Summer School

I did not save enough money to chill all summer long and last week summer school began!  :)  After a week of training, students showed up last Monday to begin four weeks (19 days) of summer school.  Baltimore City was lucky enough to receive several grants that allowed us to get materials for a very specific reading based summer program.  American Reading Company (the company that does 100 Book Challenge) wrote a specific four week, research/non-fiction text-based reading curriculum centering around natural themes!  It is a great preview of how the new Common Core Curriculum Standards will look in action.  We are also using the 95% Group's phonics curriculum.

I am teaching a class of 20 (it was not supposed to be that large - only 10!) Kindergarten students (rising to 1st grade).  The theme of our four week curriculum is Zoology.   I am also lucky to have 2 Baltimore City Teaching Residency interns who are getting the only classroom experience they will have until they begin teaching in Baltimore City Public Schools in the fall!  Zoology is such a fun unit theme to work with.  Here are some of the things we are up to in our classroom:

The kids record all of our important zoology key words and we keep them in pocket charts on our bulletin board - definitions are reviewed every day!

We are writing based on our research every day!  The cute "Grrreat Work!" lion work grabbers are from the Dollar Tree!


I decided to use an accumulating incentive throughout summer school - each student receives a plastic animal for every day that they attend summer school and display good behavior and strong work ethic.  At the end each student could gain a collection of 19 animals!  Perfect for little zoologists!  (Ps - these are also from the Dollar Tree and come in packs of 8-10 for a dollar!)

 A large view of our animal word wall - only names of animals allowed!  The animals are color coded - pink is for wild animals and blue is for domestic animals!

A close-up of our animal name word wall - we add animals daily as we read and learn about them.







I am super excited about these.  American Reading Company provided us with an entire box of laminated sight word cards, hole punched and with rings for the students!  There are also large sight word cards to use for a word wall or as flash cards.  The set also came with these awesome lanyards and index card holders - now I can individualize the words that students need to study and they will have a place to keep them and carry them around!  (I will be putting these to good use next year!)  Right now the words I, a, and the are attached to the lanyards with the rings because those are the sight words we will be focusing on as a class.

Last week, we made animal puppets as an enrichment activity on the day we studied wild animals.  Isn't it totally obvious where I got the paper bags from?  ;)  Next time I need to get a size smaller.  The awesome templates came from a Teachers Pay Teachers seller and you can get them here.

Finally, here is a sneak peek (aka: examples made by Ms. Moffett) of what we will be doing tomorrow:

We will be learning about the Savanna habitat and students will get to create their version of the habitat on card stock complete with animals that are native to the Savanna.

I bought raffia and sandpaper for the dry season savanna and spanish moss for  the wet season savanna.  The peel and stick foam shapes (zoo collection) came from Wal-Mart.  The students will be able to pick a ribbon type to hang their work.








I bet my kiddos work will be much more creative than mine!





 I will let you know how it all turns out!

I'm a Kindergarten Teacher?

I was so excited to end my first year as a teacher - I made it!  I was full of fresh ideas and inspiration for my 2012-2013 first grade class.  I spent my first few days of vacation lounging by a pool and collecting ideas and materials for my next batch of first graders... and thennnnnn...

My principal called me and told me that I was going to become the new Kindergarten teacher at my school for the 2012-2013 school year!  Hence the name change on the blog (formerly: Charm City First Grade) and the onset of new fears!  I have struggled the past year to determine what was appropriate for first grade students, learn the curriculum content, find effective instructional techniques that worked for my students, and gather ideas for assessment and data tracking.  Now I feel like I will be starting as a first year teacher ALL OVER AGAIN!  My first thought was "Nooooooo!"

There are a few positives though that have me excited to take on the challenge of teaching a different grade level.  First, (the reason that my principal wanted to move me in the first place) I will be rounding out the Kindergarten team of 2 teachers and the other teacher is one of my teacher friends and inspirations, Ms. Zelman!  After spending the last year as part of a first grade "team" in which the other team member was not always available or willing to collaborate, I am very excited to work with Ms. Zelman.  She and I are what I would call kindred teaching spirits!  We have the same beliefs about what our students are capable of and energy and enthusiasm for what we are doing.  Second, it's exciting (and also sobering at the same time) to think that I might be responsible for a child's very first school experience!

So - so long for now!  More thoughts about becoming a Kindergarten teacher later!

Happy Campers!

As a new teacher, I have just barely begun to tap into all of the teaching resources and online communities that offer inspiring ideas and materials for making teaching fun and much easier! Our principal encouraged us to use the last month of school to focus on creating our own unit of study that we could align with the new Common Core State Standards that Baltimore City Public Schools are moving towards adopting city-wide.  I have been spending a great deal of time on a few great teacher blogs that truly inspired - and directly influenced - what I came up with!  Those of you that know me know that I love to be outside and will jump at the chance to go camping!  My city students often don't have the opportunity to get out into the great outdoors so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to share my love of camping with them - and my Happy Campers unit was born.

 Mrs. Halbert at Learning with a Happy Heart! and Mrs. Carrol at The First Grade Parade were huge inspirations.  I downloaded some of the materials that they created when implementing camping units in their own classrooms from Teachers Pay Teachers (this site literally changed my life as a first year teacher).  Among the highlights of implementing this unit were: 

• Setting up a real tent in our library and letting students do their independent reading in it!  (Special thanks to our school special educator, Katie Horn, for lending us the tent!)
• Reading the students spooky campfire stories with all the lights out and a flashlight under my chin!
• Listening to the spooky stories that students wrote themselves!
• Showing the students pictures of one of my real life camping trips!
• Learning about constellations and where we can go to the night sky best!
• Watching students apply their knowledge of fractions while making S'mores!
• Reading many books about camping, outdoor activities, and funny fictional stories about camping capers! 

