Thankful For So Much...

This time of year gets me all excited!  I just love the holidays.  Call me weird, but I LOVE when they're over, though.  I love taking everything down, cleaning everything from top to bottom, reorganizing, and starting fresh.  But to get to that, we must first go through Thanksgiving and Christmas!

So Stephanie, over at Teaching In Room 6, is hosting a fun Linky Party!

I'm sure I could go on and on, but I will narrow it down to 4.  These are 2 of the most fabulous products I've come across on Teachers Pay Teachers and 2 of the most fabulous bloggers.  It is SERIOUSLY hard to narrow it down.  Like I said, I could go on and on!  There are SO many amazing bloggers out there and their stuff is just amazing!  I told a friend tonight that sometimes I wish we didn't have any textbook adoptions so that I could just use all the awesome stuff that's out there!

Ok...

1.  My biggest thanks has to go to Amanda Nickerson at One Extra Degree.  I am not kidding you, I don't think I would be where I am today if it weren't for her.  I believe her blog was the very first one I ever stumbled across and followed.  That was last October/November.  And look where we are today.  Amazing.  I went to my very first bloggy meet-up in Ohio this past January and met her and several others.  She really helped me out and gave some good pointers and made me believe this was something I could do and pursue.  Had I not met her, I don't know that I would've had the spark that I did that lead me to where I am today.  :)  We are still good friends today!  She's always an inspiration to me.  When I get tired and worn out, it's like she swoops in to offer some encouragement and a pick-me-up!

2.  My next blogger that I'm thankful for is Lisa Pesce from Fourth and Ten.  She is another fellow Ohio teacher-blogger from Cincinnati.  She is such a big encouragement and someone I could laugh online for hours with.  Ok, that doesn't make me sound nerdy or anything.  :P  Her and I have helped each other out a few times and she's always been one to comment on my blog.  Sometimes the blog world can be lonely when you don't have many followers.  Just when I thought nobody read my blog, she'd comment and it helped me keep going!  Plus, we're both huge Buckeye fans.  Need I say more? ;)

3.  I am SOOOOO thankful for Deanna Jump's Writing Through the Year series!  People...it has TRANSFORMED my teaching of writing!!!!  It has something I've been looking for for YEARS!  If you are at all stumped on what to do and where to go, this has got to be the most well-thought, systematic way of teaching it!  Ohmyword...seriously...CHECK IT OUT! 

Writing Through the Year

4.  Then there's Gumball Math!  Do any of you use Rocket Math?  We do at our school, but unfortunately it's not all that 1st grade friendly.  I came across this over the summer and went ahead and invested in it.  LOVE IT!  It fits in SO well with Rocket Math, and it's much more primary-appropriate.  I use it almost daily.  My little firsties are already getting fluent with their math facts!  Love! P.S., they also have a version for mixed facts AND multiplication!

Gumball Math

Well, there's my list.  It could go on F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  I wish I could mention every single person on here.  But my eyes are about to close and I have a jam-packed day tomorrow.

Hope you all have a great week!  Find something that you're thankful for in the teaching world!  It makes life a little more happy.  ;)

November Currently and a Request for Help

Let's start off with some fun, shall we?  I give you - My November Currently!

***UPDATE:  My project has been funded!!!!  Thank you all SOOOOO much!  This means so much!

Last week in church, our pastor talked about how sometimes we have to ask for help.  He made us say, "Can you help me?" 3 times out loud.  I literally felt uncomfortable EVERY TIME I said it.  And I wasn't even asking for anything.  I was just repeating it.  He was trying to get it across to us that sometimes we have to ask for help, and we shouldn't be ashamed to do it.

So here we go...

Will you help me?

There.  I said it.  I still have butterflies in my stomach and feel weird.  Why do I have to be so weird...

