It really feels like the Fast Lane

It is midnight of our last night of the debate. This class, my own class of 28, and my kids's activities have had me running so much that I think I passed myself! I am truly looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, enjoying the weekend with my girls, and then resting during Christmas break. I wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a wonderful New Year!

It was JUST as expected :)

This blog is in follow up to Amy's request to know how the Math lesson turned out. My gut instinct in taking the time for the kids to build "boxes" with the cubes by giving them various dimensions paid off. We began taking those boxes we made and then drew "plans" on centimeter grid paper. After practicing that for awhile the students were then able to do this on their own with a given set of dimensions. WOW. This went MUCH more smoothly than in years past. I think I could re-write our math book. Or at LEAST give them some tips that actually work in the classroom!!!!
Not really, but it was a very proud teaching moment.

Math Stuff...

It was a WONDERFUL teaching day. I've gone a little away from our Math Investigations program and tweaked it to fit my students needs more. Introducing Volume: We are supposed to spend 5 minutes with interlocking cubes and building different sized "boxes". Instead we spent a great DEAL of time doing this so the kids could really SEE that Volume is length x width x height. I think this way will have them prepared tomorrow when we have to build boxes based on measurements using centimeter paper. Crossing fingers...

Mission Complete

My students FINALLY presented their final project to our Native American Unit. We have used websites to research and made power point presentations to share with the class what they learned about their chosen tribe. My students also had a family project to do. They created a shelter that their tribe used, using things found in nature to build it and also had to incorporate artifacts we would find. The families LOVED this project.

The only down side to this is that it took MUCH longer to get through this project than it has in the past because I incorporated the Powerpoints. We just have such a limited access to technology it's difficult to research much less put a powerpoint together.

Overall, I will use this again next year!

Happy Turkey Day/Black Friday!

It certainly was nice to have a two day work week. We worked hard on a few more stories that will be published next week. Now I REALLY need to work on geometry.

On the homefront we had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving and I shopped till I dropped starting at 3:30 on Black Friday. I need a couple of days to recover from that. However, my Christmas shopping is finished and I can have a stress free couple of weeks. Hahaha.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving :)

Full Week :)

The Coyote Connection is exploding! All it took was a published piece and now the students cannot WAIT for their turn. We have more up since I last blogged and the feedback has been wonderful.

This last Friday, we went to The Nutcracker Ballet. I'm really proud of my students and how well behaved they were. The boys loved the battle between the soldiers and the mice, of course.

As far as my chatty class, I'm REALLY tightening up on them. I'm continually telling them my expectations and holding those that aren't following directions accountable. I'm hoping this isn't a year long thing, BUT...we are in November.

All of my Nutcraker pictures are on my computer at school. I'll post them this week.

Diving In

Well I have set up the website page that our class newspaper will be on. We've named it the Coyote Connection . I thought I'd put the link here so you can watch the SLOW progress we are making. It truly is a work in progress. I'm hoping after the students get their first articles up that it will run more smoothly. On that class newspaper there is also a link to our class website. I'm pretty proud of myself that I have it up and running. A year ago, I would have been too scared to do it.

Fun Day :)

We had a Chiefs player come to talk about character traits with our students. They LOVED it! I'm on a mission to turn my students into journalists. I have to be honest, my teaching writing skills are just not that great. We're wrapping up our huge D.A.R.E. essay and now I want to teach news reporting. Just the facts: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. I sent out my first reporters today and hope to have them podcasting and putting it up on my school webpage. I already have a couple wanting to interview our principal and a couple wanting to report on our field trip to The Nutcracker. I think I've finally given my students a purpose for writing. Hope it WORKS :)

Power Teaching

Power Teaching is something that I've dabbled in the past two years. It's classroom managment during instruction and how to engage students. I've done some picking and choosing from what I like about it and are using the "Class - Yes", "Teach - Okay", "Hands and Eyes". At the beginning of the year I introduce the Yada Yada Voice Meter and think since this class is so noisy, I need to return to practicing it. I might even utilize the scoreboard. It's funny how each class has different dynamics and that some things that have always worked just don't with other classes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTwjFHorQhk&feature=related

TGIF

I think I'm going to BLOG about teaching strategies and reflect on my own chatty class of 27 5th graders. Also, I think I'm going to focus on upcoming units that I want to incorporate more technology with.

This week was a rough one. Just when I think I have classroom management down and procedures in place, I get knocked down a few notches. This class is a REALLY chatty group. In talking with our BIST consultant, I had to think about the basics again. What are my expectations and practice it all once again (since my students seem to have short term memory loss).

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this group. They are the first group I have had in awhile that are truly innocent and childlike. Since I'm in a Title I school of 95% free and reduced lunch, I don't have many kids in my class that DO NOT have issues and there are a few I'd love to adopt and bring home with me.

Grandma's Birthday!

Monday was Grandma's 89th Birthday :) Since I lost a grandma last year, my time with this grandma is even more special. I love her :)

Happy Halloween!

Looking at my last post, it's been quite awhile since I've posted. This doesn't surprise me since growing up I never was good at keeping a diary. Last Sunday was a night for spooks and I took Kailey out Trick Or Treating. She made a very good witch. Emily is too cool to hang out with mom and was a fairy with her friend and ran the streets. Ramsey is enjoying (too much) being out of high school and Brittany is in the real world and had to work. She was able to come home in time for a few house calls with Kailey.

My Monster :)

Here is what I think it should look like.  Susan

Janine's Monster by Lisa

Monster in the Closet!

The child opened his mouth to scream but no sound would come. "Run! Run!" he shouted in his mind, but his legs would not take him from this living nightmare. He raised his head to look at this creature square in the eye. Looking back at him with one, yellow blood-shot eye was the most hideous thing he could have ever dreamed up. The heavy breath smelled of burning tire rubber and a greenish glob of goo fell from its mouth and plopped to the floor nearly landing on the poor boy still unable to move a muscle. The boy blinked his eyes as if trying to wake himself up or in utter disbelief of what he was witnessing. There before him stood the massive beast that took up the entire walk-in closet. It was hunched over and yet its head still brushed the ceiling. The fur was matted and tangled which covered its body adding to the beast's size and fierceness. The boy could have sworn the creature was a hint of purple. "What a strange pretty color for such a frightening beast," the boy thought and then almost laughed at himself for thinking such thoughts as he was most likely about to get eaten. The creature grimaced at him as if it read the boy's mind and showed off its razor sharp teeth and extended its enormous bat-like wings. As the creature bent down to sniff the boy, its one crooked horn that was sitting right on top of its long, hairy snout barely brushed up against his right cheek. He shuddered at being this close. The creature blew a puff of air through its nose that caused the hair to stand up on the now near catatonic child's neck. At any moment he was half expecting to get cooked by flames, although he didn't know if this was a fire breathing dragon or not. "It didn't look like any dragon in the picture books but what else could have wings, sharp teeth and nasty smelling breath," he asked himself. The creature then sat back on its hind legs. "What is it going to do?" the boy trembled in terror. It then lifted its back leg and scratched its head like a cat. It was at that moment the boy was able to get a good look at the pointed claws that could slice him in half with one swipe. He was doomed to some deathly fate he was sure.

It's been a long time!

I knew I'd have trouble keeping up with blogging. Too much other things to do and not enough time in the day! Ramsey's graduation party was a success :) He had many friends and family show up. Prom was also a fun time for him so we're winding down his Senior year. The big day is May 30th and I'm sure I'll shed a tear or two.