Nothing new from me here today because I have been a busy bee posting on my classroom blog! Check it out and let me know what you think!
Do you have a classroom blog for parents and students????? Let me know how you use it!!!!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Writing Time Freebie
We are doing the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for our Writing Workshop this year. I have been teaching "Small Moments" and struggle with capturing these with 6 year-olds. As I was working with one of my smarties today, she said to me "Mrs. Faas! I have a bunch of small moment ideas in my head right now!" So of course I grabbed the post-it notes and began writing for her.
I have created the following for the children to keep in their writing folders! Let the ideas flow!
Halloween Fun?
I am going to grouch a little about the fact that we can't do any halloween activities or anything in our school. This is so sad as I see SO MANY CUTE halloween activities out there!!!!
GGGRRRR.....
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Time Out Tuesday
I was inspired by the folks over at
to do a little Time Out Tuesday for myself. I was sitting on my sunporch (an oddity for October in NY) and surfing the net, while watching my 9 year-old daughter read in one of the other chairs. We were being serenaded by the sound of my 11 year-old practicing his trumpet (he is really good so this was actually a good thing) and I was having a hard time making my mind stay still. You know that hum that we all get when we feel overwhelmed?
Well, I hopped over to Pinterest and found this picture......
......so I decided to sit and relax a while and give myself permission to NOT think about school for a little bit. This is not a picture from my deck or even my picture at all but I love this time of year. I know that not everyone gets to see the beautiful change of colors so "Happy Autumn from Western NY"
Friday, October 7, 2011
Holly Bloggy Christmas!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Tears
OK teacher friends, something happened to me today that has never happened to me before and I felt that I needed to blog about it.
First, I have to tell you about how my day started yesterday. We had a faculty meeting in the morning that was VERY stressful. The bottom line was that the teachers are expected to do a TON more work within the time frame that we still have. Do more with less. It is a stinky bottom line. It made the day yucky for all of us that got into teaching because we wanted to teach....the children.....not collect and interpret data.
Fast forward to today.
I have a little girl in my class who is an ELL (English Language Learner). She has been on my radar as a child that may need more assistance than simply ESL services. She has difficulty getting work started, likes to distract others and waits for adult help to get anything done. I have been having the ESL aide work with her at writing time when I am working with the other children simply to keep her on task.
Today, my aide got my attention and I went over to see what she and my student were doing. She showed me a writing paper with a beautiful illustration and neat, understandable sentences about how flowers are beautiful and how they need water to grow. I immediately made BIG DEAL about it and told her that I was SO PROUD of her. What happened next is what I was NOT prepared for.
The little girl cried.
Her table-mate looked concerned but said "Mrs. Faas, I think that she is so happy that she is crying!" When I asked her if that was true, she nodded.
She cried.
It led me to think........had she never been praised before?
She was ALL smiles ALL day and I got a big hug as she was walking to the bus.
After a crappy staff meeting yesterday when all we were told was we needed to collect MORE data with LESS resources and no extra time, I was able to end my day with a sweetheart that cried with pride.
THAT is why I became a teacher.
Bee the Change~
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Shocked and Proud!
Thanks to my blogging friend Debi at Just 4 Teachers and Barbara over at Grade Onederful have each honored me with awards this week.
THANK YOU SO MUCH LADIES!
I am working this weekend on building my lists of great blogs that I follow on the right side of my blog! I love them ALL! Go and check them out!!!!
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