R & R

Spending a little quality time with friends at Surfside Beach...south of Myrtle Beach, SC for about a week.  After this little get away, I will have two weeks left before starting back to school.  Hard to believe that it is already time to start back to school - must mean that I've had a busy summer. 

I plan to work on interactive notebook ideas for language arts and science when I get back from the beach.  That is, between workshops for school and for the college where I work part-time.  Any ideas or links that anyone would like to share, please feel free - I'm sure that I am not the only one who would love to know about any ISN ideas, activities, or lessons out there for language arts and science.

Enjoy your last few weeks of summer!

Really?  I am so much on vacation that I don't even know where I am...Surfside Beach is in SC...not NC.  But right now, I am too lazy to fix it!

Randy

Semi-Surprise?!?!?!

Well, all good things come to those who wait, right?  My grandfather used to always say "weight is what broke the wagon."  And that is kind of what has happened, waiting for the dust to settle at school has my teaching assignment for the upcoming school year changed yet again - or my joy wagon broken, but only partly. 
When I left school in early June, I would be teaching four science classes.  Then a couple of weeks ago because of my AIG certification, I would now be teaching one language arts class and three science classes.  I can say I wasn't mad about that.

As of yesterday, I will now be teaching two language arts classes and two science classes.  At first, I can honestly say I was slightly disappointed but after some reflecting, realized it was a GREAT plan.

I will be on a four person team with three other AWESOME teachers and because of the certification of two of us, we have worked out a(n) great amazing schedule for our kiddos - kiddos that I love and am very excited to be looping up to 7th grade. The other teacher and I will both teach two language arts classes and two science classes.  We will both be teaching language arts our first two blocks and science our last two blocks - meaning all of our students will be taught language arts before lunch!  This is like a dream to me (us) since they will be fresh in the mornings. 

Yay to the school year starting out on a good note and for a fabulous team that has been assembled.  And the best part, school hasn't even started and we are all working together and in the best interest of our students. 

Explains it all right now!

Desk Plans...finally!

So, I know that many a few of you have been waiting forever for me to get measurements of my computer desk.  Well, the slacker has finally followed through!  It took me a couple of extra days and trips than I had planned, but I did get the measurements today (after I made a second trip back to school today with a tape measure - I have one in my classroom, but did I mention I am MOVING classrooms and everything is still packed/strung all over the room?)! 
I have taken two pictures of the drawings I attempted to make.  You have to promise that no one will be laughing at my poor attempt to draw - I am definitely not an architect, designer, or artist!  I hope that you can see the measurements in the photo. 

I had mentioned that I would make some tweaks to my original design, so the second photo is one where I erased the original lines I drew in pencil and used a red pen to hopefully show what I would modify if I ever build a newer one. 

I just hope it all makes sense and is clear enough to get a gauge as to what you could have someone build for you.  I am posting this from my part-time job, but when I get home will attempt to scan my drawing and place it in google docs so you can download it as well. 

I hope no one has any questions, because I am not sure I will be able to exaplain very well.  BUT...if you do have questions, I will do my best to attempt to answer them for you. 

FYI...mine was made out of 1 inch plywood (not sure what kind) and a couple of 2X4s which were ripped  down to make the shelf support and then even smaller to make a lip around the top edge.  I painted it orange thinking this was a great idea...wowsers was I wrong!  So then I painted it black and clear coated it.  Also, the holes are needed to be able to put the wires through.  I think he made the holes 2in diameter to allow the ends of the cables to pass through the openings. 

Good luck and happy constructing!

Here are the dimensions/measurements of my current computer desk/stand.  I hope this is clear.  Please ignore the horrible drawing.

Here is a "tweaked" version of the computer desk/stand.  I hope all the red makes sense.  I know my drawings are ghetto fabulous and everyone is jealous of my abilities!

Randy

A Great Language Arts Interactive Notebook Resource

Check out these Reading Response labels that can be used in your language arts interactive notebooks.  Rachel Lynette over at Minds-in-Bloom created them.  I asked her if she had anything like it and lickety-split, she had created this set.  They can be printed on labels or if you are cheap like I am, I print them on colored paper and have students glue them in their notebooks. 

You can get the labels by clicking HERE or click on any of the label images.



This is a snippet of one page of labels comparing yourself to a book character.



Another snippet from another page of labels about "jumping into the book."



One last snippet about an important event from a story.  There are 42 pages in all!  A great, pre-made resource to have in your arsenal.

Surprise!

