TCRW

Last week I had the most amazing experience attending the Teacher's College Writing Project  professional development at Columbia University. I never claimed to be good at teaching writing but this made me feel at ease and made me feel like maybe just maybe I could do this. 

In my district we use th Writers Workshop model based on Lucy Caulkins. I don't know if you are aware of it, but many of us in my specific school felt it was becoming cult like. People swore by the process, swore the steps worked, loved everything Lucy said about everything and thought she was the only one on the subject. For awhile I did too but then I became frustrated and began to doubt everything that was being said and offered. I was given the opportunity by my principal to go to this week long workshop paid for by the district. I jumped on it because ultimately I wanted to believe again in it. I am so glad I did!

The whole week impressed me. There was a lady Colleen who led a large group discussion every morning about the teaching and the methods of the writing workshop, we had a small group leader named Mike who put us in the role of the student while he taught it and conferenced with us. The afternoons were filled with choices of mini presentations about various topics related to writing and we ended each day with a famous author key note. One day it was Kate Riberts who coauthored "Falling in Love With Close Reading." Another day it was an author by the name of Lester Lehman ( I believe I spelt that right) One of the days it was Seymour Simon and he even had a book signing earlier that day and I have never been so excited to have my books signed. 

There were some amazing ah hah moments as well. For instance with conferencing, I did not realize how structured it would be with giving real genuine positive comments wrapped with a teaching point to refocus their writing. I also had always put the revise/edit step together in the process and I realize now how important those two are separately. A big moment for me was when they discussed spelling. It bothers me so about my districts spelling curriculum (or lack there of) Colleen mentioned how important it it to not expect the partner edits to catch those because they do not know them themselves as well as various grammar strategies especially if they were never taught it at a younger level. 

I know that this may seem silly but for me that past week was extremely eye openning and beneficial. Have you ever had a professional development do so much for you? What kind was it? 

August Currently 

It is that time again for a new Currently from the wonderful Farley 

I can not wait to add more this week by sharing my experiences of my professional development at Columbia this week in NYC.

July Currently 

I am trying to expand myself and venture out into new areas such as really blogging and also participating in new groups. I promise myself to blog at least once a week. I feel like that is a reasonable goal! 

Where Have I Been?

The title should say it all. I tell myself all the time I am doing such great things that I should blog about but then well you know life got in the way and I kept saying yeah I'll get to it. Well I am on spring break this week so I am finally getting to it. 

We are quickly approaching our state testing and this year is particularly interesting for me because I am in third grade and I keep reminding myself that this is the first time they have taken such a test of this magnitude. The biggest hurdle for them is realizing that I can't answer every question for them or they can't get up and come ask me a question. I have a group of very active boys this year and we have been working on that throughout the year. 

On Friday before we left for break I has the kids do an Easter Egg hunt. It wasn't an egg hunt like they had hoped...they had to work for it through answering math questions. I gave each student a set of 5 math questions. Each set of questions were based on the same topic but individualized for the students. They loved it. After we answered the questions (and I did not correct them right away) they used QR codes to locate each group of eggs throughout the building. It was a lot of fun. They quickly realized their answer was right or wrong when they did not find an egg with their corresponding answer on it. 

Blogging Resolutions

I  am linking up with  Fifth in the Middle  for her blogging resolutions. This is my biggest  area in 2014  I hope to improve in so this linky is perfect. 

I received a comment just recently offering advice about how to get more involved in the blogging world and sticking with my resolutions for blogging and one of them was joining more linky parties....so here goes #1 for the year 2014!! 

I have a lot of  ideas going  into the New Year with my class this year and I hope that I canshare some valuable info with others as well as hear feedback on what ways I can improve it! Here goes nothing 2014!!

New Year with Goals in Mind 

I am joining up with Jessica from First Grade Parade for my goals for 2014 with a new start especially towards my approach on blogging. 

Those resolutions speak for themselves and now a few more personal and professional goals to stay focused on in the classroom.

I want to learn more about Genius Hour projects. I had read Teaching Like a Pirate over the summer about passions within the classroo. Then I found out about these projects  within the classroom based on those types of passions such as why o how do things work or where do things come from.Truly pojects that drive the students and make  learning fun. 

Stay more organized with record keeping. I am very accurate about anecdotal notes by using the app Teacher Notes on my iPad throughout the day. Now I need to transfer those dates to my record sheets and I never remember to. Ineed to find a more accurate way to remind myself to complete. 

Read more books for pleasure. I need to develop a list of books that would be  good to read. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

 

I want to complete a triathalon locally. I have run three half marathons and I don't think I could run a full marathon but I want to move on from just running. 

Be sure to  link up with Jessica and be inspired by others and their goals. 

New Year..New Goals

As we approah the new year quickly I began to realize that I have severely dropped the ball on  blogging. There were many reasons in my head why I dropped out...one major being that I looked at everything everyone else was doing and thought my things or ideas are not nearly as cute or organized.But this year I am going to make it a goal to post two times a week and share all the wonderful things going on in my classroom even if I am the only one who thinks they are cute :) 

Anyways our Christmas was wonderful as always. This year was the first year I felt like my daughter really got the idea behind Christmas...like Santa brings presents, we leave cookies out for Santa and treats for the reindeer, we visit with family we do not get to see too often, It was amazing. The best part of this year was that my sister came home from Florida to surprise my mom. It was so great having my daughter get to see her at Christmas this year because last year we didn't see her either. 

I am going to see her down in Florida in 3 weeks but I am going for a sister weekend so glad we all saw her this time. Hard to see her go though last night :( 

Well I am getting ready for New Year's Eve and I was thinking of planning activities for my daughter to open every hour she stays awake, like do puzzles, make a special treat, make special craft. Any ideas?