All I Want For Christmas...

Well this marks the end of the 2nd nine weeks which means the first half of the school year is officially over. Our school district has administered our Benchmark Tests and we are officially on Christmas Break. During that last week of school I really took a good hard look and my students and though about which direction we will move in when we return to school in January. I keep a desk calendar in my classroom work area that I use to write out week by week what I want to make sure I cover what is important. This is my quick way to make sure I am meeting the standards and staying on track with my county's curriculum map. When we return to the school in January I know that I will begin to focus on subtraction, taking a very hands on approach first including lots of "munchin math," to get students to understand that once you subtract, they (the numbers) don't come back. Then we will move into basic fact practice, fact families, inverse relationships, and then problem solving. In terms of reading, I will focus on daily reading comprehension strategies and really dig into the meat of how to read a story for meaning, and fact finding. Grammar will basically spiral over topics we have already covered, but I have noticed that my students still need more practice with ending punctuation.

One great aspect about 2013 is that I won a $125 grant from KDP (Kappa Delta Pi is the international teaching honor society and provides great resources and opportunities for students, novice teachers, and practicing professionals. I am also the state delegate for the state of Georgia.) and will be able to purchase some materials to help my ELL students with reading for comprehension and meaning. I will also have a student teacher which I will mentor, advise, and have assist me in the classroom. This is a great asset for me as a teacher because it causes me to refocus and strive to be a great example for her. It also will provide an additional person in the room that will help me help students that need the most extra help. We have a saying that after the Christmas break when students return, their "light bulbs'' turn on. This year, all I want for Christmas is for that to be true. All I want for Christmas is for my students to return to school happy, healthy, safe, and ready to learn. Because God willing, I know I will be ready to teach!

Sally sells sea shells by the shiny sea shore.....

I really love when a lesson comes together and gives students a chance to shine.

The math lesson I focused on today was part of the Common Core First Grade Math Standards - "Operations and Algebraic Thinking 1.OA
Represent and solve problems involving addition.
1. Use addition within 20 to solve word problems involving
situations of adding to, putting together.
2. Solve word problems that call for addition of three whole numbers
whose sum is less than or equal to 20, e.g., by using objects, drawings,
and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the
problem.

The lesson started with our Singapore Math problem solving. The problems that we are working on now are using three addens, so students are getting used to working with numbers within 20. After we problem solved, we moved to the computer. I like to add a computer/technology component to most of my lessons. We went to Harcourt School Publishers website to do Seashell Search as a class using our flatscreen tv as a monitor and my teacher computer to complete the activity. We talked about different addition strategies as we worked the problems. We discussed doubles facts, counting on, counting up, etc. Then we moved from the carpet and into "work buddies." Students just slid their desk next to the person next to them and they were given seashell themed workmats and seashells. I got the templates from this great book, Math Work Stations by Debbie Diller!

Modeling for students how their addition sentences should look

Seashell work mats from Debbie Dillers work station book

Student using the shells and work mat to create addition sentences

Whole class recording sheet - Students told me the different ways they were able to make 10. We circled the doubles fact.

Then students were given large size index cards and they worked together to create addition sentences using the seashells and used the large index cards as their recording sheets. This really allowed students to work at their level. Many students looked at how to add three numbers, many students gave the commutative property as they created their addition sentences. As I walked around and monitored their work, I heard them problem solving, fact checking, and helping their work buddies to see how to make different combinations.

After about 8 minutes of synergy with their buddies, I told them they now had a task to tell me many ways to make 10. They put their extra seashells back in the Ziploc bags and only left out 10 shells. Then they had to work again for about 5 minutes to make combinations that would equal 10. Then after the time was up, they told me their different combinations and I recorded them on the board. They were really excited about the math lesson today and it really let them use manipulatives, problem solving, and socialization skills to think mathematically.

"It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas..."

Well, the holidays are here and in the primary grades we still try to squeeze in a bit of magic and mystery to the Christmas season for our students. I will also preface this by saying that where I teach, we can actually use the word "Christmas." Where I started my teaching career because of the various religious, cultural, ethnic, and social situations we were not allowed or able to use Christmas. We had to steer toward a "Happy Holidays" theme. We also could not use red and or green, Christmas trees, Santas, etc. We had to use more of a winter theme. I am not stating a right or wrong position here. I am just stating that various areas of the world approach this time differently and what today's post is about is based on the fact that I am in an area that celebrates Christmas in all facets. Hence the visit from..."Spotty."

"Spotty" is ready for Monday morning with a personalized note

.

 

I had never heard of "The Elf on the Shelf" until about two years ago, so I was surprised that so many students enjoyed this "little visitor" and the impact he had on classrooms! As you may be able to tell, I always like to do things a little bit differently so I just couldn't go out and buy and Elf and follow the Elf on the Shelf trend....not that there is anything wrong with that, but I have students who already have an "Elf" at home and I wanted to see how they would respond to something else.

So I went out and bought a spotted dalmatian with a Christmas look, typed up a little introductory letter about who Spotty was, where he came from, and why he was in our class. Then on Monday morning I sat him on a student's desk. Well I was surprised to find that the students loved knowing about Spotty and they have really taken to him. In the letter the students were told he came from the North Pole and he heard from his frosty friends that our class was known to be the best so he wanted to "Spot" us having good behavior and doing our work. Now each day Spotty moves around the classroom and leaves a little note for the students and a reminder to make the right choice and if they do, they may just get a little reward! The rewards are small things like listening to Christmas music or watching the Christmas tree lights in our room. The students are very excited and I can use "Spotty" to help keep them focused on work, including important Benchmark Tests.

You Know You are a Teacher When!

I know there are probably lists like this floating around, but I just had to put my spin on it as a light hearted way to welcome the holidays. As time nears to buy teachers gifts or show your appreciation, just think about the life your favorite teacher (or you yourself) lives. Enjoy and post your own "teacher-ism."
 You know you are a teacher when...

1. You try to open your house door with your school keys
2. You look down at your nails and think....hmm when did I get a manicure and realize it is ink from your dry erase markers left on after a day of writing on the board
3. You think of rhymes to remember your own grocery list
4. You have to physically remove yourself from the pencils, pens, crayons, and supply isles in stores
5. You get excited about a Scholastic Book Warehouse sale as if it is a Macy's one day bonanza (by the way, it is the season for sales, check out the website to see if one is near you
6. You say "criss cross applesauce hands in your lap" more times in one day than you say your own name
7. You have a hard time calling your teacher friends by their first names when you are outside of school 
8. You hoard cardboard tubes because you never know what type of project you could use them for
9. You think that anyone who doesn't have to go to work until 9 a.m. is just a little bit lucky because your school duty begins at 7:30 a.m.
10. You can't wait until that 7:30 a.m. duty begins because you miss your "school kids" faces!

Time after Time!

Being a first grade teacher is exciting, rewarding, and don't take this the wrong way...repetitive! By that I mean, you introduce a concept, and it continues to spiral throughout the year adding more depth and concepts to the original learning goal. For example, we are still working on addition and subtraction however, this time we are going to really focus on problem solving. In my first grade math teachers' focus group we are looking at ways to tackle the new standards laid before us by the Common Core in which students must not only add simply 2+3, but will need to know how to find the missing adden, apply the communitive and associative properties, fact families, and inverse relationships. Don't get me wrong we did these things before Common Core, but it is more in depth than before and our current math book series does not address these areas as much as needed to ensure that students are able to grasp and apply these concepts. So I will be searching the web, altering current materials, and use manipulatives to help students with these math concepts.

I use Singapore Math Problem Solving that uses a step by step approach and unit bars as shown above as part of my daily math time. I am also going to whip out my Kindle Fire for basic math fact practice because if students have basic math fact concepts securely ingrained, then they may not struggle with the higher order thinking concepts.

I used it last year in class as a ticket out the door and students loved it. My student teacher started bringing hers in and used it as well.

In math I really see the need to spiral, increase rigor, and practice daily math concepts. We are getting ready for our county's benchmark tests, so I am breaking my math time into chunks that allow for review of time, graphs, addition and subtraction, as well as measurement.