The end of the school year has finally arrived...it has been quite hectic and stressful.  This has been a great year and I have truly enjoyed my first year in 6th grade AND teaching two subjects.  I was afraid it was going to be an emotional last day of school with these kiddos.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my students and at one point in the year, thought I would be looping up to 7th grade with them, but that plan changed.  And changed, and changed, and well...you get the idea.  A couple of weeks ago I was told I would remain in 6th grade, have a new teammmate and continue to teach language arts and social studies.  I can honestly say I wasn't mad about that idea.

But, things changed this past Thursday.  I found out I WAS indeed moving to 7th grade and I WAS looping with my students.  Great!  That emotional last day didn't happen because I knew we would be together again next year. 

Then the whammy was thrown at me...not only would I need to pack up my old room (I have a lot of stuff, and I had just moved to this room at the beginning of the school year), but would be moving my room next Tuesday.  What? 

On top of that...I would be teaching on a 4 person team...teaching SCIENCE.  Oh my! 

I am excited about the upcoming changes and looping with my students.  The sad part, I will be leaving my SMARTboard behind, which was just installed in February and became operational in March.  I have used that thing almost daily since the day the tech department finally performed that final connection.  As a matter of fact, we started using it before they even left the room.  Maybe they will find the funds to get another one installed in my new room.

So...it looks like I will spend my summer learning all about science (weather, physics, human body, and genetics) in 7th grade.  I will be blog stalking, Pinning, LiveBindering, borrowing, and stealing all that I can this summer.  Any ideas of things any of my followers would like to share, please feel free...I won't be offended!

I know I will continue to use interactive notebooks, found a science interactive notebooking book, and will start out the year with the scientific method, lab safety type stuff.  And we will do several mini labs to get our feet wet. 

Any book titles anyone would like to suggest that may go with my new curriculum would also be greatly appreciated.  I will use the story of Phineas Gage.  I will help the language arts teacher with informational reading this year along with finally learning how to use one of those blue TI numbered something calculators and graphing calculators that I have been afraid of for years. 

I am going to share of couple of pictures of my creation a couple of years ago for my teacher computer/document camera.  Previously, my computer was in the back corner of my room and when I used it, I had my back to the class and couldn't keep an eye on everyone - we ALL know that isn't smart in middle school.  All the classrooms were set up like this!  So I designed this computer stand, had a co-worker's husband build it for me and it has become the buzz of the school.  After using it for a couple of years, there are a couple of tweeks I would make but would NEVER change the idea.  The pictures I am going to include were taken the last day of school this year...after I started packing and moving desks around so they aren't the best.  Hopefully you will be able to see that it was placed in the middle of the back of the classroom.  This way, when I was using the document camera I could see every student.  It may look like it has an odd layout, but I should mention that I am a LEFTY! 

Candy Themed Testing Motivators

I just uploaded a FREEBIE to my teacherspayteachers.com store.  It is 4 different printables for testing motivation.  I am in NC, and we start our state EOG (End of Grade) testing this week.

Each one is meant to be attached to that particular type of candy.  I have made one for twizzlers, tootsie rolls, blow pops, and nerds.  I am unable to use the nerds one (it is the one I am most proud of) because I couldn't find enough boxes of nerds without taking out a loan to purchase 54 of them.  

I hope you enjoy them and are as excited about them as I am!  And hopefully it will help get your students a little more hyped up about doing well on any standardized testing they must do. 

To get this FREEBIE, either click on the link above or click on any of the images.  There are also additional links at the bottom of the page that should hopefully take you to the documents in my google docs.

Attach to a blow pop or blow pop minis.

Attach to nerds (Ifyou can find enough of them - this was my favorite one, but I could not find just a package of a large number of nerds.)

Attach to a larger tootsie roll (Sam's Club) or to a baggie with a few tootsie rolls in it.

Attach this to a snack size package of twizzlers.  I know that I spelled twizzted (twisted) wrong - just wanted it to sort or match the candy!

I have also tried to link this to my google docs account, but not sure that was successful.  You can try it here (it may or may not work!):  TWIZZLERS, TOOTSIE ROLL, BLOW POPS, and NERDS.

Textmapping

Textmapping was a pinterest find that has really helped my students interact with nonfiction in a way that takes away the dread.  They now feel empowered to dissect and understand nonfiction reading selections.  The idea of textmapping can be explored at the creators website The Textmapping Project.

Students using their nonfiction text features cards to textmap an article on the Greek government.

Creating a "map" key to aid in mapping this article.

Using a teacher directed article to help textmap an article independently.

Almost complete!

Just getting started with the textmapping process.