2016 Goals

It's Twin Tuesday!!!!! My teaching bestie Molly and I are sharing our 2016 goals! After you check out mine, see the amazing goals she has set for her kinders @ Miss K's Little Rays!!

I love the new year! A fresh start and a chance to change things up with a clean slate, is just what this girl needs.  I have set many goals for 2016, but right now I am going to share the ones I have for my classroom!!

1.  Change up our morning routine! We are going to start utilizing mailboxes. I am hoping mailboxes will help us solidify our organizational skills, as we prepare for 2nd grade.

2. Our morning work!!! We have 14 minutes from the time the bell rings until we have to be ready to move to our Encore class. I was doing journaling but want to try more skill based review, while also holding them accountable for completing their work.

3.  Planning!!! This year I started trying Planbook on-line.  I love how easy it is to use, as well as to share with teammates. However, I like more descriptive/visual plans.  I am hoping to continue using Planbook, while also using a detailed breakdown of my schedule with pictures and details of lessons and activities.

4.  Focus Board!!  This year, I made Focus Boards for our room.  Each subject has a board, where we display our standards and I can statements.  We used them during the first semester but I want to make them more usable.  I also want the kids to take more ownership of them.

5.  Student Work!  I want to do a better job of putting up student work both in our classroom and in our 1st grade hallway.

There you have it a look into my goals for 2016!!! Check back and see how I am doing!!!

Twin Tuesday on a Wednesday!

Well let's all be real for a minute, Twin Tuesday is suppose to post on TUESDAY...but when it is the last week of the first grading period...your days get all mixed up!  So give us a pass on this one:)

This week's topic...DATA!!!!!!!

Certainly, I am not the only teacher out there that thinks the word "data" MIGHT be slightly over-used...especially when dealing with six and seven year olds...right?

Molly and I are tackling the ever so fun topic of DATA this week!!!  Let's see just how "twin" we can be, as we explain how we use data in our classrooms.  Keep in mind, we do teach at the same school...so some of our "twinness" is completely out of our control.

NWEA MAP Testing:  Last year, was the the first year students in 1st grade  took the test.  We only take the Math portion.  At times, I wonder how beneficial the Reading portion would be...did I really just say that I might want my students to take another assessment? However, we don't...so onward.  MAP Math scores are used to create Math Workshop groups across the grade level.  We look at the different areas tested and find our scores for the area that we are currently teaching and use NWEA reports website to find the RIT score for that individual area.  I should also add, we do take into account our own personal observations and gut feelings, as well. We have 5 groups, with the two lowest groups having  less students, in order to provide more support.  We change any students that are showing HUGE gains or losses, about mid way through a six week span.  After six weeks, we will change our focus and regroup according to the scores from that RIT band.

We also use the screener from NWEA, which I am proud to say that after we had focused solely on Number ID and counting since the beginning of school, only 3 of my 22 students, scored below a 90%.  YEA!!!!

DIBELS:  First Grade does Benchmark testing on LNF (Letter Naming Fluency), PSF (Phoneme Segmentation Fluency), and NWF (Nonsense Word Fluency).  Truthfully, I find value in these tests, however I do not use these three tests to dictate how I group my students.  I have and still feel that many students can and are actual readers even if they can't read nonsense words:)  So I use DIBELS as one indicator, when grouping for Reading Stations.    

SIGHT WORDS:  We (my amazing)  first grade team divide the first 100 sight words into four lists of 25 words.  We roll them out approxmiately every four weeks and have them all introduced by the time we go on Winter Break.   Last year, I found the great resource, Sight Word Star by Jen at  Teacher by the Beach.  This resource has it all from flashcards, to assessment checklists, to practice sheets, and a great note to send home to parents on what to practice.  

DIBELS/Sight Words/Classroom Observations: This is how I create my Reading Station groups!  As I stated earlier, I don't always feel that one test should determine how a student is grouped.

There you have it!  Data at a glance!  Did I miss some?  Oh, I am sure!!!  But these are the ones fresh in my head!  That's the 1st grade take...now head to check out the Kinder take with 

Molly at Miss K's Little Rays

Twin Tuesday: Daily 5

I have to admit, I was never been a fan of Tuesdays.  Unlike Monday, it isn't a fresh start and unlike Thursday it isn't the eve of the weekend... it's just Tuesday!  Those feelings have changed because now it is Twin Tuesday!  A day very near and dear to my heart!!  My twinnie and I were able to sit down and develop a schedule, which let's be serious helps out our OCD mindsets a great deal.

Today Molly and I are going to share with you a little insight into what Daily 5 looks like in our rooms.  After you check out what it looks like in 1st grade, head over to Miss K's Little Rays to see how Molly and her little Rays rock Daily 5 in their room!

I truly can't remember when my school rolled out Daily 5.  I remember we got the book and we read and hit it full force.  I will admit as with many things, the priority of rolling it in every aspect somewhat fell to the wayside.  This year, I wanted that to change and I wanted it to fit the needs of my classroom. I started by changing that time of the day to Reading Stations.  It made more sense for what I am trying to accomplish.  Don't get me wrong, "The Sisters" are smart ladies...so I am utilizing some of their techniques, as you will see! 

