Hi! HI!! HELLO!!
I’m so sorry I didn’t blog last weekend. I went away for the weekend and while I thought I would find the time to blog, I didn’t. But thank you for the emails and messages making sure I was still alive and well. 🙂
I was in Boston last weekend for the TpTea Conference! Lauren (A Teachable Teacher) and I flew there together and talked the entire 5 1/2 hours. It got so bad that we had to switch seats because our necks started hurting! 🙂
When we got to the airport in Boston and went to baggage claim, we met up with Christina (Mrs. Winter’s Bliss) and headed to the hotel. None of us had ever been to Boston before so we were super excited to freshen up and head out to dinner. We ate at an Italian restaurant and the food was delicious!
The next day, we used the Hop On/Hop Off Trolley Tour to get around the city and see the sights. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! Later that night, we went to a Happy Hour and met up with a ton of people! We went to dinner later with Jillian (Starr Spangled Planner) and then stayed up way too late talking. WAY TOO LATE.
The conference was on Saturday and there were some really great speakers, and all I know is that I’m not doing enough with this little side business of mine, but I also learned THAT I AM DOING A GREAT JOB BLOGGING.
Some people don’t even have a blog. And some do, but they never blog.
But I have a blog and I blog regularly and I have people who read it. And that, my friends, is what I’m most proud of because somehow, you all (you being the reader) have connected with me, and we are all in this together and I like you! And when I don’t blog for some reason (like last weekend), you’re sending me messages to make sure I’m okay.
I mean!!!!
Blogging is my favorite part of this whole “business”, so to know that I’m doing that part well is all I really need to know. I learned a bunch of other stuff, took notes, felt overwhelmed, ate a cookie, let Christina and Lauren be the nerds while I started tuning out and shutting down (WAY TOO MUCH INFORMATION FOR MY TEENY TINY BRAIN), and pretty much called it a day an hour before the conference was officially over.
I’m basically a child.
We went to another yummy Italian restaurant and then spent the rest of the night in the hotel TALKING.
When Steve was asking me what I saw and what we did, I’m pretty sure he was expecting to hear all about the touristy things I did.
And I’m here to say that I should have just met up with Lauren and Christina at someone’s house, or at a hotel in Timbuktu because all we needed was TIME TO TALK.
I think I got 8 hours total of sleep while I was there. 🙂
It went by so fast and the next thing I knew, I was back at school on Monday just like always.
Do you have Miss DeCarbo’s ELA Intervention Binder? Oh my word, this binder SAVES MY LIFE.
I’m using it primarily right now for two of my students who still do not know all of their letters and sounds. This is not their fault. It is their circumstances which is what I tell myself when what I really want to do is pull out all my hair and bang my head against my teacher table because M says MMM, M Mouse MMM, M says MMM every time no matter what, stop looking surprised at this like it is newfound information and you’ve never heard it before.
Anywho . . . this binder comes in really handy! I have all of the pages in sheet protectors so I can write with expo markers or my two little ones can. They like the activities and I feel like they’re making progress, albeit SLOW progress, but again, that’s not Miss DeCarbo’s Binder’s fault, it’s just the circumstances these little ones are in.
I can use this with my other groups, too, because it has everything you need from letters and sounds to blends, long vowels, etc.
I highly recommend it!! And, by the way, this is not a sponsored post. This is just how I feel. 🙂
I introduced this writing activity because I’m adding it to the choices my students will have in the writing center. There are different pictures along the bottom of the page and students cut out the ones they want to go in their picture – “Build It and Write”. FUN!
Now that I’ve introduced it, it will always be a choice in the writing center. I’ll just change out the page according to what we are learning, the season, or what the kids tell me they’re interested in.
And they’re always telling me what they’re interested in.
For example, you know how you’re in the middle of an amazing grammar lesson, and you’re all chewing gum so you can use adjectives to describe the gum, and you feel like you are teacher of the year, because even though you don’t transform your room into a water park to teach the water cycle, YOUR KIDS ARE CHEWING GUM AND THEY’RE HAPPY, and then THAT ONE KID raises their hand, and you think they’re going to tell you another adjective BUT INSTEAD, THEY TELL YOU THAT THEY LIKE HORSES, AND HOW, ONE TIME, THEY RODE A HORSE AND IT POOPED WHILE THEY WERE RIDING IT, and then the whole class dies laughing and repeats the word POOP a million times?
