Week of Thanks

Linking up with BlogHoppin' for a week of Thanks!

I'm a lucky girl. I have a lot to be thankful for! I'm totally cheating and linking up a few today, so I can enjoy all the things I am thankful for this weekend.

A - A good book

I am a total reading fanatic. I can't get enough!  Once summer, I read almost 100 books while on vacation in Paris. It was better than watching the local TV and only understanding half of what was said! Whenever my little dude is napping, I'm reading. I don't have much time anymore, but I still get in at least a book or two each month. Here are some of my recent favorites.

And the classics I love reading to my son:

N - New friends

There is a lot of new staff at my school. We generally have pretty low turnover, but this year a lot of people transfered or moved to new districts. Half of my team is new this year. I have to say- I love them all! We all have really complementary personalities and get along well. We all share ideas and resources, and our teaching styles are pretty similar. A good team makes life a better place!

K - Kids

I'm thankful for the kiddos. Without my students, I wouldn't have a job! More than that, though, I am thankful for their silly little smiles and funny comments. Every day I find something to laugh at. They are smart, sassy, and really incredible. I love my job, and I love the little ones that I work with all day.

S - Sharing ideas on with bloggy friends

You guys, I'm a serious teaching blog addict. I downloaded the bloglovin app on my phone and I read blogs all day! I swear, it's a sickness. They should make a 12 step program. Although, if they did I would have a serious lack of ideas. Reading about other teacher's ideas really inspires me! Maybe it's for the best- I'll keep my teacher blog addiction!

Thanks to all who entered the Moby Max giveaway! The winner is Beth M. You will be getting an email shortly!

Winner!

Thank you all for entering my 500 follower giveaway! It's time to announce a winner....

Mary W!

Look out for your prizes in your email, Mary! :)

Meanwhile, folks, I have to get back to finishing report cards. Our system is computerized and requires numerical codes for all the grades, behavior reports, and comments. It seems like it would make life easier than writing it all out, but it actually takes forever to find the code for the comment you are thinking of! I have been putting them off "until tomorrow" for over a week now. I'm finally up against the deadline- so it's back to the grind.

Stay warm!

Winner & an exit slip idea

And the winner of the pencil sharpener giveaway is.....

(drumroll please....)

Jennifer N

WOO! Congrats, Jennifer!

So, I've been on the hunt forever for a good "exit slip" type activity for my students. There are a bazillion out there, I know, but I wanted to find that perfect fit for my students. They are techno-addicts, and really enjoy something different. Finally it hit me- let's tweet!

We don't have any electronics in the classroom, or wifi for that matter, we had to get creative. I got myself some fluorescent poster board, tons of stickies, and got to work. I have the "twitter feed" posted on the whiteboard at the front of my classroom. We use @FirstName as our twitter handle. I even tweet as @MrsB sometimes!

At the end an activity, I will give students a quick prompt to respond to. Early in the year, it's mostly "how do you feel about this" type questions, but as we progress in our learning we will dive in deeper questions. This prompt asked students to tweet about how they felt about the reading they did in class today.

Kids can tweet during the day, too. They get one "on topic, no prompt" tweet per day. I get things like this posted from these:

I love that they use hashtags! :) 

Winter blues

I've said it before and I'll say it again- this time of year is hard. We lose an hour of sleep for daylight savings time, there is no vacation or time off in March, and students start their first rounds of high stakes testing. The kids are feeling saturated, the faculty is tired and worn out, and everyone is so over the cold winter weather. Thank goodness it's almost April, which means it is almost April vacation. Wahoo!

On a more cheerful note, I won my very first blogger giveaway today! I am so excited. Cynthia at All Things Teachery hosted a 200 follower giveaway, and I won the package for grades 6+! Can't wait to use all the awesome products I won. 

This week, I started reviewing all the important science concepts my students have learned in their short academic career. Fifth grade students in Massachusetts take their first science MCAS in May, and our curriculum map vaguely tells us to "review all concepts" until the MCAS begins. What a huge task! It's so challenging to assess where my students are at, what we need to develop, and when they're ready to move on when reviewing so much information. To start the unit and try to get an idea of where my students are at, I decided to try something I called a "dry erase discussion." I had the kids sit silently for 2 minutes and think about everything they knew about the moon. I let them take notes, if needed. Then, I gave them 4 minutes to write what they thought of on the whiteboard. They all had to write something, no matter how small, and they had to remain silent. I also instructed them to read what their classmates wrote to see if it help them to remember other things. They were allowed to get up and write additional facts or thoughts as many times as they wanted. I have to say- I was impressed with how much they thought of!

Half the whiteboard- lots of great ideas!

A close up of some of their thoughts

I loved this activity because I could quickly see what they knew, and what they needed to be taught. I could also address any misconceptions right away, like the student who thought the moon changed shapes as it rotated around the Earth. The kids loved it because they got to write on the whiteboard (who knew that was such a valuable incentive?). They learned from each other, and really had a chance to think about their knowledge. Such a successful activity!