First week down...

The first week always passes by in a bit of a blur and for some reason I always forget that.  I showed up on the Tuesday morning to all my furniture moved back into the room.  I'd completely forgotten about all the little things that I usually do leading up to the first day.  I'm totally behind this year.
By the end of this week, I managed to create piles around the classroom of stuff that I wanted to get rid of.  That's about all.  I will be spending the better part of my weekend in my classroom.  I need to get the physical space cleaned up before I can work on any of the planning etc for this year.

I am really lucky again this year, as I have a straight grade 2 class instead of a split.  Yes, I do have 23 students and many of the students have needs (3 are identified) but I have 2 EAs in the room with me.  That will really help.

This week, I had my class for the whole week and it was busy!  I feel like I am perpetually catching up.  I remember thinking I would try out a couple of new systems in my class this year, but I'm trying to catch my breath as it is.  We'll see.  At least all the basics are covered for now.  

The Countdown is on

I have been thinking a little more about school these days, even though we don't start until September.  It must be all the American blogs I follow that are talking about heading back soon.  Anyway, I've been looking at a few things for the new year including Daily 5 and Guided Math.  I think I am going to implement both of these this year.  I've been doing some bits and pieces of both, but really like what I've been reading about them in the resources and want to go a little further. 

I have been feeling like the countdown has already started because we are heading on a trip and will not be back until right before school starts, (think 2 days!!) and what ever didn't get done to this point will have to wait until September.  I have found some new organizational things for my room and will also be putting together a TOC binder.  I used to have one and got out of the habit of it, but realize that I've missed it.  I bought one from here  before my friend Angela at Fun in Fourth created hers, but you should check it out, especially if you are in BC, she's used all the Canadian lingo so it's print and use!  Regardless of which one you use, having a TOC binder or a Sub binder is a great way to keep all the info in one place and have emergency plans ready to go.  I had a couple of emergency leaves last year and it was not fun having to plan the days at home.  This year it'll all be ready, just in case. 

This September will be a busy one especially with all the reorganizing that I'm going to have to do to get the two new programs up and running in my room.  We'll have to see how that goes.  My little DIY projects were mostly successful, at least the filing cabinet was. The chalk board is black and looks better, but not very magnetic.  Not sure what I'll do about that one.

Good bye this year, hello next year!

Well is has finally happened, the end of school.  I was ready, the kids were ready, the parents very ready.  Even as the year was coming to an end, I was already thinking about next year. 
I am saying good bye to the frog theme that I have had for 3 years and saying hello to owls.  Before the end of school, I had already placed my order with Scholar's Choice for the Owl Stars products.  It wasn't only pretty products that I was thinking about though.  I also started thinking about what worked and what didn't.

Next year I will be doing Guided Math more.  I am going to use some time this summer to read this resource and create a work station board, much like the one I have for Guided Reading.  The small group approach is one I am comfortable with and think the students get more out of.  I think that for next year's group it will be especially helpful.

Another thing that I've been thinking about is class set up and the look of the classroom.  Summer is always a good time for me to be looking at changes, because quite honestly, once I get into the school year the curriculum is what is front and centre for me.  I think the basic furniture set up with stay the same, but there are some things that I need to look at.  Word wall is one of them.  I know what the literature says, but with the kids in my class having word books in their desks, they don't use the word walls at all.  I tried a math word wall this year, putting up the words as we worked through different units of math.  I would draw their attention to it, but I never had a student refer to it on their own.  It might go away this year.  Maybe a math dictionary?  I do want to incorporate more writing in their math journals.  We used them for problem solving mostly this year. 

I am doing a little DIY in the classroom this year which will help give it a little face lift.  I'm always a little jealous of the rooms I see in different blogs I follow.  They go in and paint walls and cupboards etc.  I'd be shot if I did something like that here.  Very strict rules about encroaching on union jobs (even though the stuff I want done will never make it onto their never ending list), and there is always some excuse from maintenance about why we can't add a coat of paint.  I don't like ugly, no one does!

Because we are getting back from holiday 2 days before school starts, I want to go next week and do some purging and planning.  As I was emptying my filing cabinet, I found files that I haven't looked at since my practicum!  Yikes!  I also want to get some boards done so the room doesn't look so empty when we get back. Currently it looks like this:

Is it really June?

May went by in a blur.   A blur of bad weather that is.  I like to do a kite unit in May, but the weather was so awful that I abandoned that idea and turned to another idea.  The Honeybee.
We have been very busy in class learning about the honeybee.  The kids were so excited and drove their parents crazy with facts about bees every night.  As we learned something new about bees and their hive, I added something to the display board.  Every morning, the kids would come in to check out the display and talk about the changes.  It was awesome.  The biggest hit were the dead bees.  I went to Rose Prairie Honey and got a small jar of dead bees so the kids could look at them up close.  When I got there, he'd just opened a hive and had transferred some bees into his observation hive.  There were hundreds of upset bees flying around, slightly sedated
from the smoke.  Did I mention that I have a very big fear of bees?  That I had a childhood allergy?  After the initial adrenaline rush, I calmed down enough to really watch the bees.  It's a very fascinating society.  I learned as much as the kids did about bees.  At the end of the unit, I had the bee keeper come in to do a presentation in our class.  This unit prompted me to do research into the decline of bees and what can be done to help get their numbers back up.  I'm still trying to get Chris to agree to a hive in the back yard.

