Next year

I know I am not the only one who starts thinking about NEXT school year once summer hits as soon as state testing time comes. I mean I have to take everything down and pack it up (and this year PACK IT ALL UP to move to a new class) so why not start thinking about what I could do better next year. Every year during TCAP as I walk around my room praying that my kids do their best and picking up pencils, I start thinking of things I can do next year. And Kim from Joy in Sixth Grade has the perfect linky for this!

 Last year, my friend Lisa had an amazing blog post about her fluency time. And she helped me out a ton getting it started in my own class. And once we started it, my kids NEVER wanted to miss it. If we had to for an assembly, they were crushed! It was a nice transition when we returned from lunch to get them back into the swing of things in the classroom and get ready to finish their learning for the day. To see my blog post about this, you can click here.

 Seriously I say this every year. And I start off so well. And then something happens and all of a sudden I have hundreds of papers to grade and some are going in the blue bin (recycling bin) I just want to cry. I had a good system- grade during our Chinese time (30 min a day), grade when we went to the restroom (twice a day as a class), and grade when I was waiting to pick my kids up from support. I have no clue what happened but it fell apart.

I am not sure WHY I never did this this year because I had full intentions to do it. Something just always came up. I bought a third grade phonics book and I am going to use it next year. I have a really good morning work routine (you can read about that here) but the kids who REALLY need help with their phonics need the time with me. So I decided that I will have those students grab their breakfast and meet with me to work on some phonics skills. Then when we go over morning work as a class, they can just do it with us. So they are still exposed to the morning work skills but also getting the help they really need (because really, there is no other time in my day to work on phonics).

 My amazing friend Jenn helped me out a TON getting my math time situated towards the end of this year. And my kids LOVED it. In fact, I noticed in just the couple weeks we did it, their comprehension of the math skills was soaring. One of my lowest students was one of the first ones to be able to understand mixed numbers!! I have to be able to implement this ALL the time because they loved it, and it works. Read about that here.

 What? You don't know what it means to teach like a pirate? Well I highly suggest you grab yourself a copy of this book and start reading.... (hint: there is going to be a pretty awesome book study on this book this summer). The pirate theme really has nothing to do with this book. I just had a REALLY good idea for a bulletin board (details later once I have it up and done next year) and it spiraled out of control.