Stations:

The first thing I did was really evaluate what my students need and the answers were help with sight words, rhyming, writing, and reading practice (at various levels of course).  So our Reading Stations are  the following:

Sight Words

Rhyming 

Writing

Reading

Groupings:

 I have 22 students, four of the students are taking part in a Fundations group with our Resource teacher, so that brings me to 18.   The remaining 18 are grouped by DIBELS data, classroom observations, and sight word assessments.  To make our groupings, more exciting...students will be grouped as sports.  We will have the football team, the soccer team, the basketball team, the hockey team, and the softball team.  

Timing:

We have 30 minutes to roll out Reading Stations!  My plan is for each group to meet with me at least once, and do each station at least once.  Timing will be an issue that is regulated frequently.

This year's class is great!  They are well behaved and ready to learn, but they LOVE to talk!  So building our stamina in "Reading" has been difficult, add in the heat schedule we had at the beginning of the year, followed by testing that had to be administered, and the occasional distruption in our day....we have finally made it to 10 minutes!  We have learned how to pick good fit books and our book boxes have been personally decorated.  Tomorrow, we will pick our books! Thursday, we will learn our the new activities for each station, and Tuesday we will be ready to roll!

**Disclaimer, we have been doing different activities to practice the skills of each station, but more as a whole group...Tuesday marks our Independence Day! 

Check back in a week and see how Week One goes!!!  I promise pictures!!!

That's the 1st grade way, now head over to Miss K's Little Ray's for a the Kinder way!!!

Ideas? Suggestions?  Leave me a comment!!

Twin Tuesday

We are back and excited to share with you a look at Classroom Management at the beginning of the year!  I will share my First Grade perspective and my twin (aka Molly) will share the Kinder perspective over at Miss K's Little Rays.

The beginning of First Grade is COMPLETELY different then the end.  And I am sure I am not the only First Grade teacher who will tell you, that it is hard to remember until you are smack dab in the midst of it!  I mean they leave you little learners who read and are gaining their independent wings.  Then Fall rolls around, and the new firsties arrive and you are like WHAT!!!  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE every aspect of new firsties, as much as I love every aspect of the soon to be second graders...it is just a whole different world!

Classroom Management is always a work in progress!  However, at the beginning of First Grade I try to take the approach of being a little tougher, yet with a soft side.  For 80% of my students they know our school expectations, which is FANTASTIC!  However, it is necessary for a great review of them, as well as my personal expectations!!!

Our school's expectations are Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible (Yes, we are a PBIS school!) So we start off the year, with what these look like and sound like!!! We always start with RESPECT!  It is our Core Value for the months of August and September and so VERY important!!!

We use our school PBIS matrix to discuss all the areas of the school, and what these expectations look like.  This year, I tried to be more thoughtful in my planning and repeated teaching of these expectations and so far that has paid off!!!  One thing with firsties, expectations can be boring!  I mean "they are big kids now" and they know the expectations, but knowing and showing are TWO completely different things.  **REFLECTION MOMENT...this is an area that I want to tackle this summer!  Making re-teaching of the expectations more fun and exciting!!!  A themed activity of course!!!  

I also roll out the Dojo's!!!  Most of our kiddos used them for a portion of Kinder, so it isn't new! However, teaching them ownership of their Dojo's is a First Grade skill!  We talk about what we should receive Dojo's for and choose their pictures together.  We also discuss what behaviors might require myself or another teacher to take away a Dojo!  As the year progresses, we will start giving ourselves our own Dojo's, both positive and negative.

This year we are off to a great start!  However, as we all know CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT is an on-going issue.  We are always tweaking and spicing it up.  As teachers we all know we have to do this because there is always a holiday around the corner, a drastic change in the weather, or a FULL moon that is out their messing with our kiddos and getting them all sorts of CRAZY!!!

This is a little bit of how we do it in FIRST GRADE!!! What do you do in First Grade to manage your firsties?  Leave me a comment and let me know!!! And if you are a KINDER teacher (or not, because really she is so fabulous everyone will want to read her post) head over to Miss K's Little Ray's and check out her take!!!!!

Twin Tuesday

Everyone has that someone in their life to make them better!!!  I am blessed to have more then one of those people, lucky...I know:)  One of those people is my pal Molly!  Molly is a kinder teacher, in her second year of teaching, and though the number of years that separate us by age is LARGE (don't ask, how large...just trust me!!!) we couldn't be more alike!

Somewhere in the last year since we met,
we have discovered more then a few things that we have in common.

Here are just a few..
the same high school
 the same college
a love of polar pops
our Catholic faith
a love of teaching
a love of work nights on the couch, instead of going out
a love of shopping
and a love of
BLOGGING

Each day, we are there for one another to lift each other up, to bounce ideas off of each other, to laugh at the crazy of the day, and to even shed a tear if necessary.  On a recent work night, we talked about the need to blog more.  Then came the idea of Twin Tuesday!  We teach in the same school, just a different grade.  So why not blog about how one topic or theme can be done differently in two different grades!!!

We will give you a glimpse into our rooms, our lessons, and our ideas!!!  Then hopefully you will grab your "Teaching Twin" and do the same!!  Who knows, maybe this will end up being a linky!?!?!

Be sure to head over to Molly's blog to check out her take!

If you have any suggestions or would like to hear about something in particular, leave one of us a comment!  We would LOVE feedback!!!