Making Up For Lost Time

I feel like a bad blogger.  Sorry for not updating all weekend!  I'm thankful for the long weekend though!  Did you have today off?  We did and we needed it.  After coming back from three weeks of Winter Break, everyone needed an extra day to rest.  Our first week back started off great!  I think it was like the first day of school all over again.  Everyone was so excited to be at school.  I reviewed rules and routines with my little angels.  Well, then Tuesday hit and we were all comfortable with each other again.  Behavior issues started up and I wasn't sure the week would ever end.  Friday felt like the longest day ever.  But, here we are at the end of a three day weekend.  The weekend has come and gone faster than Friday seemed to go.






I can't promise I'll be a better blogger this week.  It seems like this is the week for meetings, my first formal observations, a field trip on Friday, grades are almost due, and it is our first official week of drama club.  I may be a new teacher, but I believe there is no better time to establish and advise a club.  The students and parents are excited too!  We had over 50 students sign up!  It is going to be a huge production!


My goal is to snap some pictures this week. I hope you have a great 4 day week!

When disaster strikes

What a week! Students still have not come back from Winter Break. They've been home for three weeks now.

Monday and Tuesday were snow days. When teachers went in Wednesday morning, we found what looked like a waterfall in one classroom, rain coming out of the ceiling in another, and the library flooded. We're in a very old building, so I'm not so surprised that five pipes burst during the worst freeze in years.  

Teachers have been working together the last few days to document damage, clean up, and relocate effected classrooms. One teacher lost everything and our modest school library lost half the books. The building had to be sprayed with chemicals so that mold does not grow.

As awful as this all has been, it's been great to see the staff come together.  We worked together to set up a classroom for the teacher who lost everything. We made it as comfortable and familiar as possible.  It's going to be difficult for those students to come back to all of their work ruined. Hopefully we can get the students to support and help each other as the teachers have been doing.

Christmas Charity in the Classroom

The afternoon of our last day before break, my class went on a very special trip.  During the month of December, we collected candy.  Parents jumped at the opportunity to get rid of left over Halloween candy!

 Each student carried a grocery bag full of candy to a local soup kitchen.  We really enjoyed getting out for a walk!  At the soup kitchen, students went on a tour of the building and learned about resources they could take advantage of if they ever need a meal.  Then, we set to work stuffing the candy we had brought into stockings.  The soup kitchen gave these stockings to kids that ate at the soup kitchen on Christmas.

We also brought holiday cards made by our students and a few canned goods.  This was really just the beginning of our relationship with this soup kitchen.  My students were very well behaved.  They stayed on task and respected the men who live and work at the soup kitchen.  As we were leaving, my students asked, "Can we come back and help for Easter?"  I was surprised and impressed!  My students are developing charitable hearts.  They are getting out into their community and helping others.

My class was given this cute stuffed animal cow by the soup kitchen.  We affectionately named him, "Cowy."

Where Have I Been?

I cannot believe it has been almost a full month since my last post!  I'm so sorry!
Those last two weeks before break we're crazy busy!  I fully intended to write as soon as break started, but I received a rather unpleasant gift from my students-the worst cold of my life!  It made for a rather miserable break.  I guess I needed the time to relax and recharge, though.  Anyway, two weeks of break and I'm almost back to 100% health.  We have a professional day Monday and students start back on Tuesday, unless we get a snow day!

It's time to get back into school mode.  Here is a glimpse back to the week before Winter Break:

We went to the zoo two days before break began.  Crazy? Yes, we might have been.  We returned to school with all the students and they had a great time.  It was a successful trip!  Plus, we learned about elephants and rain forest animals!

On the last day of school before Winter Break, a local private high school sent a class of Sophomores to our school to do holiday activities with the kids.  They began the day making these cute paper bag reindeer.  Then, one of the highschoolers dressed as Santa and each student received a wrapped gift.  It was really impressive the thought and care put into the event by the high school students.

While the rest of the school watched movies in the afternoon, my class went on a "secret" mission walking trip.  More on that tomorrow!

Christmas Craftiness

Only two more weeks of school until Winter Break!

On Friday, we had our monthly visit to the senior center.  Our craft was ornaments made from pony beads and pipe cleaners.  It was great to sharpen fine motor skills for the students and seniors!  The seniors thought it was very creative.  I have to thank Pinterest for this one!

Follow this pin for instructions:

I put the supplies for each student and their senior partner in a bag to pass out materials quickly.  I made some with pre-formed shapes for my younger students.  Students made candy canes, Christmas trees, wreaths, and stars.  The most creative was a student who used multiple pipe-cleaners to make a Santa face.  Of course, I was so busy helping students I didn't get a photo of the final product.

Here is what I have planned this week:

(Click images to go to the sources)

Interventions

Somehow it seems that having only 17 students makes each of their needs ever more apparent.  As I analyze the assessments of each student, I realize just how different the needs of each student are.  It is hard to group students in a way that truly benefits each student and it is impossible to work with each student one on one.
In my gut, I know that what these students need is weekly extremely targeted instruction in the skills they are lacking.  However, this is a level of intervention they will not receive until Spring (waiting on money from the state).  All of the assessment data I have collected so far indicates that these students are severely behind and may even need tier 3 intervention.  I think we could be closing the gap a lot faster if we offered more individualized interventions from the beginning of the year.

Math seems to be the most difficult for me to give intervention during instructional time.  I have been thinking a lot about why this is and it finally came to me: because students require more support with reading instructions, I am not as free to work with small groups.  Now my search begins for apps and websites that will target the math concepts they need to learn, but will also read the instructions to the student.  That will allow me to do more work with small groups.

Recently we've been working on number line skills and using skip jumps to add.  We did some whole group warm up intervention by working as a class to create a number line on the floor.  Students then took turns making jumps of 2, 5, and 10.  It was a lot of fun and great for kinesthetic learners.  It's simple, but its the most intervention I can do at this point.

I would love to hear your thoughts on interventions in math with struggling readers.

Charity in the Classroom

One great idea sparks another!  The yearbook club did a canned food drive and needed places to send the cans.  I got connected with a local mission and we've been brainstorming future charity projects for the school ever since.  It seems that the biggest needs are cans, holiday candy, and holiday cards.  Unfortunately, my class didn't collect the most cans (no pizza party for us), but I'm hoping that my students really get behind me on my candy drive.  The prize will be a pinata provided by the mission!  The winning class will also take a field trip to tour the mission.

I'm amazed how the yearbook club is setting precedents in our young school.  Because of them we will do ongoing charity work with local missions.  Oh, and they also inspired me to start a drama club!  These kids are eager for ways to spend more time at school!