Keep Track of Your Classroom Library

If you could hear me through the computer monitor, you might want to cover your ears because I am having a hard time containing myself after finding this amazing website that allows you to scan your entire classroom library into the system using your phone and an app (you can also key in the books if you like) and lets your students check them in and out.  No more wondering where missing books are.

1. You simply sign up for a FREE membership here at Classroom Organizer

2. You add your books and students to the program.

3. Your students log into this page, and check in and out books.

4. Besides being able to keep track of your books, you can also print out reports about what books are checked out, the levels your students are reading, and more!  It just gives you another way to keep track of their reading progress.

I entered my boys' names to test it out and it was amazing!

The Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 3 - My Notes

I am participating in the book study at  We Read, We Blog, We Teach.

Chapter 3 What's the Difference?: Key Materials, Concepts, and Routines for Launching the Daily Five

This chapter is perfect right now because I am working on getting my routines and materials ready for the upcoming school year.  Elementary is going to require a lot more than 7th grade math did - and I am gearing up for it!

Establishing a Gathering Place
In this chapter, the Sisters describe the gathering place as "an open space large enough for the whole class to come together and sit on the floor" (p. 28).  


This was actually one of the things that I really missed from my student teaching days!  I loved the morning meetings we used to have, and I never could quite get that going in middle school because my room was so small and crammed with 37 students - there was no space!  With that in mind when I set up my classroom this year I know that I need:

• A large enough to accommodate us all.
• Be comfortable. 
• Have a place for creating anchor charts. I need to check out the school and see if I will have an easel of some sort, or if I need to buy one.                  

Ignore the dog fur :)

When I was student teaching, my lead teacher had a little stool that her father had made for her that she sat on.  It was the perfect height - just a bit above the students, but not really looking down on them.  I found this fabulous one at Wal-Mart of all places!  It even has a storage space inside of it.  I'm thinking of getting a few more for my students.

Good-Fit Books
We have all been there - watching a child struggle aimlessly in the library as the dreaded - "two minute warning" is called and they frantically grab at anything and often end up with a book that they either do not enjoy or that is just not the right fit.

In this chapter, the authors  introduce a model called I PICK.  Which stands for:

I choose a book
Purpose - Why do I want to read it?
Interest - Does it interest me?
Comprehend - Am I understanding what I am reading?
Know - I know most of the words

The Sisters use shoes as an analogy for picking a book that fits them - I am planning a Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians lesson that I think will fit well with this instead. The district I am moving to has been using The Daily 5 for several years now, and I think the students will all have heard this analogy already. I will post my lesson as I develop it if you would like to use it.

Setting Up Book Boxes
Now that the students have found good fit books, they need a place to store them.  I am still undecided about what to do for this.  When I was student teaching, each student had a drawer from one of those plastic sterilite drawers. 

They kept their books, notebooks, pencils, sticky notes, and anything else they might need inside and grabbed their box when it was time to go.

I haven't decided if I want to go with this route (which would probably take up little space) or the traditional magazine holders. 

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Anchor Charts
I love making anchor charts with students - they give them a great reminder of what they have already learned.  I have a small laser pointer (the cheap ones that they sell for under $3 at Wal-Mart near the register) that I use to point to a particular chart when I am working with a struggling student.  This reminds them to use these charts when they are stuck.

Short Intervals of Repeated Practice and Signals and Check-In
I believe that students need to practice, practice, practice!  The Sisters believe this as well and provide a ten step process for improving muscle memory. 

One thing that I would like to improve on this year is the check-in. I think it will hold the students more accountable for their independent work if they have to report back to the group how they spent their time, what they learned, what they struggled with, what strategies they used.

What has worked well for you?

Back To School iPad Giveaway from Teacher Created Resources

If you have been wanting an iPad as much as I have, you will want to enter this contest! Teacher Created Resources is giving away an iPad in honor of their newest app!  You can enter to win here.

The Daily 5 Chapter 2 - Book Study - My Notes

I am participating in the book study at  We Read, We Blog, We Teach.
Chapter two really focuses on the mind-shift that teachers need to make when they implement Daily 5 from managing their students to teaching their students how to manage their own reading thus forming principled habits.

The authors state that the key core foundations of Daily 5 are:
*Trusting students
*Providing choice
* Nurturing community
*Creating a sense of urgency
* Building stamina
*Staying out of students' way once routines are established

As I read this chapter the thoughts that came to my mind was how I sometimes don't trust students enough to make the right choices.  I have an urge to create schedules and checklists for the students to make sure that they are choosing each component often enough.

But, when I think about my own habits as a reader, I know that I don't set aside a twenty minute block of time each day devoted to reading, another twenty minutes for working on writing, another twenty for building my vocabulary.  My own habits might be spending 6 hours of the day engrossed in reading a book that I just can't put down, or maybe spending an hour writing a blog post.  I need to trust the students more- if they want to spend a Monday working on writing because they had an amazing adventure that weekend, I need to trust that they will spend Tuesday working on reading someone else's amazing story.

