Currently March

February flew by and you know what that means....time to link up with Oh Boy Fourth Grade's Currently!

Listening: To the glorious rain! I heart the rain! Unfortunately living in CA means I don't get too many rainy days on the couch curled up with a book and coffee. It's been wonderful! 

Loving: I finally broke down and purchased an Erin Condren teacher planner. She had a 30% off sale which helped me justify forking over the cash for it. I can't wait to use it next year! Right now I carry around a 3 ring teacher binder and it is way too bulky. This little planner has it all! It also came with a free set of colored pens, labels, and coupons! 

Thinking: Since CA made the shift to Common Core this year, we won't be giving the state CST for math and language arts. However, the science CST (given in 5th and I think 8th grade) is definitely happening. I have one more unit to get through by the end of April (life science). I suppose this rainy day is a perfect day for planning. 

Wanting: To enjoy the day and do absolutely nothing!

Needing: My darn knee started giving me issues while on vacation during the beginning of January. Not fun! You don't realize how much you rely on your knees until one isn't working. I thought it would get better and put off going to the doctor. After a month and a half, i finally gave in. It looks like I have a problem with my patella and the tracking of it. I now have physical therapy four days a week for three weeks and then 3 days a week for 6 weeks. I've finished a week and a half of PT so far and it is starting to feel better! Not limping as bad.

??????????: Can you guess the question?

Five for Friday the Saturday Edition

This week has been hectic to say the least!
Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

This is what made for a hectic week:

This was the FUN part of my week! Two of our afternoons were filled with science experiments and my kids loved every minute of it! We were finishing up our physical science unit, I will be posting about all this awesomeness later on this week.

After three years, I finally upgraded my phone. Yup, you read that right...3 years...I'm not one to care too much about having the latest and greatest technology gadget/phone. The only reason I upgraded was because my Driod was dying. I've always been a mac girl and now that Verizon sells iPhones, it was the only way to go. I'm lovin' the bright green color!

The not so fun part of my week: physical therapy. For the past two months, I've had some pretty painful knee problems. I kept thinking the pain would go away. After 2 months, I decided it was probably time to go to the orthopedic surgeon. The doctor believes something is wrong with my patella and the tracking and has sent me to  physical therapy 3 days a week for 2 months. Friday was my first visit. A bit painful, but my physical therapist is very friendly and I am hoping my knee heals. Walking with a limp and having to take the steps one at a time is no fun.

This pile of papers is just getting bigger and bigger as the week progresses. I never have time at school to grade papers and when I bring them home, they just seem to pile up. I really need to get on the ball with grading, because report cards are due next week. 

My boys always put a smile on my face! 

Now it's time to relax!

Determining Point of View: Close Reading

Again using our main text, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, my students read closely to determine the point of view. In their ela notebooks they were to write down a quote to show the story is told from the first person point of view. Once the quote was written down, they circled 1 to 3 words in the quote that signal the first person point of view.

 I had them pair share and discuss why they thought the author chose to write the book from the first person point of view. As a class, we discussed what we gain from the first person point of view and what we lose. They struggled a bit on what we lose when a story is told in the first person point of view. It definitely had them thinking! It was great to see them refer back to the text and pull out specific examples that supported their thoughts on what we gain as readers, as well as, what we lose.

They then blogged what they wrote/discussed on their individual blogs within our class blog. The blog has been such a motivator! Especially for my students who aren't too fond of writing.

 

***I've been using a curriculum guide created by the amazing teachers at Curriculum Specialists blog.

Examining Characters: Close Reading

This lesson went so well! My students were really engaged throughout the lesson and made me proud. It was wonderful to see them discussing amongst each other and reverting back through their text (Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson) to find the evidence!

                                                   

I had them draw a quick sketch of how the envisioned the main character. Around their sketch they wrote down four-five words (character traits) that described what the character was like. Earlier in the year, we had a mini-lesson on character traits and it was awesome to see them pull out their interactive ela notebooks to reference the character trait list. Below the sketch they had to pull out a specific quote from the novel that supported each word. Most of my students were able to do this, however, I did have some students who struggled. I think they tend to get overwhelmed and didn't understand the process of scanning the book. I decided to have them stop and pair share with their partner what they wrote (I felt this would help those who may have been struggling).

The lesson continued with my students examining two of the supporting characters. You can check out the chart below for the questions.

I must say, this lesson really had my students thinking and constantly referring back to the text. As I walked around, I was able to quickly assess who needed extra support and who had it. Having them pull out quotes was a great way to have them use evidence from the text to support their statements/thoughts.

***I've been using a curriculum guide created by the amazing teachers at Curriculum Specialists blog.

3 Dimensional Atom Projects

                                            

Three dimensional atoms!! They turned out fabulous! One of my students even created a moveable atom. Their creativity never ceases to amaze me! 

My students chose an element they were interested in researching and created Element Wanted posters (I posted about this project yesterday). They used the same element and research to create their 3-D model. I love how all my kids tried and worked with the resources they had available to them. They turned these in last Friday and this coming week they will be presenting their atoms to the class. 

Analyzing Primary Source Documents: Close Reading

This is a short and to the point post! I know I've mentioned a few times how I love reading the novel Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson. I'm so excited that we get to use the novel as our main text and every student in my class received a copy of the book. This makes close reading so much easier! I love how the author included a primary resource at the beginning of each chapter. I've been able to incorporate those resources throughout language arts and social studies.

    

For this lesson, I had my students close read a particular primary source in the beginning of the novel. I had them pair share and discuss their thoughts and answers to the charted questions. Then they wrote their answers in their ELA notebooks. Since the beginning of the school year, I have gone over the importance of finding evidence within the text/passage to support their answers/thoughts. It was wonderful to see them doing this in their responses.

 

***I've been using a curriculum guide created by the amazing teachers at Curriculum Specialists blog.

A Year of Sundays: Collaborative Photo Project

Super excited to embark on not one, but two photography projects! This world of blogging has been amazing and I have met so many wonderful teachers. One of those teachers is Heather over at Loose Shoelaces. We both share a love for photography and all things vintage (she definitely has better style than me!)

Our first project is titled A Year of Sundays. Yes, that's right folks, I said a year! Every Sunday, we will have our cameras in tow and capture our lives on a typical Sunday. Basically capturing the beauty that surrounds our every day lives in a unique and creative way. We will create a diptych  each week with both our images. Heather's image will always be on the left and mine on the right. Over the course of the year, it will be pretty nifty to see of any similarities that may happen within our images (like this week, we both had outdoor photos).

I know the main focus of my blog is for teaching purposes, but I have three passions in life... teaching, traveling, and photography and sometimes it's just too difficult to separate them!

Our diptychs for last week and this week:

February 9, 2014

February 16, 2014