Anyways, here's my dilemma, if you will.  I submitted a Donor's Choose project back in May for a new classroom carpet.  If you're a teacher, you probably know how expensive these things are.  Our school doesn't provide them for us, so we just have to bring in our own.  I've gotten a couple cheap ones from Target/Walmart that just fall apart and have the edges fraying.  Then I thought I was going to have an awesome carpet when we moved this summer and I no longer needed our huge area rug because we now have carpet.  Well...ok, this is embarrassing...we have a little dog.  She has had many accidents on said rug.  I spent 2 weeks Pinteresting every carpet cleaning idea known to man.  I've tried dish detergent, vinegar, Febreeze, special pet cleaner, had our custodial staff steam/shampoo the thing.  It's awful.  So I actually found something that worked pretty well and got *MOST* of the stinkiness out.  But now it feels all weird because of all the chemicals I've put on it.

Alright, now you've heard my sob story about my stinky rug that has a weird texture now.  This is the reason I asked for help to get a new one for my room.  I've had 2 whole donors and a match.  My grandma and a college friend.  It makes me really sad that I have 9 days left and still practically $350 left to raise.  The nice thing is that the money doesn't go to waste, because they can just give it to someone else if my project isn't funded.  At the same time, how crappy do I feel that those couple of people so close to me won't really help me out anyways.  Blah...it just bothers me and saddens me.

So with one last attempt to get this thing funded, I'm going out on a limb and asking my bloggy friends and readers for some help.  I know we're all tight and try to spend our money wisely.  That's why I'm going to offer any product from my shop, if you want, if you donate to my project.  Basically, if you were going to spend money in my shop anyways, I'm asking you to instead make a donation to my Donor's Choose project.  Please pick out your items that add up to the amount you donate and I will e-mail them to you.  :)

Here is the link to my project: http://www.donorschoose.org/project/cozy-classroom-carpet-for-learning/810422/?verify=977879556&challengeid=239870

If you are able and willing to donate, please leave me a comment below with your e-mail address and the products you would like me to send you.  I will keep this offer going for the next 9 days, or until it gets funded.  It doesn't matter if you donate $5 or $500 (ok, well maybe not $500 since my project isn't that much ;)).  Anything and everything helps!

***Just found out about this code: Enter "HoraceMann12" when you check out and the donation will be matched!  THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE DONATED ALREADY!  I'm not gonna lie, I was bawling my eyes out when I came in to check me e-mail.  :)

I can't thank you enough.  This will really mean a lot to my students and me.

Speaking of projects to send...here's my latest!  I finally finished my November Math Centers aligned to Common Core!

They're now up in my shop.  :)  Enjoy. :)

Have a blessed Sunday...

Guided Reading and a Little Red Ribbon Week

I hope everyone is surviving Sandy!  It's crazy...what a massive storm!  I'm in central Ohio and it's been raining since yesterday.  The winds just picked up like crazy about half an hour ago.  Looks like they're currently gusting to around 40 mph.  They're supposed to be over 70, so I'm trying to hurry and get in a blog post before the power goes out!

I am warning you now:  LOTS OF PICS!

Last week we had Red Ribbon Week.  The theme was "Say Boo to Drugs" and we had a door decorating contest.  The high school students came over and judged them and our door won!  Woohoo!  We get a pizza party with the high school Teen Institute on Friday.  The kids are SUPER excited.  Here's a peek at our snazzy door...

The kiddos made pumpkin fold-overs and decorated the outside.

Then they wrote a sentence inside about why drugs are scary.  I took their picture using PhotoBooth and used one of the funky distortion options, which they picked.

Next topic of conversation (sorry I don't have a good segue into this portion)...guided reading!  It was something I struggled to get off the ground my first couple of years teaching.  I tried to follow how  the book wanted me to do it.  Bad idea.  It was horrible.  Can we say cookie-cutter machine?!?!  I felt like a robot with what they wanted me to do.  Yuck.

After attending a couple SDE conferences and doing some research, I came up with the best option for the moment.  And I say moment because I'm always changing things, so next year it'll probably look a little different.  :P

So how do I start?  Well, I collect a lot of data at the beginning of the year to decide what groups to put them in.  A lot.  I mean, TONS.  Then I come up with a list.  I typically have one below-level group, 2 on-level groups (split into a lower end and higher end), and an advanced group.  I work with one group for 30 minutes a day.  If you have to meet with every group everyday, God bless you.  I don't know how you do it.  I can barely squeeze in 30 minutes for one group!  But yet I WISH I had time to meet with each group each day.  But let's face reality, it's not realistic.  I do the best I can...

