Five for Friday

 I am linking up with Kacey for another edition of Five for Friday, but on Saturday instead. :)

One. I survived our state testing this past week. My 6th graders tested on Tuesday and Wednesday. I feel pretty good about how my kids did and have been so pleased with all of their hard work these past few weeks as we did some serious test prep.We took a brain break and we watched Holes on Thursday and Friday. This is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time!

Two. I joined the Cricket Crunch Club yesterday at school! 

My friend Shayna from Science Teaching Junkie teaches 8th grade Science at my school. She recently went to the NSTA conference in San Antonio and at one of the booths they were doing taste testing of crickets. She got the recipe and made some for her kids on Friday. Of course I had to try one, so I went by her room on Friday and ate a cricket!!! It was crunchy and tasted like a sunflower seed in my opinion. 

Three. This coming Friday we have field day for our 6th graders and this is one of my favorite days of the year! We have a full on track meet for our 6th graders! All I know is that my class better win! 

Four. Only 30 more days of school which includes our teacher inservice day after the students get out. Is it just me, or has this year flown by? I think it may have something to do with the fact that I am teaching 105 students and they keep me on my toes. :)

Five. Many of you all know that I will be teaching 1st grade in the fall...what are some must haves that I need to make sure that I have? I have a very large selection of picture books already, but what sort of manipulatives would you suggest? Also, where do you all find your big books from? I would love to hear your suggestions!

What I've Been Up To...

Is it just me, or has life been absolutely crazy for you too these past few weeks? At school we had been cramming lots of last minute things in before testing. Oh, did I mention that as of today I am done with state testing for a while?!?!?! My 6th graders wrapped up their second day of state testing today and I know they all worked so hard on their tests in math and reading. Now we just have to wait until the results come back in a few weeks!

This past weekend was a crazy busy one for me. I spent a bit of time at my summer home doing some prep for the summer along with the other members of the director's staff. I am so looking forward to this summer and the great opportunity that I have! 

I also got to see some of my wonderful camp friends this weekend too as we celebrated the wedding of a fellow camp friend! There is just something about spending time with good friends! 

Plus we had a blast with the photo booth! Yes, you are counting correctly, there were 10 of us in it at one time!

Sunday and Monday I was lucky enough to spend at the International Reading Association Conference that was held in San Antonio. As soon as I found out that it was going to be held in SA, I knew that I could not miss out on it. I am so glad that I made it happen because all of the sessions that I went to were so great! 

The first session I went to on Sunday was one with the amazing Heidi of Heidi Songs! As soon as I found out I was going to 1st grade, I knew that I wanted to attend her session! She did not disappoint one bit! In my district we use Saxon phonics, but there is some room for supplementing and I think Heidi's ideas are just what I needed. I may have already ordered a few things from her website! :) I cannot wait to create and implement some of her ideas into my own classroom. 

Being that it was a huge international conference, you know the exhibit hall was amazing! Guess who I found in there?

Yep, Melanie from Inspired in Style and Schoolgirl Style! This girl is so sweet and I loved getting to meet her! She did a super cute word wall presentation and she gave all of us participants a few free things from Creative Teaching Press. You cannot pass up free stuff from there! 

In the afternoon I went to another session of Heidi's, but this time she was focused on writing instruction and how she makes it happen in her classroom. I absolutely love attending presentations when the presenter is currently teaching because I know that they have experiences that we can relate to. 

I finished the day by attending a session that talked about teaching writing in a K/1 classroom that was presented by a pair of educators. It was really great because they focused on guided writing and how to make the decisions that you need to make in order to guide your writers effectively. They shared several videos from the classroom and I loved some of the things that I noticed such as having the students write in pen or pencils with no erasers so they do not focus on making their work perfect, having a practice page in their writer's notebooks where they can practice a word before writing it on their draft, and also the forms she used to track student progress. This session gave me some great ideas about how to implement guided writing in my classroom.

After the day was over, I went to the River Walk with one of my friends and then we took a little trip to the Alamo. I remember thinking when I was littler that the Alamo was huge, but I was shocked to realize how small it really is when we went by after dinner.

Monday was the last day of the conference and I went to a few more sessions. I went to another sessions about implementing literacy centers and another one on phonics and the multi-sensory approach. They were both great as well.

I also ran into one of the consultants that comes to my district to help us implement Sheltered Instruction strategies. Essentially these are strategies that are geared towards helping our ELL/ESL population, but really these strategies are good for all students. We chatted for a bit and I also got to meet her boss who the company is named for.

Hopefully your life has been a little slower than mine! Only 31 more school days left in the year for me! It is hard to believe. 31 more days and I will become a 1st Grade Teacher! 

International Reading Association

I am so excited because I am going to be spending the weekend at the International Reading Association conference in San Antonio. I have been looking forward to this for so long! I am also excited that I can get my feet wet with some lower elementary things now after finding out I will be teaching 1st in the fall. I promise to come back next week sometime and share some of the things that I learn with you all. 