If the child is not developing good habits - such as they are only choosing read to partner because they want to goof around with their friend, that should be a teaching momement, where I ask the student, "Is this helping you to reach your goals as a reader?  What could you choose to do instead?"  I think allowing the student to have the ownership of their own habits will increase the likliehood that these will be lifelong habits rather than just 20 minute chunks of time that were directed by their teacher one year during their school careers.

Your thoughts?

July Currently Linky

Although I have been a long time stalker reader of Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade, this is the first time for me to participate in the Currently - which is super fun and I learned how to do something new with PowerPoint - woo hoo!  Thank you to The Teacher's Cauldron for the quick tutorial.  (If you don't know how to fill out the Currently, be sure to check it out).

If you want to play along, click on her button below and go link up!

New School...New Room...New Grade... New Decorations!

One of the things that really excites me about moving to elementary is the chance to be creative in decorating my classroom.  The chance to use a theme!  I was always afraid of really decorating my middle school room, and let me just tell you, it was a little bland.

Oh yeah, and the accordion sliding thing really gave me a lot to work with, let me tell you!  NOT!  I did make some feeble attempts to jazz things up with fun math posters like this:

But... really... my room was a bore.  So... this time it will be different, but I wanted to keep with some of the things that I had already purchased which were mostly green and blue because our school colors at my middle school were you guessed it- green and blue.  I wanted to tie something in to match these:

and of course this (my super romantic Valentine's Gift from hubby who totally gets his wife's sick obsession perfectly healthy concern for keeping things organized).

So... I was super excited to find the super amazing dots on black apple theme from Creative Teaching Press!  I think it will tie everything together beautifully, and is just tweeny enough to be cool for my third or fourth grade kiddos. 

Luckily hubs agreed (he's cool like that I told you!) and I ordered the set and it should be here by next week.

I even found this fabric from JoAnns that matches perfectly.  I can't wait to see how my classroom comes together!

The one thing that I have to keep in mind, how do you make sure that your cutsey decorating doesn't take away from the purpose of your teaching?  Any suggestions?







Corinna at Surfin' Through Second is having a linky party, so I'm linking up with her.

 

It's also Show Me Sunday Time from 3-6 Free Resources! And their theme this month is Classroom themes, so I am linking up there as well!

 

 

I would love to see your classroom themes, so link up as well!

The Daily 5 Chapter 1 - An Intoduction Book Study (My Notes)

When I did my student teaching, my lead teacher was just starting to implement Daily 5 and the CAFE, so my experience with it was very much learning along with her as she read and discovered.  It was really nice to have someone to talk to and bounce ideas off of as I was reading myself.  That is why I jumped at the opportunity to participate in the summer book study at  We Read, We Blog, We Teach.

The book study is a bit of a necessity for me because the district I am moving to REQUIRES that all teachers use Daily 5 - CAFE is optional, but highly suggested.  Since I have been teaching 7th grade math, I have had to dig out the big anyway to refresh myself.

The first thing I noticed when I pulled this book off of my shelf (besides the dust - shhhh!) were multi-colored tabs that I had placed in specific spots.  I can't remember what the color coding meant at the time, but if I remember I will let you know. I like the tabs though, because I can remember where things are - (I believe the orange stickies were for anchor charts to make.  I have been getting lots of inspirational ideas from Pinterest that I will share as I make them.

So.... onto Chapter 1: (Quotes from the books are in green - my takeaways are in red)

The book opened with a Regie Routman quote 

 "The typical teacher has children doing a lot of "stuff".  How is what I am having children do creating readers and writers?" 

This is really important for me to focus on and keep in sight.  Because I am moving from middle school down to elementary a big part of me is caught up in the "cuteness" factor of elementary.  I really need to keep in mind that although I may cutesy things up, my main focus must be on instruction and creating readers and writers.

P. 11 Has a chart that outlines the research base behind Daily 5 which is extensive.

The reason why the district I am moving to has adopted Daily 5 is because of the strong research base behind it.  I really love the headings on top of each of the components and am thinking about a way to share with my students to provide them with a "Real World" purpose for each of the elements.

I guess I am just a figure girl today, because I was also drawn to figure 1-4 on p.14 which outlines the Daily 5 Literacy Block.

During student teaching I felt like the area that could be most improved was our focus lessons -they seemed to lack, well focus to be honest with you.  I like the idea of focusing each mini-lesson on the topics listed.  For example, the first focus lesson of the day would be a comprehension lesson, the second would be a reading strategy, the third would be word work, the fourth would be writing, and the fifth and last would be a sharing author's sharing where we review the skills and strategies we worked on that day.

I am feeling a bit more confident after just re-reading the 1st chapter, and am excited to continue this journey. 





If you would also like to participate, the information is below:

Please check out the summer book study! 

(It is not too late to start)

http://www.wereadweblogweteach.com/

There is a calendar available to keep you on track at the blog: