Beautiful Earth Day

I am working on celebrating holidays with my class. Since we are 4th graders I explain the historical significance of an upcoming holiday and then we do an activity. This month there is Earth Day.

I found this idea on one of the many pinterest boards that I follow. They are recycled water bottle "chandeliers." The students color the outside of plastic bottles with sharpie and cut a spiral around it. Then, I tied them together and hung them up. I have to say they are quite stunning.

A 9/11 Lesson

I am a 2nd year teacher now, so tht means that I have to step it up & put in some extra special lessons. Today is the 11th anniversary of 9/11 and while I still find it weird that I am teaching people who weren't even born yet I created a pretty awesome lesson.

First, we talked about what we've heard an watched a mini-movie on brainpop about what happened. Then, we took a virtual tour of the 9/11 memorial and talked about why we build memorials. We explored the different symbols the designers used throughout the space such as trees and water. Then, we decided what WE would have added to the memorial and why.

Here is our 4th grade memorial to 9/11
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Summer Plans? What Summer Plans??

To the general public, a teacher's summer is filled with trips to the beach and vegging out on the couch. *le sigh* If they only knew what really happens behind the scenes.

So far this summer I have totally revamped how I will teach math this year, set up a reader's workshop for my class, wrote 60 mini lessons for writer's workshop, and went to a 2 day conference. After the conference I had to go add all of these new ideas to my previously completed lessons. yikes! All of this is in addition to the hours I've spent researching new ideas online *cough, pinterest, cough*

I still have to look up new ideas for historical novels seeing as my students didn't really like Island of the Blue Dolphins last year :( bummer. There are really a thousand things on my to do list except the summer is half over and I am running out of time!!

Here's to the new school year
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End. Year One

There was so many things I wanted to post about this year and so many things I wanted to do in my classroom. However, I think that I was just too busy living my dream that time got away from me.

I learned so much this year. SO much. It's true that your students are your greatest teachers. Here's a small reflection on the knowledge I've acquired over the past 9 months...

-There will NEVER be enough time for everything...but try to get the important things in.
-Fractions are hard.
-I need to emphasize the importance of memorizing times tables.
-Breathe.
-Sometimes decor becomes irrelevant due to learning.
-Getting out of the classroom is imperative.
-Lesson plans, classroom layout, policies, relationships, and students themselves evolve. So deal.
-Take pictures.
-Ask the students what is working...and what's not. They're pretty smart.
-Be prepared for anything.
-Breathe.
-Have fun on field trips.
-Read aloud. A lot.
-They will always fight. Teach them to fight fair.
-Nurture their interpersonal relationships.
-Sometimes that really cool lesson doesn't really help.
-There is nothing a reading anthology can do that a novel can't do better.
-Plan ahead.
-The end of the year is much harder than the beginning.
-Parents can be a true blessing or a heavy burden.
-Most parents are neither.
-The end of the year will come too fast.

These are things that no university could ever teach you. Class of 2011-12.... you will always have a special place in my heart. I love you all!!

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Who's on First

I love reading. no... I LOVE reading! I think it is so amazing how books open the world to us. How by reading a book, your mind opens to things you would've never thought of before.

We are currently reading The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. In it, there is a refernce to Abbott & Costello's Who's on First skit. So, I thought it woud be a great opportunity to show it to the kids. I looked it up on youtube and pressed play. It was hilarious! The kids were cracking up and yelling back at the characters. You would've thought that they had never seen comedians before haha.

When all was said and done, I think it was a very succesful lesson. If you haven't seen it, go youtube it right now!! :)

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A Rite of Passage

Back in October was the infamous CA mission project! Oh what fun! I got to bring in the report I wrote about my mission in 4th grade and got to see all of these beautiful projects.

I gave the class a choice of building a mission, writing a report, doing a powerpoint or anything else as long as they cleared it with me. 98% of the class ended up building missions so our room was FULL of awesome projects.

