I see you, I hear you, I'm praying for you

 

To say things are challenging is an understatement.

Maybe you're going through a debilitating health challenge, and you're whispering between the tears, "please God, help me."

Maybe you're going through a financial difficulty, you're drowning in bills, life is too expensive, and you need to buy a new stove with money that doesn't exist.

Perhaps you're managing your finances and health by the thinnest of hairs, but your job is toxic and draining, and you don't have options right now.

There's a family situation that feels impossible right now.  Sleepless nights, endless fights, responsibility for a sick loved one, children who need extra support and guidance.

You go on social media to distract and forget yourself, and yet, you feel worse because either people are living their best lives or there's someone who is dealing with a more horrible situation than you. Guilt and jealousy compound your situation.

Let's not even touch national and world events: apocalyptic wars, natural disasters, pain, suffering, and injustice.

At the end of each day, you ask yourself, "how did I get through today?" 

At night, you force yourself to pray.  Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner.

You try to find something to be grateful for.

You ask God to lighten your load, to grant you the strength to endure, to enlighten your darkness.

And then you wait.  You hope.  You want your suffering to have meaning.

I see you.  I hear you.  I'm praying that merciful Lord envelops you in His love.

Please DM me @workshopclassroom if you would like me to pray for you.

Laying the foundation from the start

Laying a strong foundation for your classroom culture, whether you're a homeroom teacher, a specialist, or an interventionist, is a significant task.  No matter how long you've been teaching, you definitely map out those first few weeks of school to cover your expectations, procedures, and the ethos.  All your read alouds, morning meetings, and activities revolve around building this important foundation so that the school year can run more smoothly.

1. Simple guidelines with specific acceptable behaviors

For my students in grades 3-5, I begin with the foundational classroom culture statement: I want everyone to grow and succeed.  Which means we need to agree on certain expectations so that all learners have the opportunity to reach their goals.  This leads to the presentation of 4 simple guidelines: 

• Be respectful to the teachers, your classmates, and the school.
• Be responsible for your learning and your decisions.
• Use kind and polite words and actions.
• Make safe choices.

Not the Summer Slide, but Summer of Growth

Ah, summer time.  Most teachers feel like this:

But many families may have mixed feelings about the long summer days.

They're grateful for the break from school, but they may have some wonderings:  what do the kids do with so much unstructured time?  Will my child maintain what he learned over the past school year or will he regress? 

Learners with Dyslexia & their Mental Health

I *love* that during that Dyslexia Awareness Month, reading teachers and organizations highlight important teaching tips, statistics, and research regarding this language-based specific learning disability and its impact on learners.  Many of us who work with struggling readers also notice the need to address their social-emotional needs as part of our instructional strategy.  So then I wondered:  what does the research say about the mental health of learners with dyslexia?

New Year's Resolutions: Definition + Example -- Create!

How do you get your students excited and hopeful for the New Year?  By giving them something to look forward to.  And there's nothing better than being able to picture a better version of yourself in the future!

It seems to be a natural rhythm of life that when we begin a new year, we want to grow, become better, or improve from previous years.  And we pass this onto our children.  So how do we deconstruct the New Year's Resolution for our students?

SEL Daily Check-In: Quick, Efficient, Informative

As I map out the procedures in my small groups this year, one of the first things I will teach my students is how to check in with me.  Pre-COVID, I would always do an informal, "how are you?" or "tell me about your weekend."  However, during and after the pandemic, doing a social-emotional check-in became imperative.  It was important for me to know my students' mindset when coming to my small group, as well as connect with them positively at the beginning of our lesson.  But I only have a short time frame for my intervention lesson, so I needed something quick and efficient, yet meaningful.

Boom -- the daily check-in sheet was born.  And not only did it make my day easier, more importantly, the students couldn't wait to check in with me. 💝

Some more thoughts on doing a daily SEL check-in with your students:

Scaffold & Support: Making Inferences Anchor Charts

Are some of your students plateauing in the area of reading comprehension? They can give you a basic re-tell, but when it comes to developing ideas about the character or determining the author's lesson, they're struggling. How can we best support students in making good inferences?

Just like any phonics structured literacy lesson, we’re not leaving it up to chance: direct, explicit teacher modeling. Show students exactly how you figured out your new idea. And then provide students with many, many opportunities to practice with constructive feedback.

Let’s break down the process of making an inference:

Integrating Growth Mindset Throughout Our Instructional Day

Growth mindset is one of my favorite things that has come out in recent years, along with the science of reading.   I have a firm belief that if we use best teaching practices and support our students' development of grit and fortitude, they will become very resilient readers.