I put the names up on the board in a flip chart I made.  All I have to do is open it up and flip to the page with the group I need for the day.

All they bring is a pencil and I provide the rest.  Here's a look at what my plans look like.  I have a plan for below-level, on-level, and advanced for each story each week.  I keep them all in a binder with Unit tabs.  I just grab my binder, caddy, and books and I'm ready to go!  Part of the plans go with the leveled readers we have for Reading Street, but I added in a bit of my own stuff.

To get started, we review our high-frequency words.  I put them on my iPad with an app called "Flashcards +."  I put the words on a card and then a sentence on the back.  We practice reading, spelling, and recognizing the sight words for the week.  I also have an old wipes container with all the words in it.  I'm using these right now since I haven't had time to add some of the words to the app yet...

Then we move on to our "hunks and chunks" for the week.  It's just whatever phonics skill we're learning...short a, long o, sh, -ing, whatever...I created a huge, long project that drove me crazy last year.  I printed all sorts of words that follow the phonics skill onto a label and then put the label onto an index card.  Front and back.  Hundreds.  I think I bought around 15 packs of index cards.  Uggg.  What a nightmare.  THEN...I laminated all of them!  Eeek!  BUT, it was worth it.  Because now I have them ready for the YEAR.  We practice recognizing the hunks and chunks and reading them.  Sometimes we figure them out together, other times we raise our hand to read one when we know it, sometimes I call on random students, and sometimes we have little contests.  The kids love reading through them.  It's the little things!  ;)

Next, we move onto our story!  We talk about our reading skills and strategies.  Then I pass out the books and have them do a picture walk.  I let them predict what the story will be about and what will happen based on the pictures that they see.

Then we read!  Sometimes we read it chorally, other times we whisper read, and sometimes we read it with a partner.  Some days we even read it silently to ourselves!  I picked up these cute swizzle sticks from Hobby Lobby to use as pointers.  The kids LOVE. THEM.  They are MAGICAL to them!  I have simple ones with glitter and ones that are a little more chunky.  They pick out a stick and use it to track the print as we read.

After we read, I pass out our fiction dice or they draw a non-fiction stick.  They roll the fiction dice and answer the question.

All I did for the non-fiction sticks was take oversized popsicle sticks and write some questions on them.

We wrap up everything by working on a little worksheet that comes with our leveled readers.

And that's it!  Simple, huh?  ;)

The wind is howling...off I go!

Ok, I can't resist...here's my little guy dressed up for Halloween!

Writing Workshop and some exciting stuff!

In the past, I've really struggled to teach writing.  What is suggested in our Reading Series...well...I just don't like it.  There's no logic to it really.  It's like someone throws feathers up in the air and you just catch what you catch.  I've tossed around different things.  Tried a few things here and there.  And I'm all about logic.  Systematic.  RELEVANT.  Nothing drives me more crazy than randomly teaching my firsties something that has no rhyme or reason or sense to it.  They don't get it and neither do I.

So this year I've combined a few things and come up with something that is actually working for once.  Hey, that's what teaching is all about, right?  Try something and if it doesn't work, try something else.  Tweak.  Adjust.  Experiment.

So here's how I have my schedule arranged.  Every morning after announcements and lunch count and the daily "chores", we do our "writing workshop" for 30 minutes (I wish I could do longer, but alas, the schedule does not allow it).  I am telling you, Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills have been a GODSEND.  I am not kidding you.  It has been such a great thing in my classroom and the best part is that the kids LOVE IT.  They get SO excited about writing workshop.

