Last day for the giveaway, test taking strategies!

Today is the last day to sign up for the giveaway I'm also giving away another book... can't remember the title right now!

Today in math we made these:

As a third grade team this week we decided not to do spelling. We are doing practice spelling assessments that are similar to the ones that will be given during our state-wide MAP testing! The kids love doing it. Friday we are having a practice MAP test and I'm bringing snacks! (teacher of the year right?)

We made this delicious little poster...I lost my pretty fonts in the PDF transition.. You can download your own here!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Tuesday! Today is actually our MONDAY! We have every Monday off for the next 4 weeks! Then we have a few Fridays off! So four day work weeks for about 8 weeks straight! Crazy huh?

What do you make?

WHAT TEACHERS MAKE............

________________________________
The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?"

Teacher Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make?
(She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.

I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 min. without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental.

You want to know what I make? (She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table)

I make kids wonder.

I make them question.

I make them apologize and mean it.

I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.


I teach them how to write and then I make them write.
Keyboarding isn't everything.

I make them read, read, read.

I make them show all their work in math. They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.

I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.

I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.

Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life

( Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)

Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant. You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ALL YOUR LIVES, EDUCATING KIDS AND PREPARING THEM TO BECOME CEO's, AND DOCTORS AND ENGINEERS..........

What do you make Mr. CEO?

His jaw dropped; he went silent.

THIS IS WORTH SENDING TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW. Even all personal teachers like mother, father, brother, sister, coach and spiritual leader/teacher.............


-unknown


Happy Friday!

250 follower giveaway time!

Over the weekend I exceeded 250 followers! You can only guess what that means? Time for a giveaway! Drum roll please!

I will be giving away these three lovely books! Which are a few of our classroom favorites!

via

and also a ten dollar gift certificate to TPT!

This weekend I went to Dallas to visit my boyfriend! While we were there I noticed that several schools had class yesterday!? On President's Day! Isn't this America? ;)

Here are a few photos from my trip!

These pups are field trial dogs! Pretty well disciplined huh? One or more of them will most likely make more than you (and I) will this year teaching! (in competition and prize money)

Me! At the Grassy Knoll! I highly suggest visiting The Sixth Floor Museum if you ever visit Dallas! It was very interesting!

The window is the one on the far right second from the top!

A small group of us had a great time at the Cowboy's Dancehall in Arlington. I even learned to two step:) If you are ever in Dallas and want the real cowboy dancing experience--this was amazing!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I know I did! Now scroll down to enter! Read the rules and good luck! Those of you who didn't have school yesterday---enjoy your four day work week!

You may enter by commenting and answering the following question!

Did you have school on President's Day!?

Rules:
Comment for each entry!
This runs from 2/21/12 - 2/28/12.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment and answer the question above!
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

I'm only mailing the books to a US address!
You have 24 hours to get back to me after I post a winner, otherwise a new winner will be chosen!

Questions finally answered:)

Enjoy:) Happy Hump Day!

1. Are you teaching your dream grade? If not, what is your dream grade?
YES! I student taught in 3rd grade and I absolutely love it.

2. What is your favorite candy?
I don't really eat candy that often and I try to stay away from it.. but I love a York Peppermint Patty!


3. What's the last book you've read?
I honestly never read unless its my read-a-loud or blogs.. soooo Because of Winn Dixie:)

4. Are you an early riser or night owl?
Early Riser!!!

5. Tea or coffee? BOTH I'm addicted to unsweet tea and black coffee

6. What was your favorite vacation? Wow, I've been too many places to pick a favorite.. I'm not real sure. Every city I've been to has great things to offer. HOWEVER I really wanna go to St. Thomas


7. What is your biggest pet peeve?
Mean people, people that do things to get on your nerves...

8. Do you have any pets?
My family has one dog, Nelly.


and my boyfriend recently gave me this little guy. Meet Owen.

9. What chore do you procrastinate doing the most?
Grading papers----eeeek

10. What subject do you least like to teach?
I really like teaching everything.. but I guess if I have to choose...Grammar maybe?

11. What is one of your favorite quotes.

and this

12. What one adjective best decribes you?
Right now? tired.. It is Monday;) I thought this was suiting for right now

(I did this on a Monday)


Tomorrow I leave for Dallas!!! To see this guy! I haven't seen him in 7 weeks--So you can only imagine how excited I am to see him!

