Whoa!  Two posts in one day!  Look at me! 

But I had to join up with

for some New Year's Resolutions

Jen R. is asking for two resolutions...one personal and one blogging.

 

I think I make the same personal resolution every year...go to the gym more...I was off and on good at the beginning the year then really good this summer.  Then school got back in session and I got lazy.  So maybe if I word it differently I will be better about it.  How about...

"This year I resolve to Take Care of Myself." 

I think that can be all encompassing...gym, eat right, stress less, enjoy the small stuff.

 

My blogging resolution is kind of along the same strand, but I think will be easier to complete.  My goal was to blog three times a week...wow that was easy with a student teacher in my classroom last year.  Then summer came and I had less to blog about.  Then school came and I had a lot to blog but just not the time to do it!  But with my blog-iversary coming up soon, I have got to get good again (and I'm almost at 300 followers)!  So here we go...

"I resolve to write a blog post at least once a week."

I promise!  I will do it!

 

I can't wait to hear about your resolutions!  Please comment and share your resolution for the New Year with me!

 

It is November, so it is time to link up with Farley and 

for another round of... 

now to break it all down...

Listening--why must movies mess with books so much???  I LUV the book by Sophie Kinsella (the epitome of British Chick Lit!) and the rest in the series.  The Confessions of a Shopaholic movie totally different than the book...but it is great for background noise while writing your Currently!

Thinking--I'm not sure when I started doing this, but I grade while watching during Georgia football games (of course, not in the stadium...on tv, silly!).  Grading during the game keeps me from getting too emotional about the playing on the screen...have literally scared one of my dogs yelling at the players before!

Wanting--For Christmas, my grade level does a favorite things gift swap.  We purchase something that is our favorite for each person on the grade level...I can't decide what I want to do, but as I type this I may have just gotten some inspiration!!! (I'll update later!!!)

Needing--I have been continuing Random Acts of Kindness in my room...and it has turned into a monthly project.  In October, we wrote letters to soldiers as part of a local radio station's letter collection.

I haven't thought of an idea for this month...but this is kind of what I'm thinking...using these the thankful notes here...

I am open to more ideas!

Music--I know I'm late on this...but I just discovered Pandora!  I have been using it this week...it is a fabulous to create the mood that I want...Need to calm the students down?  Lullaby station.  Need some Halloween music?  Kidz Halloween station!  Wowee!

 

Loving--Early voting is fabulous!  Luckily I timed my voyage to the early voting establishment just right to wait only an about hour rather than the several hours...and I left this section last because I have a bit of a soap box to stand on...(sorry to get a little political here!)

 

The big item on the ballot here in Georgia is not the presidential election (do not get me wrong voting for the president is still incredibly important to me), but a new AMENDMENT regarding charter schools!  This amendment would created an appointed commission to approve charter schools...not the local or state school board.  Funding for these new schools would come out of the already dwindling state budget meaning even larger class-sizes, more furlough days, and less funding for needed resources.

 

Now I have absolutely no problem with charter schools and having choice but when the push for this Amendment comes from foundations and for-profit corporations outside our state, there is a HUGE problem!  Plus the wording on the ballot is just plain confusing and does not address the real issue being proposed!

So I say all that to ask Georgia readers (who have not already voted) please vote NO! on Amendment 1!

 

Oh my goodness!  No way it is already October!  This means it is time to link up to

for another month of Currently!  So here goes mine...

I am SO loving my class this year!  I am loaded with gifted students this year...13 out of 28!  They are sweet as can be...and VERY eager to learn!  So eager in fact, I am a bit behind on my school system's instruction calendar...but how can you deny students' desire to gain a deeper understanding!  I am having difficulty doing so!  (Holy exclamation points Batman...can you tell me class excites me???)

 

I would prove to you my need for a magic desk fairy...but the magic desk fairy is so necessary that I am embarrassed and choose to be in denial instead.  Just imagine the Alps...substitute the snow for papers...and now you have a good idea of what I'm dealing with!  But with a furlough day coming up and not a lot of free time, the Alps will be quickly turning into the Himalayas in no time!

