineering design challenge. Following the steps of the engineering design process, students design, create, and improve solutions to an engineering problem. Design challenges are used as the final project because they allow students with varying academic abilities to succeed; they are easily scaled to meet the needs of all students.

So I have fallen in love with these units and the fact that they explore all types of engineering (environmental, civil, biomedical, ocean, agricultural) and that each story is set in a different country. I'll probably do the majority of the lessons during my language arts block, as there is more flexibility there and a larger block of time. I may do the design challenges during our actual 45 minute Science block.

Any thoughts? Comments are always welcome!

Summer Wish List

We have only 2-half days left of school... that equates to 7 hours and 20 minutes... but who's counting! I don't know about you but I'm already thinking ahead to next year. Every summer, like thousands of other teachers, I purchase new things for my classroom. But I'm married now, and I have to think of my household first and I can no longer spend money all willy-nilly! Fortunately my husband is very supportive and could probably care less but I don't feel comfortable doing it. In comes summer school... 5 weeks, Monday-Thursday 8am-12pm...$25 an hour! So I'm working summer school to fund my obsessive habit of having every and any thing I want for my classroom! So what will I be working for...(click the pictures for links to the websites)

1. Grade Level T-shirts for my team. I'm using these as back to school gifts.

 

2. I did interactive notes in Social Studies this year and I love the process. Fortunately there is a website just for Virginia Standards that sells interactive notes for all subjects. I know I'm purchasing Math, Science and Social Studies, the jury's still out about Reading.

 

 

3. Have you heard of Gallopade International? Well I love this website, really I love any website that sells products aligned to the Virginia Curriculum. I have most of their resources for 3rd grade but they have these new Digital Readings that I really like. It's 20 readers and they are about the Famous Americans we teach. Side note... 3rd Graders in Virginia take a standardized test on all the social studies content from K-3, so these will be perfect for introductions and review.

 

4. Next year I'll be teaching 3rd grade Science for the first time. Previously I taught Social Studies to two classes while my partner taught Science to both classes. Well my partner is going back to 2nd grade (we both came to 3rd from 2nd) and I thought it would be the perfect time to take responsibility for all my subjects. I order most of my books from Amazon. I have a running wish list with tons of Science books, Character Building, Biographies. Pop on over and take a look, you might find something you can use in your classroom.

 

 

5. My favorite teacher store ever is Lakeshore Learning. I've visited the one in Columbus OH, Matthews NC, Atlanta GA and of course Alexandria VA! Every August I take a trip to Lakeshore with a friend, each year I think it's been a different friend. But this now there's like 6 teachers who want to go with me so we're going to make a day out of it. Go shopping, eat lunch and just have a good time before school starts. I've got several items on my wish list and if you teach in a Common Core State (I don't) they have some new resources for you. I have a couple of CC items on my list because our math standards are very similar.

 

6. Are you familiar with Reading A to Z? Well the have an electronic version call Raz-Kids. I had this program at my previous school but when I transferred 2 years ago I found my new school did the Accelerated Reader program. Well now that the AR program has gone online my school won't be able to purchase any additional quizzes and they will no longer have tech support. So I'm not entirely sure what will have to AR but I have a back up if they decide to get rid of it. I love Raz-Kids because the books are aligned to the students DRA level. I assign a level and students read the books, take quizzes and can even get a worksheet from me about the book. After students have passed the quizzes at their level, it automatically goes to the next level or when I do mid-year DRAs I can change the levels myself.

 

7. This year I purchased Mountain Math and I loved the spiral review. I'm strongly considering Mountain Language next year. I have the math bulletin board but I'm thinking of purchasing the language flip book center.

 

So what's on your wish list, what are you looking to purchase for your classroom in the Fall?