If you haven't checked it out, here's the link: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Through-the-Year-Unit-1-Aligned-with-Common-Core

Then I've kind of/sort of incorporated the Daily 5.  Unfortunately, I do not have a big enough block to do The Daily 5 five times in one day.  So it's kind of a modified version.  Anyways, those of you familiar with The Daily 5 know that one of the components is Work on Writing.  For this, the students have several options of what to do.  They can:

-Write in their journal (their choice OR a pre-written topic).
-Make a card.
-Write a report.
-Write a book report.
-Write a letter.
-Write a list.
-Write a story.

They choose.  I have drawers on our writing table with everything already copied.

Inside each drawer is an idea list and a template sheet.  I laminated them and put them in the drawers for reference.  The letter list actually has an example on the back of how to format the letter so they can see the proper way to date it, address it, write it, close it, and sign it.

These are the journals I have for my students.  I found these binders at Odd Lots for somewhere in the neighborhood of $0.80 a piece.  I put a cover page and several blank journal pages inside.  The journal pages are from Journals Through the Year by Rachelle Smith.

Blank pages are already in their binders.  They can add pre-written prompts if they have a hard time thinking of something to write.

Here are some of my firsties during Work on Writing!

Making a card...

Writing a report on weather...

If you're interested in the drawers full of writing goodies, you can pick it up at my TPT shop!

A couple more notes before I head to bed...

1.  I now have a Facebook page!  If you look to the right, you will find a link to "like" my page.  I'm a Facebook junkie, so don't be surprised if you see an update pretty often on there...and I LOVE to chat, so you might see lots of opportunities to chime and converse in some teacher talk!  ;)

2.  I have to give a shout-out to my school.  We are "officially" rated an EXCELLENT SCHOOL DISTRICT!  The only one in our county!  Woo-hoo!  :D  Hard work, dedicated teachers, community/parental involvement, and a love for our schools has brought us success!  Congrats to all those in the Pleasant Local School District in Marion, OH!

Assessments and My Donor's Choose Project

So is this yucky sickness invading your school, too?  Man...I've had this crud for over a week now.  Fortunately I was able to schedule a doctor's appointment for tomorrow.  I was out last Tuesday, as were 9 other teachers!  You should've seen us walking around today.  It's only gotten worse.  Boo.  :(  Z Pack, here I come!

This is a 3-day week for us (can I get an amen?!?!), so we're using this week to assess, assess, assess in 1st grade.  My mind is fried after today.  And I still have to do fluency checks and finish up about 8 Houghton-Mifflin assessments tomorrow.  Whew.  Tonight will be an early bedtime, for sure!  Here's a view of a desk outside my room today as I was in the midst of Houghton-Mifflin checks (yes, the caffeine was a necessity!):

With the millions of assessments we do in 1st grade, I simply compiled mine into one chart showing what each child scored on each assessment.  I color-coded each assessment to show if they were high (green), in the middle (yellow), or low (red).  Then I color-coded which reading group I would put them in (Advanced = green, On-Level High = yellow, On-Level Low = orange, and Low = red).  This helps me plan my guided reading groups, as well as see an overall picture of my class.  I update it as the year goes and I gather more data.  I'm a very visual person, so the colors help!

One last thing for the night:  I have a Donor's Choose project in need of some funding!  There are only a few hours left of a special promotion they are having.  For every donation made, Donor's Choose will match the donation!  So let's say you donate $20.  Donor's Choose will match that, therefore it's like you donated $40!!!  Crazy and so amazing!  What a blessing!  I'm trying to get a new carpet for our classroom.  We have to purchase our own and mine is not meant for classrooms at all.  :(  If you would like to help, please visit this link:  http://www.donorschoose.org/mrs.kirby

BE SURE TO ENTER THE CODE "pumpkin" when you checkout so that they will match your donation!  :)  Thanks friends...kids are totally worth little things like this that seem so insignificant.  

Ok, off to do some more work on Reading Street stuff, as well as some stuff for my Reading Intervention class.  :)  Happy Mid-October!  :)

What a Sweet Day!