How cute is this Valentine??

Anyone else ready for Spring?


Thank you Stacey!! For allowing some excitement to hit my blog:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Printable available here:




I get to see my lovely Valentine on Thursday night when I arrival in Dallas:)

3-D shapes poem, online graphing, Valentine's Day!

Stole this little puppy to read tomorrow!

So recently we used this wonderful,brilliant,thebomb.com resource for graphing examples...


MathIsFun.com! From this lovely website! It has several different categories.

You enter your data and then from their can change it into several different kinds of graphs!

I think this would also be a great thing to use for Science Fair projects!

On a little bit more of an exciting note! Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! (DUH) I'm giving all my little ladies these: (I got them all 1/2 price after Christmas)

P.S. I'm so excited I'm almost to 250 followers:) At 250 I'm going to have a wonderful giveaway!

Identifying Theme

I feel like students have the hardest time ever identifying theme. This website E-Reading Worksheets offers a great powerpoint with really excellent advice!

Teaching Theme

Identifying the theme of a story is a higher order skill and requires the reader to make an inference. Consequently, some students have a difficult time identifying themes. Because this skill is frequently evaluated on state reading tests, it is important that your students identify themes with reasonable reliability. I find that properly teaching students how to identify themes goes a long way toward meeting this goal.

1. Properly Define Theme: students need to know that theme is the life lesson of a story or the author’s message.

2. Prepare Students To Infer: students need to understand that in most stories (with the exception of fables), the author will not tell readers what the theme or lesson of the story is. Readers will have to think about what the characters did wrong or right and what they can learn from the character’s experience.

3. Teach Students To Extract The “Big Idea”: One common mistake that students make when attempting to identify the theme is that they get hung up on the characters or events in the story. They cannot think beyond the small world elements of the story to extract the big world lesson of the theme. I will use the following short story as an example:

Tim hated his old baseball glove. He wanted to play with a new glove, but he didn’t have any money, so he decided to steal it. But when Tim got caught stealing the glove, his parents said he couldn’t play baseball all summer.

A student who understands the concept of theme is likely to give a response like, “The lesson of the story is that if you want something, you should work for it.” A response like this shows that the student is processing the events of the story and extracting a larger idea, one which can be directly applied to someone’s life. A student who doesn’t understand theme will fixate on story level events. For example, “Tim shouldn’t steal.” While this response demonstrates comprehension of the text, it doesn’t show higher order thinking. The student is stuck in the small world of the story and needs to take the mental jump to the big world idea. Teaching students to distinguish between the small world of the story and the big world idea will help them to more accurately express their understanding of story themes.

4. Give Students Practice Identifying Themes: While I encourage you to study and discuss themes in each story that you read as a class, immediately after learning about theme, students need a variety of examples with which they can practice. I have created worksheets and activities where students identify themes in a variety of very short stories. Also, I have uploaded the PowerPoint slide show I used to teach theme to my students this year.

I hope these resources will help your students better understand theme and more consistently identify themes texts.

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3D Shapes and going to the Big D! (Dallas)

Today we watched these little videos for 3-D shapes! The kiddos loved them and I think they did an excellent job on introducing our geometry unit!

Solid Figures Geometry Video
3D Shapes I know (song)
Edges/Faces/Vertices
I leave for Dallas in 7 days (I've had a countdown going since day 33 days) to visit my lovely boyfriend!

We are going to try to make it “the place where Oswald shot Kennedy” better known as the 6th Floor Museum. (Read below)

The Museum is located on the sixth and seventh floors of an early 20th-century warehouse formerly known as the Texas School Book Depository. The permanent exhibit features films, photographs and artifacts that chronicle President Kennedy's life, death and legacy. Temporary exhibits can be seen on the seventh floor. The Museum offers monthly programs, special events and educational resources. While you're here, we invite you to visit both Museum Stores and to explore the Reading Room, the Museum's extensive library of books, audiovisual resources and artifacts.

We also plan on eating dinner at Breadwinner's Cafe I have been there before but we just had drinks. Heard it was amazing?
Anyone from the Dallas area with any opinions??

I'll be staying in Northeast of Dallas in a small town called Trenton! Not too far away!
Happy Hump Day!

Groundhog Day Resources!

Click for some fun ideas!