Notes for next year: be more clear on expections for actually building the mission (have them label it). Let them choose their own partners? Have everyone make a powerpoint for their presentation of the missions.

All in all, they were awesome!

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Report Card Time!

All I have to say is thank goodness scarcasm doesn't translante into typed comments. This is hard!

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Observations & Reflections

As you know, I am currently doing the BTSA program through Burbank USD. I have a lovely coordinator who had arranged for us to visit some different classrooms today.
I love having the opportunity to visit other classrooms to scavenge new ideas and trash others that don't seem to work so well. The first classroom had a lot of trashing...
Wait! First, you should know that lately I have been questioning my teaching method. When you come into my room there are always students talking and we have a repertoire that I have come to enjoy. We talk to teach other all day. This is how I pictured my class running, but the doubt comes in when I look around the catholic school I am in and see more "traditional" (translation: students should be seen and not heard) teaching method in almost every class. My class is not crazy or disrespectful by any means, they are just not quiet.
Back to the observation... I was seated in the back of another 4th grade room as the students came in. Completely silently. It was wonderful. There was no chatter or horseplay. The class knew what was expected and complied with the teacher's every demand. I felt very uncomfortable. It was a cold environment with no smiles or traceable relationship between student and teacher. I'll remind you that I was in the room for all of an hour, but there was almost no student work on the boards and even the positive reinforcement seemed forced. I quickly realized that if I was uncomfortable, then the students were as well. It was not my type of learning environment.
The second room was much more comfortable. The students were encouraged to collaborate and help each other. There was a lot of interaction between the teacher and her students and there were many smiles. I'd like to think this feeling is what I portray in my own room.

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Cheating

Yesterday we had a Social Studies test. A necessary evil, I know. We took the test and moved on with our lives. Yesterday I also corrected said Social Studies tests (and due to the very creative title of this blog, you can see where I'm going with this).
2 papers.
Exactly alike.
Same multiple choice questions wrong.
Same wording in the short answer.
Same words crossed off.
No doubt in my mind that there was some cheating going on.
I was extremely upset. How dare someone cheat on my test! Do they think i'm stupid? What am I going to do? What were they thinking? How did I not see it happening? Oh my God! These kids are driving me crazy! How do I put my foot down. What is fair? WHO CHEATED???...these were all questions bubbling in my brain within 30 seconds of figuring it out.
I made the decision to ask them to confess, if neither did- both would get a zero on the test. Unfair for one person, but I was between a rock and a hard place.
I sent home the zero paper and a note.
Needless to say, I got 2 parent conference requests today :/
One side was very angry, one was very supportive and understanding. I hate being berated by parents for something that is out of my control. What could I have done? I can't think of another way to handle the situation that would've been fair to all parties involved (including the other students that didn't cheat).
Any Ideas? All I have to say is thank God for co-workers because by talking to them I feel reaffirmed that I did the right thing.
On a side note, the blog reached 1000 page views~!~ Thanks to my 5 loyal readers!! haha
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Back to School Night

Why is it that many teachers can spend their days yacking kids' ears off, yet when it comes to parents...its a no go. I know I aways feel uncomfortable in front of a room of parents. Perhaps its because I'm used to being the oldest one in the room, and then suddenly everyone's older than me... whatever the case, it happens. So, today was Back to School Night and if I do say so myself, It went fabulously! I was nervous, so I made a little powerpoint to keep me on track. It was great and it turns out that I have a great group of parents (knock on wood). If everything goes as nicely as it has today, I might not give up this class at the end of the year. I'll just follow them to 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th! haha Seriously though, it's always fantastic to hear positive things from the parents and to be able to see where the kids are coming from. I hope the whole year is this great! xxOOxx

My Fourth Grade Classroom

My room is FINALLY ready for business (good thing because the first day is tomorrow!!) so I thought I'd share some photos...i know you've been dying to see what I've

been up to :P

My Desk is already messy! haha