 

Right now in my classroom, I am reading aloud Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.  Unlike previous years, before starting Percy Jackson, we prepared by reading many greek myths before I started this read aloud.  I am loving this year how my students "get" all the references in the book.  Fabulous...you should hear the connections we are making!

 

Welcome to my made-over classroom!  I decided this summer to do a little redecorating for a couple of reasons

1. There were some things that after 7 years had not been replaced...and looked like it!
2. My rough on everything bunch last year had made other items need to be refreshed!
3. I am The Polka-dotted Teacher, and I had very few polka-dots left in my room!

So here is what my room looked liked before Meet Your Teacher Morning a month ago and before a single child stepped foot inside...

This is the view of my classroom from my door. You will notice many of the walls look kind of blank because we fill them up with anchor charts, vocabulary, and such as the year goes on...

Here is the view from the other side of the room...

Pictured here are my social studies and science boards...yes I made the banners myself...well I did get assistance from my new Silhouette Cameo.

Here is a closer look at the Social Studies board...(do you see the cute pencil dispenser???? A Pinterest idea!)

Now a close up view of the Science board...Don't you love the triple border???  A trick I learned from SchoolGirl Style!  And yes I did hang the banners on polka-dot ribbon!

Now here is my small (very small) group table...with crate seats (Shout out to my crafty daddy for helping me with these!)...the kids actually fight over who gets to sit on them...a schedule is in the works!

Here is a peek at my desk area.  This is really a look at D.O.T. Books waiting for their new owners...what are D.O.T. Boos do you say?  I will tell you about them later!

I'm sorry but I can't give up my teacher desk like some of you can!  The bookshelves are new...I had a different set up before with less actually storage space and way more clutter space.

Here is my classroom meeting area...I was surprised I could find a set up with 30 desks plus lots of floor space too!  Lots of new polka-dot pillows...and the best deal I have ever gotten on a rug...87.50!

And here are some more comfy chairs that the students enjoy...

 

Finally here is my CRAFT (free from Ladybug Teacher Files) wall ready to go and redone book basket labels...

 

We are not quite looking so fresh anymore...but that is just evidence of active learning going on, right?  Anyway I hope you find my classroom as cute and fun as I do!

As you know I LUV LUV LUV Pinterest, so it is only natural that I join up on this linky party...

...and I will try not to let this post get too long, but I have found a ton of good classroom finds lately!

Source: rehderrainforest.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

First I saw this table, and I would love to have it in my classroom! But I don't have a ton of extra room (and definitely won't next year!) but I do have a school issued circle table...so after a little convo with my mom I decided to do the next best thing...cover my circle table with black contact paper!  I am also making the crate seats like in the pic as well!

Source: etsy.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Love this idea!  Fill a straw dispenser with pencils, and students recieve one with a push of a lever...I have already located an acrylic one (so you can see when you are running low and need a refill!)  This will also be an excellent example when we get to simple machines! :)

Source: monarchmadness.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

How cheery would it be to walk into your brand new classroom on Meet Your Teacher Day and see a balloon with your name on it!!!  Wouldn't you be excited to get back for the first day of school!  I would love to do this but I am concerned about making the other fourth graders jealous. ;)

Source: iwanttobeasuperteacher.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

I love this both as a get-to-know-you activity and a parts of speech review...each letter of the name is filled with a different part of speech about you.  Too fun!

Source: rootsoftheequation.wordpress.com via Jessica on Pinterest

This is Math Taboo.  Now it could be beneficial as a teacher-created activity...but wouldn't it be even more valuable as a student created activity...not only in the math classroom but subject!
I will leave you with these...but if you want to see more of what "I Saw on Pinterest" be sure to follow me!

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged...I have been a very busy girl! :)  I have been to two two-day workshops: one on our new Science textbook adoption and one on Implementing the Math Common Core.  I finished the second out of three courses of my gifted certification/endorsement.  I have been an online lesson planning fool (and I thought up until today that it was getting quicker!).  Finally planning an adorable baby shower to take place the Saturday after the first week of school.  Combine that with all the things I want to get done for my classroom...and I will need a vacation from summer vacation!

