Must Carry On

I have never been so hesitant to enter into school than I had today. However at the same time I could not wait to see my 19 little ones and just hug them all, tell them how much I care about them, and assure them that I would do everything in my power to protect them and keep them safe. Yet at the same moment being a teacher and protecting my 19 children at school I am a mother and I was extremely hesitant to send my child to school because in reality I know that you can't stop crazy and ultimately I know her teacher feels the same as I but we can't stop people who are willing to do such devastating things.

How were you all dealing with this situation? I have fourth graders so I feel like they understand a bit more than the younger kids however at the same time I wish they did not grasp the horrible concept. I also fear that there will be more questions as the week progresses and they interact with their peers. What were you saying in your classes?

Sending all my love and best with every teacher, parent, and caregiver out there. I know that everyone of us would do anything possible to keep our innocent children safe!

Interesting Websites

So I wanted to stop by and let you know about two math websites I have been using since last year but they are definitely getting me through this year with our new common core and math program in 4th grade within our district.


www.studyjams.com

It is not only good for math but it is also great for science. They take each concept and break it down step by step in order for every level of learner to have a chance to understand.

The other website is coolmathforkids.com I love this website to use with the Smart Board and let it become a center and extremely interactive.

Are there websites you use for math or science that you prefer? Please let me know!

Time to START blogging!

Wait did I just say that? Time to start blogging I thought that was what I had been doing....but then I realized I have not been doing a stellar job!! I think my problem is that I have been creative and making things and stealing things from other teachers and I am not blogging about the successes or the failues or the in between moments. So I vow to do a much better job in the upcoming days, weeks, and months. I always get more into the blogging when I read about a fun linky and I think I was interested once I read about the Boo'ed Linky through one of the amazing blogs I follow Fancy Free in Fourth


So now I vow to take pictures of the room tomorrow and add additional things to my site. Look out blogging world I am about to join full force!!

Motivating Student Participation

Wow I know that I have been seriously slacking in the updates but I will work on it. This is going into our third week of school and I feel like my kids are still a bit messy and cluttered. Grrr!! Hopefully I will be able to whip them into 4th grade shape sooner rather than later.

Anyways I was writing briefly this time because I am interested in some ideas for getting students motivated to participate. I always (like most of you) have the same group of 4 students who are constantly paying attention, constantly have their hand raised, and are aware of the class discussion. I know that there are others who know the answer or are paying attention but I can't seem to get them to participate their responses or thoughts. What types of motivation or rewards do you use to promote student participation? I saw those smart beads on pinterest but are people just giving out Mardi Gras beads and calling them smart beads or are they more bedazzled than that? Please help and any suggestions would be super beneficial!! Thanks in advance!!

QR codes

QR Codes in the Classroom | Scholastic.com

This seems so interesting. But how does the implementing really work? Anyone ever do it?

Instructional Advice

So my district has chosen to pilot a new reading program called Journeys. It is suppose to be aligned with the new standards and has some well known authors such as Donald Behr. Here are my concerns or issues with this. I really need some input or advice on these issues:

• Every 4th grade in the district is not piloting this program...some schools chose to pilot the program in the first grade. So it is frustrating that we can't ask fellow colleagues within the district for their advice or troubleshooting.
• We have been using the Lucy Caulkins Reading Workshop strategy. It has worked wonderfully with our students because it allows for no center work or worthless activities in center rotations and has students reading independently. Obviously we modified it to allow for incentives such as computer time to keep the readers attention.
• Now they have implemented this and first discussed it in June. We had an inservice in June and said we would discuss later on. Well school starts on Monday and the next inservice we received was Thursday. So basically gave us one day to meet with colleagues to collaborate. 
• Then at these meetings there have been different administrators and each time the administrators have a different answer or response to how the pilot should be implemented and how fully we should use it. So we should be planning what for the first week of school?
• The Journeys program is also frustrating because it is set up like a student anthology and we removed those from the curriculum over five years ago.

Can anyone see the trend in why frustration is building? Someone like me who is in their 2nd year teaching and just felt like they had a little bit of a handle on the curriculum is now getting all changed about. Oh yeah and our 4th grade math curriculum changed entirely. We are using Investigation books that last year the 5th grade teachers used. How can we take incoming 4th graders (who honestly are still little innocent babies when they enter in Sept) and teach them math concepts from an original 5th grade book?

What do I do?

Currently Linky

Can you believe it? I figured out how to link up to a linky party that had an image you had to fill in?!? I am shocked at myself!!