As teachers, we traditionally talk about it in the beginning of the school year or in January for New Year's Resolutions.  We create goals, we post them, and maybe at the end of the year, we'll evaluate our progression towards achieving them.  That's a good start . . . but our students need more.

In order to really develop a growth mindset, it needs to be ingrained in all our directions, instruction, conversations, and activities.  And it can be done without heaping more work our over-burdened selves.

Character Feelings Lists by Categories: Using Precise Language

Character feelings lessons begin in kindergarten and end in . . . well, we still talk about our feelings as adults, right?  Teachers are pros at experiencing a wide range of feelings, LOL. 😬

As students are developing their vocabulary banks, it's easy for them to just use words within their comfort zone:  happy, mad, sad, and scared.  Our jobs are to help them grow their vocabulary and use precise language.  What better way to scaffold the process than with some organized lists!

Assessing Elementary Readers Digitally: Thoughts & Questions

It's been awhile, friends.  I hope that this blog post finds you well!  Or at least persevering through the challenges.  Because there are plenty of them.

I could make lots of excuses of why I haven't been writing on this blog.  Eventually I'll write a blog post about some of my personal challenges, taking a deep dive into the importance of healing.  (I would love it if you followed me on Instagram...my *favorite* social media platform.)  Nonetheless, I'm here now, and I've got some deep thoughts about assessing children's reading via purely digital methods.

Back to School: Teaching is a Work of Heart

So, it's back to school season.  And I remember writing a post a few years ago about setting up my classroom, and I was secretly so proud of myself for having matching caddies and baskets for each table color.  I was impressed that I copied another colleague and used clothespins to hang up student work to save myself time when I need to change their work.  I even printed out my own signs.  On white cardstock.  I felt so cool with my classroom set up skills I was practically high-fiving myself creating the blog post.

Fast forward to 2017, and things have changed in the classroom set up department.  With the explosion of Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, teachers are taking this classroom set up thing to a whole new level.  I mean, I think Chip and Joanna Gaines should be inviting some of these talented educators onto their show to help them out with fixing up some houses.  I'm simply amazed and inspired by all you teachers out there who are decorating and color-coordinating champs.  I'm pinning your ideas, drooling over your pictures on Instagram, and following you on Facebook and Teachers Pay Teachers.  I know I am a better teacher because of you.

However...

Teacher Appreciation, Inspiration, and Motivation

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Day 2017, I've collected some great quotes to keep us teachers inspired and motivated to persevere through this profession's challenges and society's misconceptions of us. 

Alexander the Great basically says his greatness comes from his teacher, Aristotle!

Truly, I can't even count the number of facets of my life that have been impacted by teachers!  And it is my humble prayer that I do the same for today's youth.

These educators who teach with their hearts not only make us smarter but they make us better people.

Teachers, let's ignite that fire that makes our students lifelong learners and overall happy, successful people.  Finally...

This is super important to me: as educators, if we don't motivate and support each other, then NOBODY else will.  As challenging and draining this profession is our lives, I hope that we can find a flicker of positivity with our inspiring colleagues. 

Thanks, teachers, for all that you do, have done, and will do.

Re-telling and Summarizing: Strategies and Interventions

So, how are your interventions going?  Are your students making progress in the area of re-telling and summarizing?

As teachers of reading, we all know that if a student cannot re-tell the story, he/she will have difficulty making deeper inferences, answering questions about the text, connecting with the characters, and, most importantly, enjoying the story. And re-telling, along with summarizing, is a skill that can be honed beginning in kindergarten all the way to college (think of all those undergraduate and graduate students who write abstracts summarizing research).  As an interventionist teacher supporting second and third grade students in the area of reading, I am constantly grappling with how to best support my little friends with their re-tell and/or summary {fiction texts...nonfiction texts need their own blog post!}.  After reading a book during guided reading, I would pull out a graphic organizer, and think to myself, "this doesn't really match the story structure," or "this doesn't allow the student to include the most important details."  So I began to look at the results of my assessments more carefully, searched some of the professional literature, and began differentiating my approaches in order to better break down this important component of comprehension.

Quick book review: Extra Yarn

Before this winter comes to an end, I would encourage you to try to squeeze in Extra Yarn as a read aloud.  I really LOVE this book.  Last year, I used it as a way to talk about doing great things for the New Year, but this book can be used for so many different lessons.  It is a great piece of children's literature as well as work of art.  Simple yet amazing.  Let's just go through the checklist...it has it all:

• A great plot structure {characters, setting, problem, solution}? Check.
• A couple author's lessons, ranging from simple to more sophisticated? Check.
• Characters with defined character traits? Check.
• Can be read over and over again for new ideas and meanings? Check.
• Mentor sentences?  Check.
• Mentor text for writers workshop?  Check.
• Suspense? Check.
• Humor? Check.
• Sweet and sassy? Check.
• A hint of magic? Check.
• The beauty of kindness? Check.
• Multiple opportunities to change your voice during the read aloud? Check {a very important reason to pick a read aloud 😍}.

