Christopher Myers is an author that I’ve grown to admire. One of his stories, “Wings”, is included in the basal readers we’re provided with. For me, this is one of the best pieces of children’s literature ever: the illustrations, the premise, the themes…. sometimes I think this text belongs in the hands of the adults [...]
Archive for the ‘classroom management’ Category
“Nobody Got Up Early in The Morning and Could Draw Perfectly…”
Posted in classroom management, The Craft of Teaching, tagged Christopher Myers, hard work, Wings on February 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
From the Peanut Gallery
Posted in classroom management, tagged education climate, teaching on February 16, 2012 | 2 Comments »
All I really ever wanted to do was teach. It gets harder and harder to love this career every year. We are awash in edicts – do this, don’t EVER do that. Decisions made from afar by people who seem to have no idea what students are like, what they need. I study more, read [...]
Why The Math D5 Fits
Posted in classroom management, tagged Daily Five, Investigations in Number, launch explore summary, Math Daily Five, Math Daily Five activities, mathematics classroom organization, ten steps to independence on February 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Lots of teacher types seem interested in applying the Daily Five principles to mathematics. What does that mean? For me, it means that teachers are struggling to find ways to deliver comprehensive instruction to our students and to differentiate so that rigor is applied to all students no matter what their level of accomplishment. The Math [...]
The Places We Write
Posted in classroom management, The Craft of Teaching, tagged Grade 3 writing, Lucy Calkins Firsthand, organizing writing materials, writers' notebooks, Writing workshop on January 7, 2012 | 1 Comment »
When we returned to school this week, I knew I would need to revisit some of our routines. The first week in January always seems like a good time to do such things. One thing I knew I wanted to clarify was where to put writing. In my third grade classroom, there seem to be [...]
I Am Not A Nudge….. Really
Posted in classroom management, Classroom organization, tagged Charles Appelstein, classroom design, The Sisters on November 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
When you have pretty strong convictions about something, they are not always understood or shared by others. For me, one of my thoughts is that creating an environment of order and welcome is of high importance to my students’ frames of mind. With many of my students coming from existences that are not always orderly, [...]
Using Daily Five Math to Support Common Core
Posted in classroom management, Math Education, The Craft of Teaching, tagged Common Core Mathematics, Daily Five Mathematics, differentiating mathematics instruction, Grade 3, Independent students learning, Investigation in Number Data and Space on November 5, 2011 | 1 Comment »
This summer was partially spent in aligning Common Core Mathematics curriculum (Massachusetts-style) with the district’s universally available materials and laying out a scope and sequence that makes sense vertically and horizontally. As anyone who has looked at the Common Core in depth can attest, it’s an on-going process full of starts and stops. A particular [...]
Let’s Toss All the Balls in the Air
Posted in classroom management, The Craft of Teaching, tagged Daily Five, Grade 3 literacy, reading, writing on September 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Last week, we created our last I-Chart; the one for Listen to Reading. So now we have all the components of the Daily Five in place. It’s an exciting yet frightening time .It has not always been smooth sailing. I find I have to keep pinching myself as a reminder that one of the most [...]
Whew – 4 down one to go
Posted in classroom management, The Craft of Teaching, tagged Daily Five, Donorschoose.org, read to self, Read to Someone, The Sisters, Word Work, Work on Writing on September 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
We are still laying down the routines and expectation for the Daily Five. Here’s how my morning goes: Get up (usually before the alarm), start coffee, sit down with my laptop, check email (and Facebook, okay I admit I’m addicted) and then watch one of the Sister’s videos on the Daily Cafe website. Most of [...]
Stamina
Posted in classroom management, The Craft of Teaching, tagged Daily Five, stamina, The Sisters on September 8, 2011 | 3 Comments »
I’ve been working – really working – at the conferencing table for the last several session of D5 choice. Up until this point, I have been “fake working” — monitoring students without their knowledge — so as to regroup if and when stamina for an activity is broken. We are nearly pros with Read to [...]