I've had an Ohio State student the past 6 weeks.  It's her first education placement.  Let me tell you what...I can just TELL this girl is going to be a fantastic teacher one day!  She is the sweetest!  Whitney has been SO helpful in the last few weeks.  She's helped me with assessments, helped with some of my challenging students, helped cut out loads of laminated stuff, and just been a delight to have in our room.  The kiddos absolutely loved her.  And I instantly knew that we would get along when she informed me that the season premier of Criminal Minds was a few weeks ago.  Had she not said something, I might've never known.  Thanks to her, I stayed up until 10 last night watching the latest episode.  Special friendship right there, I tell you what!  ;)

She made the most darling little goodie bags for the kids for her last day today.  She took the time to write each kid a PERSONAL note.  I mean, really!?!?!  Once again, I can just tell she'll be amazing.  Not to mention the absolutely heart-warming note she wrote me.  Thank goodness I'm not in that crying "time of the month", otherwise my desk would've been flooded with tears.  Seriously.

Here are the cute Halloween bags she made for the kids.

Time for a group hug!

After she left, one of the kids spotted her walking in the parking lot to her car...this is what happened next:

Now for the sweet gift I got...check it out!  She was telling me all about this book one day and showed it to me.  I wrote it down because it looked awesome and I REALLY wanted to read it.

So to my surprise...

I am so. pumped.  Oh yeah, and there were 2 Cheryl's cookies...I definitely already ate one.

Anyone else ever read this book?  I'm excited to dive in!  I think I need it right now with all the stress of school.  I need to be reminded of why I'm doing what I'm doing.  Some days are so hard, and I've been really struggling this year.  I feel like I'm not good enough and that I will never be good enough.  Now, with that being said, I constantly try to improve myself.  Every year I change things up and try new things.  That will never stop.  It's just not in me to settle and do the same thing day after day.  But to feel like the state or country will never tell me that I'm as good as they can get...that bothers me.  I know that probably sounds really egotistical and selfish.  I don't mean it that way at all.  If there are any other Type-A people out there, you probably understand what I'm trying to say.  You just need to be told you're doing a fantastic job.  For no other reason than to know that what we're doing is making a difference and is appreciated.  I don't want fancy lights and billboards with my name all over it.  At all.  I just want to know that I'm succeeding at what I'm doing and that the kids are getting a quality education when they're with me.  It's not about me.  It's about leaving a mark.  Make sense?

Found this on Pinterest awhile back.  It explains a lot.  :P

Eh, anyways...I just love college students.  :)  They remind you of when you first stepped in the classroom and the journey it took to get to where you are today.  Lord, may we all be reminded...

What do you love about college students and student teachers?

Good News and a Winner!

I went ahead and picked a winner tonight since tonight is the last chance you'll have to get the October Math Centers for $4.  :)  The winner is...

That means that Suzy Q is the winner!  Congrats!  I will be e-mailing the file to you as soon as I'm done with this update.  :)

In case you didn't know, my principal follows my blog.  :P  She's totally into the blogging world, which makes me happy!  What a trendy principal!  ;)  She read my blog post last night and we had a nice chat this morning when I got to work.  She suggested, in order to give us more teaching time, that we should do our intervention during 2nd recess.  Then those teachers don't have to add in my kiddos to their class AND they don't have to plan for supplemental lessons AND we get an extra half hour with our homeroom firsties to keep on teachin'!  Isn't that wonderful!?!?!  I was insanely giddy when she suggested that as a fix for our problem.  It was like a huge weight lifted off our shoulders!  And of course, my team totally went for the idea.   I mean, hello...who doesn't get excited about having ONE LESS thing to plan for and try to fit in when there's so much else to do?!?!  I truly am blessed to have a great principal that is willing to help her teachers (I'm not trying to suck up to you, Shelly...promise!  I totally mean what I say!).  :)  I feel a MILLION times better tonight.  It was so nice to have an HOUR to teach math/calendar instead of cramming it into 30 minutes.  You teachers know how it is, you can do so much more with your students and really make sure they understand something when you have more time with them!  Just amazing.

:)

Have a blessed week everyone!  It's beginning to look like the middle of autumn around here and it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!  Soak it in and enjoy it!  :)