Five for Friday on Saturday - A Hurricane, a Show, Mom, and Some Math

I'm sitting on the couch still in my pajamas on this rain-soaked Saturday. In Charlotte, we're just seeing the peripheral effects of Hurricane Matthew. That's not the case for my friends and family in Florida. Here are a few pictures of what they've been dealing with. Thankfully, everyone was able to evacuate or lived far enough away from the coast to avoid the storm surge. No one I know was hurt. Too bad I can't say the same for my niece's house. She lives near the beach and her home was flooded. Much of the roof is gone. They're still assessing the damage. My nephew has roof damage, too and they've lost part of their fence.  So thankful it wasn't worse. Houses and things can be fixed or replaced. Lives can't.

Photo by Jerrad Hillis

Photo by Jerrad Hillis

My niece's house sustained a lot of damage from the high winds and flood waters. Thankfully, the family had evacuated by the time the storm hit. 

Photo by Jerrad Hillis

Photo by Cassandra Bailey

Photo by Cassandra Bailey

Photo by Cassandra Bailey

Photo by Cassandra Bailey

Photo by Cassandra Bailey

Photo by Cassandra Bailey

On Tuesday, my friend Patty and I went to see a great new show at the Booth Theater. We were excited to have our seats upgraded to directly in front of the stage. The show, First Date, was hilarious and showcased the challenges of modern dating life.

Patty and I used to work at the same school and I miss my teacher BFF. Thankfully, we are able to get together on a regular basis through the Teacher's Lounge receptions and shows hosted by the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.

One of Mom's rose bushes is in bloom. Such a nice fall surprise. It made me miss her, of course, but also brought back some nice memories. She loved yellow roses and always got such a kick out of seeing them bloom. Sometimes when I see a yellow rose bloom, it feels like she paid me a visit. 

Math Workshop is getting closer to full operation. The students are working well together and they love playing the games. I asked the kids what was going well in our small groups and one of them said, "We were all collaborating and having fun." 

Mission accomplished. :)

Just in case I think things are going too well, I always get a reality check when I give assessments. 

After days of talking about word form, standard form, place value, and expanded form...

After days of writing today's number in different ways...

After days of talking about different ways to write or show a number...

This is what I get. 

Face. Palm. 

I couldn't help but laugh.

To be fair, they do look different. 

On that note, this concludes my Five for Friday (Saturday edition). Thanks to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting!

I hope everyone who was or is in the path of Hurricane Matthew is safe and well. Hug your loved ones close and be grateful for what you have.

Until next time, 

My Classroom...Perfection Not Required

Did you ever wonder why teaching is the only profession where you have to take down and set up your "office" every year? How in the world do other buildings get cleaned without taking everything off the walls, boxing up all the materials, and stacking the furniture against a wall? Hmmm.

Mind-boggling, huh?

Now that school has started and the annual tradition of moving in and redecorating my classroom is complete, I thought I'd share a few pictures to show how it turned out. Keep in mind that my classroom is never "finished," nor is it Pinterest-perfect. The walls look very bare right now, but that's on purpose. My students and I will be adding purposeful decorations such as Anchor Charts and student work throughout the year. Until it's time to take it all down and pack it away again, that is. :)

***Note: I confess to shelving this blog post for awhile. Despite wanting to send a message that our rooms don't have to be "Pinterest-perfect", seeing all the gorgeous classroom pictures all over IG and FB left me feeling a little intimidated. I do like my classroom, though, so I wanted you all to see it. Besides, it's still September -- that qualifies as the beginning of the year, doesn't it? lol

My Math Center

 My Classroom Library and Reading Center

My Social Studies Center

My Word Wall

My Mailboxes and Cubbies

My Classroom

The bare walls are on purpose - My students and I create the anchor charts and produce the work that covers them the rest of the year.

Five for Fraturday...Week 1 is Done!

I made it through the first week of school and I'm exhausted! So, so, so grateful for the three day weekend! 

I'm getting ready to root on my Florida Gators against the UMass Minutemen tonight. Go GATORS!!!

I love my class!  They are such a great group of kids. I introduced buddy reading and it was so fun walking around the room listening to them read and discuss books. I almost felt like it was November and routines had been established for weeks. Our first-grade teachers did such a wonderful job with them!

