Great First Week!

My students and I had a great first week! The first week consisted of three days which I absolutely love because it isn't too long or too short. It's a time to get to know the students better and assess the reading/math levels.

On Friday, I introduced the Clickers to my class. They were thrilled! They thought it was so cool to answer each question and see if they got the answer correct. On Monday, I did a small pre-assessment on the weekly vocabulary words. It was a great way to see which words I needed to focus on and which to just discuss.

If you have access to Clickers and a Smartboard, I highly encourage you to do so! It is a wonderful pre-assessment and post-assessment tool to see if they are on-track for your instructional goals.

I'm ready!

The first day of school is tomorrow and I think I am ready! I met 15 out of 19 of my second graders last night during Back to School Night. I am looking forward to a great year!

Small Group Chart

Each day during reading instruction, students will rotate through 3 different stations: teacher mini-lesson, seat work, and reading/language arts center/station activity or working with words. Every day, each student can look at their schedule via the pocket charts. The groups will be based on their reading ability/skill level so that differentiation is possible.

Progress!

Today I got a LOT accomplished! Despite challenges getting in and out of my classroom, I think a considerable amount is finished. I was VERY happy to come into my classroom to see that my carpet was cleaned and that my Smartboard was mounted on the wall! The projector will be mounted to the ceiling once the correct mounting equipment is found. It will really make a difference with space!

Working in my classroom

I haven't been posting as much as I would like. Right now, as most of you teachers are doing, I am in the midst of getting my classroom ready for another group of awesome second graders! Tomorrow and Thursday, I'll be working in my classroom and meeting with my co-teacher to go over the new reading curriculum. On Friday, Teacher Inservice begins and Back to School Night is Monday. Our first day of school will be August 18th. I am posting a few pics, but will post more possibly pics of my complete classroom tomorrow evening!

These pics are still a work in progress!

Fun Songs

I have mentioned this website before, but I want to post it again with the Youtube link. If you teach preschool, Kindergarten or first grade, this is a wealth of songs for the alphabet!

Go to:

http://www.youtube.com/user/havefunteaching#p/u/13/36IBDpTRVNE

My own children who are in Kindergarten and first grade this year was mesmerized by it and it's a great way to practice those phonics sounds!

Goals

Each year, I try to do something different. This year I am trying to differentiate more and am going to focus with my reading instruction. We have a new reading curriculum called "Treasures" and they highly suggest small group instruction daily. This will be a change because normally I teach whole-group most of the week (minus leveled reader days).

Differentiation and using Senteo clickers with the Smartboard are my goals for the new school year. I am looking forward to getting them and creating quizzes for about every subject.

(Senteo clickers are given to students. They select the correct answer to each question displayed on the Smartboard. It can record how they did and how many children scored correctly/incorrectly on any given answer. This is great for review for a chapter test!)

If you have not made a goal(s) for the year, I highly suggest it!

The Daily Five

I am ordering this book. I have heard lots of wonderful comments about this educational strategy for teaching reading/language arts instruction.

To learn more about this, check out their website:

http://www.thedailyfive.com

Smartboard Resources

I use these websites often for ready-made Smartboard lessons:

http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/howto/smartboard/lessons.htm



http://www.longwood.k12.ny.us/longsmart_elem.html



http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-us/Ed+Resource/Lesson+activities/Notebook+activities/

Great resource

I belong to a second grade email group through Teachers.net. Each month, the website has a newsletter with articles, ideas, lessons, photos, etc.

Check it out:

http://teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/august-2010/

Starting to see some progress...

Last week, I started the job of getting my classroom ready for the new school year. I have a lot to go, however, I did make some progress! I will post more pics when more progress has been made.