Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sometimes you just need to buy two...
Making Jiaozi with our Landlords
First rolling out the dough....
Learning with the walls
Getting the room ready before the first day of school. If you remember from last year, I was blessed to move to a bigger room :).
This wall has grown so much since the beginning of the year! If you notice with the tree as the landmark in the other picture, the walls were empty before. The rack has our hanging poems and shared readings that we have created together. The roads and houses that you see is our "Word family neighborhood". Every week we learn a few word families (-ake, -at) and will create the house together. When we put it in the neighborhood, we all chant together "We are family!" The tree is our "Poe-tree" with tongue twisters that we created the first couple weeks of school. Near the ceiling are the phonograms that we learn each week. We use the phonics dance to help us get movin' as we learn how to read! The students LOVE to watch this wall grow.
My new C.A.F.E. wall this year. Each column stands for categories to focus on to create a more balanced reading program (C - comprehension, A - accuracy, F - fluency, and E - expanded vocabulary). I use this during my reading workshop to introduce new strategies to use independently.
- "Mrs. Evans, I think I am building stamina for school. The day is going by much faster!"
- "Schema's what you know! What you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste, and what you feel!"
- "I can use my schema as a strategy to help me read the words. I just have to remember the words that are already stored in my head."
(I am not even stretching or polishing these quotes from my students....they are the raw material straight from their adorable mouths)
When we were making predictions before and after our reading, I copied a few books that I had not read to the class yet. As they walked around taking note of the book's clues (title and front cover picture), they wrote down there predictions. Now they have so much fun looking for those books in our library to see if they are actually true!
As you can see, I was actually able to upload pictures this time! The trick you might wonder? Two things: Coffee shop's internet + compressed pictures. A few extra steps, but I can finally connect with the real world again!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Kindred Spirits
A little over a week ago, I was contacted through Skype by Kelsey's boyfriend Tim. He asked me if I wanted to help be a part of this scavenger hunt that he had planned for Kelsey that upcoming Friday. All excited, I got prepared and ready to receive my phone call from Kelsey that Saturday morning (my time) at around 5:00am to give her the special clue for her next destination. The following things were left for even ME to discover when I received her call that morning:
- My sister Cassie was in the car with her! What an overwhelming/emotional wave of excitement bursting through the phone lines.
- She had already been on the scavenger hunt since 12:00 that afternoon - traveling all over Lynchburg.
- I was able to be her last clue which led her to the place where they had their first kiss.....AND.........
- To all of our surprises, Tim was waiting there on one knee asking her hand in marriage!
Tim on the other hand, got HUGE brownie points. I am so impressed that he knew my sister enough to have each of her siblings (even the ones in China) included in his proposal. Thank you again Tim for allowing me to be a part of your special day! Many blessings to you both. So...I guess I don't always have to just get the phone call a day later when things happen....I get to be on the phone when they are happening! What a privilege.
Pictureless blog
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
2nd year of teaching...what a joy.
Many things have changed for the better this year: We now have an English program for 1st grade to help support those who need basic vocabulary and speaking/listening skills.....(I wish I had that last year). Due to the effects of this program, the 13 first grade students enrolled for this year turned into 6 in the ES class and 7 in mine! Woah! At first, I was unsure what I was going to do going from a quiver-full last year to only 7. As time went on, I was overwhelmed with the blessing of a small class....not only is it much easier to manage, but I genuinely feel like I am able to create an individualized intervention plan (if needed) for each child in my classroom. Over the summer I researched a lot of new techniques to create more effective reading/writing instruction. With a smaller class, I am able to play around and experiment with this new framework for my teaching. Using the reading/writing workshop method, more time is allotted for actual independent reading and writing.....I actually have students saying "Mrs. Evans, writing is my favorite time of the day!" (no exaggeration). I have had many tearful moments of joy by the growth I have already been able to see this year. I can't wait to share more stories of how adorable my students are.
I have been trying to upload pictures, but for some reason the vpn is not working....I'll give it a try in a little bit.