Friday, January 24, 2014

Honest to blog...TGIF & Five for Friday!


I am happy to be linking up today with  Doodle Bugs Teaching especially since it means it is time for the weekend. I know my kids were in bed by 7pm tonight, my house looks like it was shaken upside down, and my eyelids are about to hit the floor! I don't know why I am so exhausted. We had Monday off, Tuesday school was 8:30-11:30 (due to snow), and Wednesday was a two-hour delay. We've had a busy, but fast, few days!

I couldn't be MORE excited to welcome the newest little Pinkadot! Robyn had (her second) baby girl today, Harper Elizabeth. She has the cutest little face I've ever seen. 


Welcome Harper! I hope the next three months fly by, so I can have Robyn back in school with me!!

One of my other bff's in school is also out. Liz had foot surgery and will be out of school recuperating for a little while. She is excited to join the blogging community. She is an absolutely amazing teacher with the kindest heart you've ever met. She leads our school's "Be Kind" program, which I'm sure she will blog about soon. She is super smart and always willing to try something new! I'd love for you to check out her blog and give her a warm welcome!

http://thegratefulteacher5.blogspot.com/

My FIRST time receiving flowers at work! Someone was grateful for me and they made my day! I've never received flowers at school before and KNEW they weren't from my husband. hahaha

 We worked really hard on narratives this week. We continued using my short one page stories to edit and revise with as practice and boy did they work! The writing stamina not only improved in my classroom, but also the students are now writing with confidence! I LOVE seeing my students excited to write. That excitement is now with almost all of my students. They loved hearing the original story, revising it to make it their own, and sharing their finished work. It turned into almost a contest to see which student had the best rewritten piece of work. This is one of my favorite stories, from today. The girl even made the puppy learn a lesson in the end!


I also added five more, one page, stories into this product! My students wanted more, so it now contains 10! Check it out by clicking on the product below!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Revise-the-Story-TEN-one-page-stories-for-revisions-figurative-language-1072175


 
I'm saving the most exciting news for last! My Donors Choose Project was funded!!!! I received a class set of electronic spellers this week!!! Do you know how awesome this was? It was like Christmas for each student in the classroom. We ripped the packages open and put them to use, right away. We had table war races to see which table could spell the hardest words, the fastest, we practiced on our ten minute quick writes, and we practiced with partners. It is safe to say, my students now know how to use their new tool very well. I was sad to see that I must have requested the wrong product because I wanted spelling/dictionary/thesaurus....but these are just word checkers.



I was so excited to see the students taking the initiative to revise their work with the spell checkers and colored pens. I think all the hard work I've been doing to encourage students to take a look back at their work instead of calling it "done"... is working.

Have an enjoyable weekend friends! 

4 comments:

  1. I am worn out this week too! I only had students Wednesday through Friday, but it felt like an extra long week. Congrats on your Donors Choose project being funded. Isn't that the best feeling? I hope you get some rest this weekend!!! :)
    Alison
    Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'

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  2. Ohh!!! What exactly was your project? I would love to try and get some!

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  3. Sounds like you had a really great week! I'm hearing so much about teachers and their success on Donors Choose. I really need to investigate!

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  4. Why is it that weeks we have delayed openings or days off are the WORST, LOOOONG weeks? I think it's because we try to pack in all we missed with fewer hours and because we are superhuman-teachers we think we can do it-----HA! This has been a tiring week for me too! I enjoyed your post today- thanks for sharing!

    Carol
    Teachers Are Terrific!

    PS I am trying Donors Choose soon! I need more microscopes for my lab!

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