Sweet Summertime...

What is that? It seems like I have been going and going since school let out on June 1st. I wish I could say that I have been doing some much needed relaxing, but that won't happen until I finish with my comprehensive exam for Grad School on June 30th. Luckily, this has been the easiest of the three semesters, but I am so ready for it to be over. Did I mention that I am going to start the principalship semester this fall too? I know that if I do not do it now that I will never do it.

This past week I spent three days on the Riverwalk in San Antonio attending the Texas State CSCOPE Conference. I was asked to go by my principal back in the spring when she was wanting me to teach some math classes. CSCOPE is the curriculum that my district uses for everything except Language Arts. My district has been implementing the curriculum one subject at a time. We started with Science and then added Math this past year. This coming year will be Social Studies and as of now Language Arts will be following in the next school year. I tried to get out of going, but there was not another female to take my place. I ended up going to all Language Arts sessions and was very pleased with some of the ones that I attended. I am actually planning on using the ELA component of CSCOPE this coming school year because we really lack a scope and sequence in ELA on my campus. I figured if I will be expected to use it the next year, why not go ahead and get my feet with it already?

I am also excited to be helping Laure from Will Grade for Coffee celebrate 100 followers! Be sure and go and check out her giveaway! There are some great prizes available to whoever wins!

Scope and Sequence Planning

A Scope and Sequence is something that I have really missed this year. One was not provided to me by my district and unfortunately I do not really have a team that is willing to put one together. I am now in the process of writing one for the upcoming school year because I have really hated not knowing what is going to come next.

I have been able to pull lots of great things from the school districts around me, but am still not sure how to exactly approach this. In my classes I have always been taught to start with the end of the year and go the first part of the year to make sure everything is covered.

Do you have someone in your district or on your campus that does the curriculum writing for you? Just curious as to how others do it.

Persuasive Resources

After today I only have a half day left between me and Christmas break! I am so excited to have 2 weeks off. Luckily, I have nothing planned during the break and I think I am most excited about that. 

When we come back to school in January, I have decided that I am going to be using the Language Arts C-SCOPE curriculum for my class. My district has currently adopted the math and science curriculum, but the Language Arts and Social Studies is also available to us. I know I have blogged about the lack of scope and sequence before, and I am actually really loving what CSCOPE has to offer. So many teachers in the district have been complaining about it because you have to do a lot of supplementing. However, I think that when you have nothing to go from, it has some good bones to work with to make it great for your students.I loving using picture books as mentor texts, and was wondering what books you love to use to teach persuasion. My kids will be identifying different techniques used in reading and they will also be writing their own persuasive essays.

Along with the new curriculum, I am excited to get stations going again in my classroom. I have really missed doing them this past 6 weeks, but with what I was teaching, it just wasn't conducive. I have been thinking about how I am going to make it work, and I think I am most excited about my stations board. I am going to get it all finished over the break and will be sure to share with you all.

I am also looking at purchasing the 6+1 traits writing crate from Scholastic. Have you ever used this for writing instruction in your classroom? The new math teacher who taught 5th grade self-contained last year was telling me about it and that she loved it. I might also see if I can budget for it for next year, but I would love to have it this school year. What do you use to teach writing in your class? 

After today I am finished giving tests. Since my classes are double blocked, we have been testing during the first 2 hours, and during the second 2 hours we have been watching The Polar Express and I made them hot chocolate too. Even though my kids have seen the movie a bunch, they still love it!