Well, I use that. I’ll get horse stuff to put in the writing center. I’ll get horse books from the library. I’ll talk about horses in a lesson.
My kids and me? We’re like.this.
Were you afraid I was going to say I’ll get poop stuff to put in the writing center? 😉
My class really liked the Build It and Write activity ,and several went to the writing center for Fun Thursday this week (we were off for Veteran’s Day on Friday) in order to get a new activity (a Thanksgiving turkey).
This is another recommendation and again, it’s not a sponsored post.
I am JUST full of recommendations today!
This is an oldie but a goodie!!
I have been really really really bad about Guided Math this year. So bad, in fact, that I haven’t even started it. That’s another post for another day, but I’m just here confessing it to you. You’re welcome.
Well, I have a small group that really needs some help with adding to 20. The rest of the class have it dialed down so I threw this Turkey Roll the Dice activity at them to keep them quiet-ish and busy. Whatever works is what I always say. I probably should have had them do a Math Performance Task but I didn’t.
Shoulder shrug.
Well.
They loved this! It was the first one we’ve done this year and they wanted to know if they could do two.
WINNER.
WINNING.
Who cares about a math performance task?
Not me.
Grab the Turkey Roll the Dice Freebie for yourself and use it this week! Or not. 😉
There is no picture for this because I don’t have a picture of the DARN TIME CHANGE.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the FALL BACK TIME CHANGE because we get an extra hour in our day. In fact, I got 4 extra hours in my day on Sunday because I flew from Boston to California.
But it did something to my kids.
Did it do something to your kids?
Because mine were NUTS this week. NUTS, I tell you.
If I said please turn your paper over, five students GOT UP OUT OF THEIR SEATS AND WENT TO TURN THEIR PAPERS IN AS IF I HAD SAID NOTHING.
When I went to pick them up from the playground, I did not find my two lines lined up ever so neatly. Oh no. Nope. They were everywhere. Hanging on the fence, talking in a group over here, playing keep away with the ball over there, sitting down over here playing with a spork and an ant . . .
My class IS ALWAYS LINED UP. It’s the one thing I can count on with this class.
But not this week.
And the DRAMA!!! She said, he won’t, she can’t, he never, she always, I don’t . . .
I might have said Mrs. Oldham is closed more than once.
I might have said I like my hair and you all are going to make me pull it out.
I like to say that I have good classroom management. Other people have told me that I do.
But this week?
Nope.
No.
NO.
Mrs. Oldham: 0 My Class: 3874397938393684
And it was a SHORT week, people!
GAH!
Five more school days until Thanksgiving Break!
🙂
Oh you have made me feel better. For awhile there I thought it was only my class that was so crazy! We had three days off due to no power. The two days we did have school many of the staff and almost all the students were still without power (bad wind and rain storm). This week we only had three days due to a comp day for p/t conferences and Veterans Day. Next week should be a treat!
WOW! What a week you had!!!!
This is what I love about you! You blog and tell us what is going on in your room. I’m thrilled that so many teachers have found a way to make money off of their talents. However, so many blogs now are non-exisistent or just big commercials. With your stuff, I feel like it is stuff you actually use in the classroom. I know I can count on it being good and useful! Thank you.
You are the sweetest!! Your comment just made my whole day. THANK YOU!!
Yes! The time change really turned my already challenging class into a tattling, complaining, not listening little mob! Even my 21 years of experience were no match for it. Thank heaven for Thanksgiving break soon, and so glad you had a great trip to Boston!
Yes, my 21 years of experience were also no match for it!!
I love the “turn your classroom into a waterpark” part. Ha! We won’t name names but what in the world is this “set the state to engage” stuff?! Like I can barely make it through a regular day with my time and $ 🙂 hehe.
Thank you, thank you for including number 5! I thought it was just me & mine. They are bouncing off the walls! And we are trying to do a Thanksgiving play for the parents on Friday. Just let me say, if the pilgrims acted like this, there would have been no Thanksgiving to celebrate!