I can't say enough about this book, but Lane Smith, the illustrator of many cool books, called this book "perfect." And I agree with him.

TPT Gift Card Giveaway...another one!

I am so excited that I get give away another Teachers Pay Teachers gift card!! It truly is such a treat to be able to brighten a teacher's day.

Please comment with the product that you can't wait to buy from TpT. It could be any product, not necessarily from my store.I'll be talking submissions until Monday, February 6th at 9 PM. I will randomly select a winner and post it on the blog, Facebook, and Instagram.

Feel free to post on my Facebook and Instagram pages for additional entries!

UPDATE:

Congratulations to CrazyCharizma for winning the gift card giveaway!!  Now she can do some shopping at the Teachers Pay Teachers #tptbemine sale!

 

Holiday Greetings & New Year's Wishes...with a freebie!

I hope everybody is enjoying his/her winter break!  What a blessing it is to be able to take some time off to relax, eat, spend time with family, sleep, and then eat some more.  Eating is my favorite. ♥

But I also know that so many teachers are already thinking about lesson planning for the New Year.  I know I'm already thinking about how to create resolutions with my little friends with the support of a good read aloud.  Last year I had used Extra Yarn, which is an incredible book with an awesome  female lead character.  And the book exemplifies how a person can have such a huge impact with a simple act of kindness.  But I didn't feel like the students developed strong personal goals after hearing that story.

This year I would like to incorporate more of a growth mindset with creating the resolution.  I've already read The Dot, so I'm thinking of reading What Do You Do With An Idea? or The Most Magnificent Thing.  I'm not sure which book to use...but it will eventually come to me...and I'll post it here on the blog and on my Facebook page.

Giving thanks...for you...with my first ever GIVEAWAY...

During the beginning of the holiday season, we often reflect what we're thankful for. Truthfully, along with being very grateful to God for good health, my wonderful family, for having a home and a job, I'm also incredibly thankful for all my followers on Teachers Pay Teachers. Your lovely comments are truly humbling.  To be part of this community of wonderful educators and to have the opportunity to create and share teaching materials that hopefully have a positive impact on children (and make teachers' lives a little easier!) is inspiring.  So to you,

So, what's the best way to thank you?

I'm ECSTATIC...better yet, ELATED, to be giving away a $10 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card.  My first ever giveaway!  Yay!

There are a couple of different ways to enter:

1.  Please comment on this blog post with a product (or products!) that you would like to buy from Teachers Pay Teachers.  It could be any product, not necessarily any from my store.

2.  Follow me on Facebook and comment under the TpT Gift Card post with the product(s) that are on your TpT Wish List!

I'll be talking submissions until Monday, November 28th, 2016, at 8 PM.  I will randomly select a winner and post it on the blog and on my Facebook page by 9 PM. 

After you win the gift card, you can go do some shopping...

Please be sure to share!  Thank you again!!!


***GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED!  THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED ON THE BLOG AND ON FACEBOOK!  I CAN'T WAIT TO DO THIS AGAIN!!***

Teachers in September: Under construction

Must. Stay. Organized.

One of my goals this year is to get organized and stay organized.  But it definitely requires a huge time investment in the beginning of the year.  I'm really committed to making these changes, to improve my teaching and my personal life.  Therefore, I haven't been blogging or developing products much over the past couple of weeks. Because my life looks like this right now:

Book explosion:  I'm re-organizing my library!

The pretzels add some glamour to this shot.

Clean. Organize. Assess. Repeat.

So hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can share some more pictures of my small-space classroom that are actually an improvement.  

Surprise Sale!

So, TpT is throwing another back-to-school sale!  A little gift for the teachers who are beginning the school year in September, like myself.  Or for those who are already in the grind of the school year and needs some extra stuff here and there.  My little store is on sale for 20% off, and TpT throws in another 10%, to make it a total of 28% off.  Check it out!

And if I may, I have a new product that I've been using myself for a few years.  It's a word wall alphabet for small spaces because I've been sharing a classroom every since I became an academic support teacher.  It's also goes with a blue color scheme or space/star theme (which I currently have both in my room).  Check it out!  And, as always, thank you!!

Follow me on Bloglovin'

So, apparently, I'm quite late to the Bloglovin' party!  Now that I've discovered how simple this site is, I've joined and claimed my blog.

If you're interested in having me follow you on Bloglovin', let me know in the comments!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin