What a day...

Ugh!!  My students were well behaved today except for the time when my principal came in.  They were super excited about our math lesson and they just got a little out of control.  We were working with linking cubes, but they just got really excited about it.  Then when they were done, they were supposed to read a book quietly at their desk.  Well, my students are super excited about reading now and everyone was coming up to me while I was helping students with their math.  They kept coming up to me and telling me that they could read it or read a certain word and they were all so proud of their reading.  Then I had a student messing around on my carpet.  UGH!!!!!  Needless to say, after my principal left I completely told my kids that their behavior was awful and they need to show me the right behavior for when you are completing your math assignment.  I just hope she doesn't criticize me too much for that one snapshot of my teaching.

frustrating day

I had such a good day with my students.  But during tutoring today, I am finding out how behind my students are.  It is frustrating when I can't figure out why a student can't blend his sounds together to form a word.  He can sound out the word, but can't put those sounds together.  I can't figure out what to do.  I will be online all night trying to figure out how I can help him.

Great tutoring experience today!!

Hello again!
Today I had 8 students in tutoring and it was completely amazing!!  I have been reading this guide that I bought on TPT on how to become a guided reading guru and it is the most amazing thing that I have purchased since being on TPT.  Go to this link to buy it if you want to.  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Become-a-Guided-Reading-Guru
It was 9 dollars when I bought it and it was completely worth every penny. 

So anyway, today I was tutoring my students after school and had the best guided reading sessions in a long time!  I am slowly learning how to choose books that are at the instructional level for my students.  It is great to finally see them having some success with their reading.  They are even choosing to read their guided reading books during free time/when they are done with their work time.  I love seeing my students excited about their reading. 

I had three students in my last group of guided reading during tutoring today. So we talked about good reader strategies and then we talked about what happens when you use all of those strategies and you are still stuck on a word.  The students replied, "you ask a neighbor for help."  And then I told them that sometimes the first neighbor doesn't know the word.  And they said to ask another neighbor.  So I let them start reading their stories on their own and let them put those strategies to work.  One student stopped and said, "Miss" and before I could go help him his neighbor came over and said, "what word are you stuck on?"  And they figured it out together with no help from me.  It was magical!!  I know it seems like such a small thing, but to see them grow from where they were when they came to me to where they are now is insane!!  I love seeing progress even if it is small progress.

What a great day!

guided reading groups

Hello again,
I had a really interesting guided reading group today.  At the beginning of each reading group we talk about "Good Reader Strategies".  My students today came up with these:
Look at pictures
sound out the word
"Blend it"
"Look for digraphs"
The last two were so funny.  I use higher vocabulary with my students because I believe they should know the "real" name of the things that we cover in class.  I guess they caught on.  It was so funny to hear that out of their mouths!!

busy weekend

Wow!!  What a busy weekend!!  Friday my hubby and I went to a casino to celebrate his birthday and Valentine's Day.  We had fun, but it was nice to get back home and get ready for the week ahead.  I finished my lesson plans on Saturday so I had all of Saturday night and Sunday to relax.  Well that didn't end up happening, but who cares.  I went into school today and found some books to categorize into guided reading level buckets, but couldn't figure out what level all of the books were.  I used the book wizard on scholastic website.  http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/  I like it but not all of my books had a guided reading level available.  I wonder how you find that out when it is not listed on this site.  I also went to the store and bought some white cardstock paper to print out some of my latest purchases from TPT.  Look what I printed out.  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Become-a-Guided-Reading-Guru  I love this packet!!  It is soooo amazing.  I am learning so much from this packet.  I am going to print the whole thing out and have it put into a binder for future reference.  I also printed out calendar cards that have the cat in the hat and thing 1 on them.  They are so adorable and I found them for free on TPT.  Check them out and print them out.  I know you won't be disappointed!!  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dr-Seuss-Calendar-Numbers 

Great day of teaching

I had a great day with my students today.  Last week our staff was scared when we were informed that the state is coming soon because we did not make AYP.  We are nervous because we know they will be brutally honest with us.  But maybe that is really what we need.  I am actually feeling good about them coming, because I feel like I really could improve my teaching skills.  Our students aren't passing the tests, and maybe we could take some constructive criticism to help us become better.  So anyway...
This past weekend I spent many many hours working on my lesson plans for my kids.  I felt really prepared today and was ready to kick my lessons into high gear.  My students did so well and the content of my lesson really hit home.  We had so much to do that we skipped morning recess, and my students didn't even really care.  I love having days like this because it just pumps me up for the week ahead.  I hope more days of this for me and my students' sake.  Great day!

I love when I stumble upon something great...

I found some really great stuff last night while I was checking out http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/!  My husband was busy playing video games so it gave me some time to look (and buy) some things that I think will be just great in my classroom.  It's okay because yesterday was pay day!  I especially like the things from Cara Caroll's store on teachers pay teachers.  I have bought her "Digraph Kids" and her "Crazy for Contractions".  Her things are so cute and I will be using them very soon.  Click on the link below to check out all of her stuff for sale!!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Cara-Carroll

Hello Everyone!

Hi!  I am excited to be starting my blog!  I will soon have classroom things up.  I hope to share ideas on this blog and learn from other people's blogs too.