Wow have I been off the grid for quite a while!  It is the last Saturday of Spring break and I am pretty pleased with all I have accomplished this break. Needed to do some serious house Spring Cleaning as well as some deep office cleaning. Graded papers and SLO's early so I could enjoy the week without that hanging over my head! I hope to visit and blog more often. I have been missing something this year and I think it is the connections I made on twitter, groups I used to follow and don't anymore as well as blogging every once and a while. Want to post some things on testing and want to hear your feedback!

Well the year is off to a roaring start! I started out the year with 19 students and then about 5 weeks into the school year, Surprise, 11 new students. Long story but lets just say it was like starting over! Good thing the new students were up for the challenge of learning new routines and procedures and the old students were happy to help them! We are plugging along and have started many new things. We are partaking in the Global Read Aloud and have been learning about and practicing Blogging! This week we move from paper blogs to the real thing! We have been learning about and using the Notice and Note Strategies from the book of the same title by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst. Of course our Daily 5 routines are established and we are working hard on building stamina and becoming better readers and writers! My biggest challenge is keeping up with the Word Work. It was much easier with only 19! Anyone have advice on making this valuable method of word study flow?

T-minus 7 days until I meet my new group of students for the 2012-2014 school year! I have been working in my new room and although I have a long way to go I am pleased with the progress so far! Pictures will soon follow! 

Beautiful weather today! Students definitely have spring fever as well as the staff too! I received the new book titled, Essential Questions Opening Doors to Student Understanding. By Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. It looks like a great read and very helpful!  Anyone read this yet? Thoughts or things to share about it?  I will post some interesting things in the next few weeks I find helpful from the book.  Here is the linkto check out the book.   http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/Essential-Questions.aspx

What a great break!  So much accomplished. I was able to go through storage and sort through things to keep and things to donate. Fourth grade is going to be great! There are so many resources and ideas on the web! I pitched so many things. A friend helped me learn Progress Book so I won't have to worry about that.  Any comments or thoughts about Progress book? Pros and/or Cons?  
Anyone want to share their ideas for Poetry Month?  I plan to have a poem ready to read on the morning announcements all month and also encourage everyone to participate in Poem in My Pocket Day!   :) 

Spring Break begins! I am going to be very busy this week organizing and thinking about things for next year!  Super excited to be going back into the classroom. Can't wait to use the Daily 5 and CAFE strategies in my own classroom!  I have such great role models to follow from my building. 

Well so much for keeping up with the Blog!  LOL   I am hoping over Christmas break I will have some time to catch up and post more things!  I am wondering how people go about sharing items they have found on the blogs. For example I want to share some of the great things we are doing at my building with Daily 5 and CAFE strategies.  I want to be sure to give credit at all times when sharing ideas and things we are doing any protocol I should be aware of?  :)  Anyway November is Picture Book Month.  Someone shared a really cute picture book today called, Ralph Tells A Story by Abby Hanlon. If you have not seen it please check it out!  That is it for today!  Hope to have some answers to my question about sharing things!