Our War on Pronouns and the Disappearing Main Idea

     I am a looping teacher.  This is my second year with this group of students.  In fourth grade I used the term "TTQA" ("turn the question around") to help students construct better answers.  As fifth graders, they started to get a bit sloppy about TTQA, so it was time for a new angle.  During a grammar unit on pronouns I introduced the term antecedent.  An antecedent is a noun that occurs before a pronoun.  Pronouns should never be used in front of nouns.  So I declared a war on pronouns without antecedents.  The student made the posters which are displayed in the front of the room which show pronouns are not welcomed here!

     Task cards are one of my favorite teaching tools.  They are flexible and great for small groups and centers.  Recently I purchased these summary task cards on Teachers Pay Teachers. Although the directions for them said "Summarize this paragraph in twelve words are less.", I wanted to do something a little more fun and challenging with my student who has difficulty in this area.  I had him roll the dice to determine how many words his summary had to be.  This made him work a bit harder.  He found that the less words he could use the harder it was to summarize and the more he had to use his own words, but that lead to some great conversation that helped him gain some insight in this valuable skill.

Back to School: First Week (and a FREEBIE)

 Front board:  Whole Brain Teaching Rules up top, class theme (Olympics) on right side, homework board on left.  On the marker tray:  new books for the classroom library.

It's the end of our first week back to school.  Well, it's a full week for me, two days for the kids.  This is the second year of my loop from fourth to fifth.  The kids entered the room with an enthusiasm you rarely see on the first day.  There were lots of hugs and high fives.  Because many of the students kept in touch during the summer through Edmodo (a closed, socio-educational network), friendships picked up right where they left off.  It felt more like coming back from Christmas vacation, rather than coming back from summer vacation.  Even those students who did not go on Edmodo during the summer made connections with each other.  Two of my students found out that they lived just down the street from each other.  They played together several times a week during the summer.  I nearly cried when I heard this, because these two boys are perfect for each other!  Where one is strong academically, the other is weak.  Where one is weak socially, the other is strong.  How wonderful that these two boys got together and formed a bond!

My nook:  Common Core standards bulletin board (from Teachers Pay Teachers), the green desk organizer my husband made for me, and the fiction series part of the classroom library.

The great thing about looping with a class is, the second year, classroom routines are effortless.  I didn't have to tell anyone how to move their counter on the attendance/lunch count board.  I didn't have to explain the attention signal.  They even remembered our Whole Brain Teaching rules and actions!  This made activities just speed by.  I'm glad I only had two days with the kids because I found myself with time on my hands that I did not expect.  Next week I need to plan more activities.  The time that I would normally spend this time of year teaching routines can now be spent actually doing curriculum.
The flip side is that, since social bonds are so strong, that students tend to be more chatty.  Although they know the rules, they can have a hard time following them.  I found, during Morning Meeting, I had to spend nearly as much time as I did last year reviewing what the Greeting looks like, sounds like, and feels like.  I had to do the same with Read to Self (Daily 5).

This week's FREEBIE:  Partner Share Cards

One goal I have this year is to harness my students' strong social connections to enhance their academics.  One way to do this is through daily partner shares.  In DPS students share something about the book they are reading during Read to Self.  I made up two types of cards:  HOW to Share and WHAT to Share. Each goes in a different container.  At the end of Daily 5, I pull one card from each container for a quick, 5 minute share time.  I'm hoping to have a bit longer share time on Fridays where kids can share their favorite books with the whole class.  Already having one year of Daily 5 under our belts, this class is a group of voracious readers.  Even though I have added 40 new books to my classroom library already, my students still need to hear recommendations.

Me on the Web:  

NEW AND IMPROVED Class Website:  4mrsjones.weebly.com

2009-2011 Class Website:  www://4mrsjones.110mb.com

Podcasts on Educational Topics:  http://frommrsjones.podbean.com

You Tube Channel:  mrsc4jones

Pinterest pages:  http://pinterest.com/c4jones

More Classroom Organization

This week I have been on an interview committee for a position at my school. I've had a chance to start on my room arrangement. The room is next door to my old room and was the former Title One room. You wouldn't think it would be much different, but it totally is!
For one thing, every thing is facing the opposite direction. I know this doesn't sound like much, but it is driving me nuts! The wiring in the room was upgraded because of the number of computers Title One had, so I have lots of outlets unlike most rooms in our old building. Because of the number of outlets and their height on the wall, when the two cubbies were replaced they were not put together in one unit. In the middle I put the students mailboxes. I hope this will be a very handy place for them. Since there is also one of those four outlet junction boxes, I am going to put a rectangle table there (sticking out into the room) so when we borrow the laptops, we have a place to put them that is right near an outlet.
I am using the floor plan that was chosen by the class last year as the culminating project for a Math unit on area and perimeter. I quickly realized the winning entry was missing several pieces of furniture. So, I plan on moving these items out of the classroom next door to the multi-purpose room. On the first day, I will ask the students what is missing and where we might put those things. It will be a great learning experience to get us back in the mode of working together.

I started working on the main "teaching" board. Yes, looking at the picture you can see it is just a whiteboard clumsily attached to the old chalkboard with the sides of the chalkboard still showing. I wish our school had the time and money to do things right the first time. Anyway, at least I have a whiteboard. I'm allergic to chalk dust! The teacher names on the left side of the board are all the teachers at my school. Fifth grade is the first year they switch for a subject (Math), so this is where one designated student from each class can write the homework assignment from that class.  The right hand side has a graphic of the Olympic Motto as the Olympics is our theme this year.

I have a small class this year (only 20) so there is extra room..... and desks.  I want to help students be more responsible for classroom supplies this year.  Students will also be doing a lot of notebooking and lapbooking in Science, Social Studies and Math, so having those supplies in one central location doesn't really work.  Each group will have an extra desk in the middle of their group.  On it will be a caddie of supplies for the group to share, such as colored pencils, markers, highlighters, glue, and scissors.  Each child will continue to have their own pencils and crayons.  This way, if they leave the cap off the glue, they have no one to blame but themselves!
Me on the web:
class website:  www.4mrsjones.110mb.com
You Tube channel:  mrsc4jones
podcast:  http://frommrsjones.podbean.com
Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/c4jones