We also had Paul Hann visit our school right after the long weekend.   I'd heard about him before, but never had the experience of working with him.  The kids learned 2 songs with him.  One that he'd already written and one that he wrote with us on a predetermined theme.  The theme we picked was keeping our hands to ourselves.  We are currently working on PBS a lot at our school, so our AO wanted to keep in line with topics to do with that.  Chris and I were having a hard time with some of our kids keeping their hands off of each other and  bugging each other so that's what we chose.  It was hard, and mostly the song was written by Chris, Paul and I.  We had many laughs and I know I enjoyed the process much more than I thought I would.

As well as trying to keep the kids' focus and juggling all the extra special days we've been having, assessments have been happening as well.  I call them check-ups in my room rather than tests or assessments.  We've been talking about them as check-ups all year, so the kids know that I am interested in what they know, no pressure.  I tell them it helps my teaching and tells me what I need to know about their learning.  They also get a kick about all the "homework" it generates for me. 

Right now, it's the home stretch.  We have a field trip to town planned, a district track meet and a fun day all coming up.   Our class has 14 days of in-class time left and I find kids are missing randomly more and more.  I had 5 away on Monday!  With the sun being up so much longer now (11pm is still a little light)  parents around here are ready to be done with school too.  Kids are going to bed later and later and plans are in the works for vacations.  It's hard to keep anyone's focus these days. 

Identity Day 2013

Identity Day has come and gone this week and it went well.  I didn't feel the buzz and excitement like I did last year, but I think that was partly due to the chosen date.  The staff decided to hold it on the 8th of April, a Monday and a week after a 2 week break in school.  I heard from parents that said they didn't do it over the break because it was their time and they didn't want to be doing homework.  I heard from others that said they'd forgotten about it.  We also had about 20 kids that didn't take part because the didn't want to, and the grade 8's also did not join in. 
There were many poster style projects that came in, a couple of demonstrations and the grade 7 class made mini movies about their topic.  The students, especially the younger ones loved going from class to class to see the big kids and what topics were chosen.  One project that stood out for me was one about Paleontology.  That's what the student wants to be later in life and had a nice display of fossils that he's acquired.
Over all, the went fairly smoothly and the kids had a good time.  We will be taking a year off next year, as the staff felt it would be better to do it every other year.

iPad in the classroom

I was very fortunate to have an iPad assigned to my room for supplementing learning.  I was really excited about the opportunity, but when it actually arrived I started to really think about it.
The positives include all the great apps that are out there, the technology will draw kids in and "hook" them, it will give kids that would never have the chance to use this type of device a chance to do so.  There are more of course, but these were the ones that came to my mind right away.
The not so positives are that there is only one device for 20 kids, it is a new to our room, with it's own set of routines and it is April (my year is almost over), the kids that could use the assistive technology tend to hyper-focus on fun things, and this could be a problem integrating the iPad into their programs at this late date.
The bottom line is that I am trying to find apps that will support learning so that work happens on this new device and integrate it into my classroom in a way that everyone gets to use it for something valuable.  I just don't know if I have enough time until the end of the year to make it work.  My EA is also concerned that the kids she works with won't be able to share and that raises a bunch of other issues for her.
I love the idea of putting technology into kids hands.  I believe that by the time they are my age technology will just be life for them, a natural thing, like breathing.  Now is the time to start getting them ready.

Any thoughts?

Math Centres

I'd been wanting to write about this for awhile, but it kept getting put on the back burner.  As I talked about before, I use centres for Math and Literacy in my classroom to reinforce concepts and allow me some time to work with small groups.  I wanted to talk about the math centres that I'm using right now.
I have been using a book called Math Tubs, by Creative Teaching Press.  It has little lessons on math concepts, but more importantly, has activities that you put together for centres.  There are four different activities for each concept that reinforce the lessons that they have.  I will sometimes leave the lessons for a TOC, as there is little prep, and very well written.  The activities come with an instruction card and an accountability sheet for the students which I include in the shoebox.  Each shoebox contains 4 pencils, the instructions, recording papers and any materials need for that activity.  When they finish the center, it goes back on the shelf and they choose another one, or move to another group that has space.  There are 4 people in each group so they are free to move around to different activities where there is room.

Routines

Spring Break has come and gone and I am now looking at the calendar wondering how I'm going to fit in all that curriculum that I have left.   I was glad to get back to work after the 2 week break and I was even more glad that I have strong routines in place in my classroom that help the kids come back too.  Having and EA in the room is good as she can let me know what really goes on when I leave, but the kids could run the classroom by themselves it seems.  They know exactly what to do and where things go and usually TOC's are amazed.  I also feel a little sorry for the teacher too, as some of my kids are sticklers for routine, and will correct the TOC if they are not following the "rules". 
Having group leaders collect and hand things out, making sure supplies have a home and having a schedule on the board everyday are just some of the things that make our lives easier in the classroom.

Changes

The time after Christmas flew by and here we are almost into March!  We have been busy in the classroom.  I got a new student with pFASD, which was a new situation for me and another that has been identified with pFASD as well as ADHD, so I have been doing lots of research and reading as well as doing evaluations of my classroom and teaching style.  It's hard when you have to take a really hard look at yourself and what you do.  I was pleased when I had to make very few tweaks to my routines and style, especially when we are already so far into the year.  A resource that I have found really helpful has been POPFASD.  They have some good videos and articles that help explain FASD and tips of what can help in the classroom.
With these two students I am able to have an EA in my room for the first time.  I have had her for only a week, but already I can tell we are a good fit and having her around has already made a big difference.  The kids that need the constant attention and prompting are getting it and I can see all those kids that I don't usually get to on a regular basis.  I know that I try really hard to get to those "middle of the road" kids that don't need a lot of help and follow all the routines, but realistically, it's impossible when 4 or 5 kids are in constant need of attention and/or assistance.  There's one of me and 20 of them, and it can be difficult.  Now I feel like I have a chance.