If you are going to be there, let me know! I would love to meet some fellow bloggers while I am there! 

Following My Heart...

I have pretty much known ever since I was a 3rd grader that I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. Luckily, that dream was able to come true. I think part of the reason that I wanted to become a teacher was because of the amazing teachers that I had while I was growing up. I actually have loved my teachers so much that I am pretty sure that I could name a few of my favorites from every year. I too hope that I can be that teacher in the eyes of at least some of my students. 

While I was in high school, I was blessed with the opportunity to be an elementary teacher aide. By that time, I already knew I wanted to be a teacher. I was blessed enough to be placed with my high school volleyball coach's wife and loved every minute of it. I actually loved it so much that I took the class twice and was with her again my Senior Year of high school. Up until this point, I was really thinking that I possibly wanted to teach at the high school level and coach. However, I remember this moment so well. It was the second semester of my senior year, and I was working with a guided reading group. I just remember getting this overwhelming feeling that I was supposed to be an elementary teacher. I knew then that I had to make my concentration Early Childhood-6th Grade once I got to college. 

While I was in college I was lucky enough to continue to volunteer in this same classroom as well as sub in PK-8th grade classrooms within the district. I loved the opportunity to work in many different classrooms and to observe children of all different ages. To this day, I still believe that subbing while I was in college was one of the best things that I could have done. 

When I student taught I ended up in a 4th grade classroom and loved it! It was such a pleasant surprise because I was not sure how it would be. You see, I had always pictured myself in a 1st or 2nd grade classroom. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed about being in 4th. I do think it was a total God thing though because it ended up being amazing. I was a little shocked though when the middle school principal called the elementary school and asked if I could take over a 6th grade class in the middle of my student teaching. After some thinking, I decided to do it. I was the person that said I would never teach middle school, and there I was doing it. That experience ended up getting me my first job teaching 6th grade Language Arts. I am currently finishing my 2nd year teaching 6th grade. 

Now you see, my dream has always been to teach at the elementary level, but 6th grade is what fell into my lap. During my first two years I have learned so much! I would not trade this experience for anything. However, it is time to follow my heart and my lifelong dream. 

I am so excited because I am going to be teaching 1st Grade in the fall! That's right...1st grade!!! I have known for a week now, but it still has not set it because I cannot believe that it is really happening! My heart is just so happy and I cannot wait for the fall to get here! 

You are probably wondering what is going to happen to this little 'ole blog. Well, I am happy to say that it is going nowhere! It will have a new name and a new look, but all of the content is staying! Hopefully some of you all will join me as I begin a new adventure with a class full of firsties!

Five for Friday

I am linking up for Kacey's weekly linky where I can recap what has happened during my week. This has been a pretty darn exciting week for me! 

One. We only have 12 more school days until my 6th graders take the state assessment (STAAR) in reading! I know we have all been working our butts off, but I am still so nervous. Be sure and say a special prayer for my kiddos and all other 6th graders on April 23rd and 24th!

Two. There are some exciting changes coming in the near future for me and I am so thrilled about them! I cannot wait to share them with you in the next few weeks! 

Three. My kids are absolutely loving the book clubs that we are doing in class right now. I have actually already had several kids finish their first books because they could not put them down. We have been using the iPads and I have gotten several audio books from Audible. Love it and so do the kids! I also love that they all have headphones on, so while I am meeting with my small groups, we are not distracting. :)

Four. I coach club volleyball and we wrapped up our season last weekend! I am so proud of my girls because they improved so much during the course of the season. At our last tournament we only lost one match and then we won the silver bracket! 

Five. I am so excited that we are going to the Zoo for our field trip! I have not been since I was subbing in a 1st grade class a few years ago. I have a feeling 6th graders will be a little different, but I am still pumped!

Book Clubs...They're a Hit!

Today was our first official day of book clubs, and I was so pleased with how they went. We had spent the past few school days setting expectations and discussing procedures for the book clubs. The hardest part for me was actually assigning the books. We laid out all of the choices last week and the students then listed their top five choices on their choice sheet. I was pretty pleased because I only had to place a few students in a group that did not contain a book they selected. 

The highlight though was definitely getting out the iPads for my students to use while they read their book club books. They were so excited! I ordered some Belkin Rock Stars from Amazon so I can plug up to 5 headphones into the iPad. They worked great! Here is a picture of one of my groups that is reading Trouble Maker by Andrew Clements. They made my day when they were listening and all of a sudden I hear a chuckle out of them! 

As I am looking on iTunes for more audio books, I am discovering that some of the titles are not there. Where do you find audio books for your classroom? I am open to using other resources. 

I promise to keep blogging about our classroom journey with book clubs!