I have done a little shopping for back to school and much of it arrived today!  So, I want to show you what I have gotten as part of...

One of my new online shopping finds is Fabric.com.  A box came today with supplies for classroom projects...
I am redoing the tags on my classroom library baskets.  When you re-do the tags, you of course have to get new ribbon too!  I love this Dippy Dots ribbon to accompany my new all polka-dot theme.

Another project, I am working on is making crate seats.  You know the seats made out of the filing milk crates?  Well the fabric for those seats came in the same box as the ribbon.  I love the colors...they make me sooo happy!

Next came a box from TeacherDirect...Amazingly enough I placed this order on Monday morning, and my box was on my doorstep Tuesday afternoon!  Wowee!

I get my students special math journals each year.  I like them to have composition books with gridded pages...but this year I found these cool ones...

As you can see below, they have a grid on top and ruled lines on bottom!  Perfect for math journaling!  And they cost about $0.80 less than the ones I usually get! 

While I was shopping on Teacher Direct, I stopped by their clearnance page and found some cool things to support our science...

Our second unit is Sun, Moon, and Stars, and I found this cool moon globe...

It has the landings of all the moon missions labeled, the seas, and the visible hemisphere of the moon...perfect for our studies!

Another clearance find was this little kit...

Light is our third unit of study...and we talk about the different kinds of lenses and reflection.  I love the lenses in this kit because they aren't glass, so no worries about anyone with a case of the "dropsies!"  I also love the mirror because it comes with a holder that allows you to show a convex and concave mirror.

I have some more shopping to do, but I need to wait for payday to do it...I will be sure to share my finds though! :)

It is a new month...so that means a new currently from Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade!  Here is my currently...I had to think hard about thinking...brain has not been working so hard since school has been out! :)

How sad is it that my big "went" for the year is going to the Georgia Aquarium...especially sad since it is 40 minutes away, and I went with 26 fourth graders!  Wow, I need a vacation bad! 

Anyone want to sponsor me??? :)

For me, each summer break usually consists of a lengthy reading list!  Some are professional reads, and a bunch of others are children's literature.  Let me share with you some of the professional books that are on my summer reading list...

Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement

Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, Christopher Lehman

In Georgia, the 2012 - 2013 school year marks the adoption of the Common Core standards.  My principal assigned our school's leadership team (which I am a part of as grade level chair) to read this book since we are will be influential in the transition to Common Core.  At 230 pages, this will hopefully be a quick read but also knowing it is co-authored by Lucy Calkins will hopefully make it interesting too!

The Daily Five and The Cafe Book

Gail Boushey and Joan Moser

I am jumping aboard the Sisters train!  Looking at a class-size of nearly 30, I really need to improve my system to allow me to get more small group/individual time with students while the rest of the class is also doing something worthwhile!  I am looking forward to the online book club on these books for upper grades teachers being hosted over at  We Read, We Blog, We Teach.   

Igniting a Passion for Reading 

Steven Layne

I studied this book in a book group at school.  There are so many great ideas in here to motivate readers and making good book choices.  With the craziness of the end of the year, I have forgotten many of the good ideas that I want to implement...so I want to reread this book to get back some of them like The First Read Club and Hot Reads and more!

And an endless list of children's literature!

What books are on your summer reading list???  I can probably squeeze a couple more of your ideas onto my list! :)

Looking for more ideas for your summer reading? 

Click on the picture above to take a peek at the other participants summer readng lists!

Now that I am out for summer break, one of the first big things that I first take time to do is reflect on the previous school year. And while I create most of my “stuff” myself, I have found a prime opportunity to share with you some of the resources and supplies that I could not live without in my classroom this year in...

 

Some of these are big name, big cost...some not so much!  I have included links (if you are interested in checking any of these out!)