I'm getting my Math Workshop/Guided Math started by giving my students time to explore various Math Tools. They had a fabulous time and we were able to establish guidelines for using the tools during Math Workshop.

I introduced "Give 1, Get 1" this week. It's a great game that works a little like musical chairs.  This game can be used with any subject. I tend to use it as a math warm-up.

To start, students write what they know about a concept in their journals. I used Today's Number to get this started. I asked students to write the number 12 in their journals and then draw or write 3 ways to show (represent) that number. I modeled an example of a picture, an equation, and words on the whiteboard. 

After giving students time to show what they know, I asked students to stand, hug their math journals and pencils to their chests and push in their chairs. When I start the music, students walk around the room with their journals. When the music stops, they freeze and find the person who is closest to them. 

Once all students are partnered up, one student gives his/her partner one way to show 12. Then that student gets an idea from his/her partner. Both partners record one new way to show 12 in the journal. 

When partners are finished, they hug the journals to their chests again. I start the music once everyone is ready. Then they repeat the process. I usually do three rounds. After the third round, the next time the music plays, students come to the carpet ready to share what they got. 

Here are some of the ways that students showed the number 12. 

The first week for me is all about establishing our classroom community. We worked on Our Class Promise throughout the week. Here's the rough draft. I'll share the finished product in next week's Five for Friday. You can read more about creating a class promise in this blog post.

That's it for this week. Thanks, Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting the linky. I hope everyone enjoys their three day weekend!

Five for Fraturday - (Not Quite) Ready for a New School Year

Ready or not, here it is! Summer's over and on Monday, I'll greet 21 (or more) freshly minted second graders. This is my 20th school year and I've never yet felt "ready" to begin the year. Such is the nature of teaching. There is always way more to do than I have time to do (no matter how early I start or how many hours I work). After beginning several years feeling anxiety over not being ready, I've found a comfort in making sure I'm "ready enough." 

With that being said, here's this week's Five for Friday...well, since it's Saturday, we'll go with Five for Fraturday. Thank you, Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting!

Tuesday is the day our district sets aside for in-service opportunities. I signed up for a great one by REAL School Gardens. The half-day workshop focused on using school gardens as an outdoor classroom to teach literacy, math, and science (and some social studies, too). The program sounds great and my colleagues and I will be talking with our principal about getting started at our school. Here are some photos I took during the workshop.

We were invited to explore and discuss bees (dead ones, of course) at our tables. The presenters then threw out several questions and interesting facts about bees.  Did you know they have hair all over their bodies? Even on their eyeballs! Wouldn't second graders love this activity?

We were encouraged to think about what and how we would teach in each part of the garden. Wouldn't this be a great spot to encourage writing about peace?

• Persuasive writing during the planning stage: Why should we have a peace garden? 
• How-to writing during the implementation: How to plant a garden.
• Poetry writing: What does peace mean to you?
• Informational writing: Who was Muhammad Ali?

How else could we use something like this to encourage authentic writing?

The curriculum is structured using the 5 E Model of Instruction. All the activities we explored were based on this model. This is exactly how I love to teach!

The garden was divided into different geographic areas. I love knowing that children are learning about where different plants come from. I can also see doing some lessons on invasive plants. Students could study why some species, like Kudzu, are harmful to native plants.

Do you have a school garden? How do you use it?

On Wednesday, we had a school-based in-service to learn about teaching children who have experienced trauma. Here's a quote that really stuck with me. Sometimes, we punish the behavior without addressing the cause of it.

It was a scramble getting my room ready for our Open House on Thursday. I kept reminding myself that no one would notice the things that weren't done. I worked on getting "ready enough." 

I'll share more pictures of my room later this week, but here's a shot of my math center. I haven't put the header up for my math word wall and there are a few more math tools to put away, but I think it looks pretty good so far.

Books, books, and more books. These somehow made their way onto my front porch this summer.  I have a problem, I know. But don't they look wonderful?!

I don't have a picture for this one. I know some of you are already well into the school year, some, like me, will be starting on Monday, and some are getting ready to start after Labor Day. No matter what stage you're in, I hope all of you have the 

#bestschoolyearever!

Until next time,