I can hardly wait for next school year to begin! Did I just say that? Out loud? Well, here's why: I am going to have the most kick-ass 4 th grade team ever! I have worked on strong grade level teams before, but this year will be special. Teaming has been
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So I was nosing aroung on The Scholastic Scribe's blog and I saw this fun little Meme. Give it a try! All you need is Flickr and their mosaic maker . Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. Pick an image off the first page.
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I love road trips! Since I am off for the summer (for the first time in my career), and my boyfriend is off (because he works in I.T. and has been laid off like everyone else in I.T.), we decided to take a mini-vacation to the Grand Canyon since we've
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Few things are what they claim to be… A lesson I've got to learn. What brings this to mind while I lounge around on vacation without a child in sight? A "husky-proof" dog toy that my lovely husky Mya managed to shred in under 10 minutes. As I write this,
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Batter Up! We had our annual sixth graders vs. the teachers softball game today. We won! Not that it was too hard to do. It's not like many of our kids play on softball or baseball teams. If we had played them in soccer, they would have creamed us. To
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"My Districts NEW, WELL-THOUGHT-OUT, GROUNDBREAKING position on standards mastery for K-6 students…" (Sound the trumpets, please.) Power Standards! Can you feel the energy already? Power standards. Not just any old standard but the best, the strongest,
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Joe C. Ahhhh…. Joe C. It's time for another update. He is doing great! And that IS NOT sarcasm! That boy is a changed man. It's been three weeks of him being on-task, responsive, well-behaved, polite, and concerned about his behavior. He's even done all
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According to the step-by-step directions we identified in the story Salmon Summer yesterday , if you notice that the crabs you caught are too small, you should throw them back. Throw them back where? Are they suggesting you want to catch crabs that are
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Today's reading comprehension mini-lesson was about reading and following directions. It goes along with the Bruce McMillan story Salmon Summer . The story is about a young Aleut boy on Kodiak Island who learns the family tradition of fishing from his
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or am I shrinking? My school celebrated its 50 th birthday a few years ago. That's quite a milestone. Unfortunately, not only did the school celebrate its 50 th birthday, so did most of its contents. We have old furniture, fixtures, and appliances. Rumor
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My break is over…dammit. It's back to work for me tomorrow. The one saving grace about that is I'll have more material to write about! I've been a little short on topics as of late. Joe C. ought to help me out there! I've also been distracted by my newly
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I've got a little story for you. It's not my story. It belongs to another teacher at school, but she is more than happy to have me share it with you. It's also not a recent story. It's from a few years ago, but I never tire of hearing it. What makes it
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Sssoooooo… last night was awkward. Don't take that as a bad thing. I live in a perpetual state of awkwardness so I was right at home. I attended the TOTY dinner for my friend at the local Marriot hotel. It was a lovely affair. The ballroom was decorated
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It's TOTY time again! For those of you know in the know, that's Teacher of the Year. Tomorrow night I am going to a dinner honoring the TOTYs in another district. My dear friend "Caroline" has been selected, for the second time, as Teacher of the Year
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There are many things my students do not have a great concept of. A few examples might be: The Trash Can Concept – A can-like receptacle INTO which we place our trash . Students' Concept – A can-like receptacle NEAR which we place our trash. In our room,
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