Dry-erase boards and markers

I have two different kinds of dry erase boards...ones with a centimeter grid from EAI Education...

and ones that are plain from Oriental Trading Company...

I use dry-erase boards in nearly every subject.  The students enjoy using these for practice in math.  The grided boards work well for helping students to line up their numbers.  We use them for review in science and social studies.  The students also enjoy them to complete word work.

And I have found that the best value for dry-erase markers has to be these from Discount School Supply ...

DRP (Daily Reading Practice) 

I just started using this program this year, and it is a fabu way for every student to get comprehension practice. It has short 1-2 paragraph passages, and, like its name, daily comprehension activities to complete. Weekly, the students complete similar activities. Each Monday is about subject, title, author’s purpose, reader’s purpose, and genre. Tuesday is all about word study and vocabulary. Wednesday is practicing inference, idiom, problem, point of view, setting, type of writing, true/false, fact/opinion, or mood. Thursday practice is about main idea, skimming, predicting, topic sentence, details, or graphic organizers. Friday is about finding key words and summarizing. This was practice was excellent for my students this year that needed repetitive practice which research shows is very important!

Standardized Test Practice: Long Reading Passages by Scholastic

While I give my students shorter passages for reading practice, our testing includes longer 1 – 2 page passages. So in order to help my students also build their stamina for longer testing situations, I use this book to help me give comprehension assessments. It has a variety of genres of passages, and a variety of short answer, long answer, and multiple choices questions.

Scholastic’s Study Jams

StudyJams is an incredible website similar to BrainPop, but I think it could be free! (I haven’t paid for it, but I am a subscriber to other Scholastic things...so I’m not quite sure!) The only difference is StudyJams focuses only on Science and Math...but contains videos, quizzes, slide show, and karaoke. The students love it!

Evan-Moor’s Teacher File Box and Scholastic’s Printables

Both of these subscription websites are very similar only by different publishers. I will go to these sources to find good homework type sheets...especially since they have ones that allow students to check their work! It also saves me a lot of time and energy to go to one of these sources to help create assessments.

What are some the resources that you rock all the time in your room?

Today marks Six...count 'em...6 school days until summer break.  I have had a whopper of a year, but I got back test scores for my class, and they were surprisingly much better than I expected.  So now I feel that I can end this year on a good note and start thinking about...

I'm joining April, Hadar, and Teri to share what I want to get done this summer!
I have SO, SO much I want to accomplish this summer.  Being me, I had already started a bucket list on paper and unfortunately already lost it!  So since I work better electronically, here we go...

School...

1. I have been greatly inspired by Ladybug's Teacher Files's C.R.A.F.T. Board materials...so I want to try The Daily Five and The CAFE Book: Engaging All Students in Daily Literary Assessment and Instructionor CRAFT with my students.  This means first reading the books then deciding how I will adapt these ideas into my classroom.
2. I am working to help develop an elementary school online campus for my school system.  I will be creating 40 lessons for the first quarter of fifth grade.
3. I am also working on finishing my gifted certification...I will be done by the time school starts!
4. My class this year has been rough on my classroom library...so I have to do some reorganizing!  As I reorganize, I am going to scan in books into Booksource's Classroom Organizer.
5. I have two workshops to attend...1. Implementing the Math Common Core and 2. Textbook Training for our new science adoption.
6. I am also going to be creating more for my TeachersPayTeachers and Teacher's Notebook stores.  I also have a couple projects I want to list on Etsy too!
7. I have some seen some materials that I want to adapt for Greek and Latin Roots word work.   Speaking of Greek, I want to develop a unit for Greek myths to start out the year.

Outside of school...

1. Go to the gym at least 5 days a week!
2. Planning a baby shower for one of my best friends...just have to pry the baby's gender out of her! :)
3. Finding the perfect rug for my family room and mirror for foyer.
4. I have a bunch of Pinterest ideas that I want to try...so many I'm not sure where I want to start!
5. I want to break out my brand-new sewing machine...and conquer my fear of sewing with it!

How far away are you from summer break?  What do you want to get done on your summer break?