As always, there are some ways that I will refine this unit to make it more cohesive and have some of the activities spark some deeper academic learning but overall I loved it and I think the kiddos did too!  :)

Shooting for Second Grade!

The theme in my classroom this year has sort of revolved around shooting stars and that all my students are stars!  In that vein, I created a Shooting for Second Grade tracking chart to help them really push themselves these last five weeks of school.  The charts were pretty time-intensive... I'm sure there is any easier way to do this... but I haven't figured it out yet!  One of my big goals next year is to have the students track their own progress consistently throughout the year and set their own learning goals.  This was a way to get started and test how manageable it was and how effective it was.  I chose to focus on literacy goals for the end of the year.

Each student was assigned an animal so they could keep their scores and progress anonymous.  I used clip art and printed out the animals in color on card stock and laminated them.  Then I attached a small piece of velcro to each animal.  I used poster board to make the charts - I created a square for each week left in the year that their animal could move to if they met the literacy goals that they set for themselves.  The students all started out on a square that listed their current reading level for 100 Book Challenge, Wireless Generation Test (reading comprehension), and oral reading fluency (number of words read accurately in one minute).  The board also featured a list of goals all first graders should reach by the end of the year.  I met with each student individually to reveal which animal they were (they loved this part!) and discuss their scores.  Then I worked with them to help set a goal.  As they met their mini goals for each week (I met with them to track their progress one week after goals were established) their animal moved.  If they did not meet their goals, I helped them problem solve how they could in the future and told them that their animal would move once they met their goal.  This was very motivating for them.  They kept asking to meet with me so they could move their animal and they were definitely sharing more about what they were doing independently to reach their goal (every teacher's dream!!!).  I wrote the goal they were working on on the square so that they could refer to it and I kept a log for myself as well of each meeting I had with them and how they demonstrated progress.  So far so good - we will see how this all plays out as end of year assessments approach! :)

Testing Woes

I'm sure every teacher has testing woes and can understand the sheer agony of helplessly watching a child that you've taught all year make a(many) ridiculously bone-headed mistake(s) on a high-stakes test. I've been feeling it this week for sure! My kiddos are subjected to an hour plus of silent, sit-straight-in-your-desk-and-listen-to-the-teacher testing every day this week! It is excruciating. No matter how hard I try to hype it up... it still stinks. Gum, prizes, chants, candy, snacks, promises of recess time - none of them are helping to quell the anxiety. I had two kids crying today half-way through and one threw up and told the school nurse it was because she was nervous about the big test. Sigh.

High-stakes testing makes me feel like the WORST kind of teacher.

On the bright side, tomorrow is Friday and I have big plans for the remaining weeks of school! I have already begun creating an elaborate tracking chart with end of the year goals (personalized for each student). I have been working on mini-units on fun topics associated with enjoying the great outdoors (one of my favorite pastimes) and making plans for incorporating more informational reading and writing into my plans! Ever since we read a story about Frog and Toad called "The Kite" my kids have been obsessed. Tomorrow after our last hour of testing we will be reading a story about flying a kite, looking at a real kite, building our own kites, going outside to fly our kites, and writing and drawing about our kites. Can't wait to go fly a kite!

Post-Spring Break Traumatic Stress Disorder

Spring break was utterly relaxing! I did all of the wonderful things that one does when on a break... saw family, saw friends, ate too much, drank too much, slept in, read books, shopped, and exercised (if skiing counts!). I also turned 28! All in all it was amazing. I woke up on the first day back to school feeling refreshed and excited...

Then I arrived at school. After a few minutes of cheerfully catching up with other teachers and staff, I went in to begin a professional development around the Common Core Curriculum. Within 2 minutes I felt like I was wearing a sweater made of lead. Tension started in my neck, my heart started racing... Stress. Was. Back. All I could think was there are approximately 8 weeks left of school, one of which will be swallowed whole by Stanford 10 testing... and my kids are not ready for 2nd grade! On top of that, the type of student population that I teach loses more than the 6 or so weeks of instruction that other kids lose over the summer. My babies will lose 3-4 months! That means it is my job to OVER-prepare them. How am I going to do this!? The thought of the Common Core Curriculum is exciting but also nerve-wracking. While I can't wait to do everything differently next year, I still need to find ways to make this year meaningful for my students.

Any ideas? Eek! T-minus 3 days until standardized testing begins...

Intentions

Last week I signed my letter of intent to return to Baltimore City Public Schools for the next school year. It wasn't a difficult decision but it did make me reflect a little bit on why I got into this profession in the first place and what I was thinking before I embarked on my first year of teaching!

This job is immensely more challenging than I ever could have imagined. I constantly feel like I could be doing something better... and the worst part is that is probably true! Now that I have 7 months of teaching under my belt, I feel more like I don't know anything about anything than I did when I started! Is that possible?

Sometimes I think to myself, "You are taking this WAYYY too seriously." But then, it IS serious! I will be these kids' only first grade teacher (hopefully!) What if I screw it up big time? What if I already screwed it up big time? Let's hope not...because I'll be back next year to screw it up all over again!