Blog Hoppin' - When Thursday

I'm back today to link up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week 2014! Today is When Thursday where we tell about WHEN we plan to do things, with a look into our day.

First, let's take a look into my day. It's different than ever before because for the first time I am departmentalized. During all three segments, I teach Reading, Language Arts, and Writing.

8:00-8:30 Students arrive anywhere during this time period. They follow a morning list, eat breakfast, and complete an activity that morning - DROPS and a Spelling choice. Since there is such a time difference in students arrival, their morning work is also their homework. This is something that was implemented long before I came to my new school, but it's working well so far.

8:30-9:15 This period is called SOAR. We begin this with a Morning Meeting and it's a good beginning to our day. We also check the previous days DROPS during this time and I can reteach material from it during this time.

9:20-10:05 Specials

10:10-11:30 Segment 1

11:40-11:50 Recess (yes, it's only 10 minutes...not by choice)

11:52-12:23 Lunch

12:30-1:50 Segment 2

1:50-3:10 Segment 3

3:10-3:30 DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time during dismissal, car & bus rider dismissal

3:30-3:45 Bus rider dismissal (late buses)



So now that you know my schedule, let's talk about WHEN I plan. At my previous school we had to have lesson plans completed on Friday for the upcoming week so I have stuck with that. Being departmentalized definitely helps with planning because I teach the same thing 3x a day. My partner teacher and I plan together and usually spend 1-2 days on planning. Sometimes we work on it during Specials time or before/after school. She is GREAT to work with so that makes it easy!

Blog Hoppin' - Why Wednesday

I'm back today to link up with Blog Hoppin' for Why Wednesday! Aren't you loving all of these fun back to school posts?!

Today's post is all about ORGANIZATION, which just happens to be one of my favorite things! :) We will talk about how I stay organized and why it works for me! 

One of my favorite organizational tools is my Erin Condren planner. Y'all, I LOVE it! I just recently splurged and got the life planner and the teacher planner. I LOVE the life planner and will definitely order it again! It helps me stay organized and works for me because I am a list person and I write everything down.  

I also love organizing using binders so I thought I'd share my best organizational tips for binders. I have binders to keep track of my small group documentation. I teach 3 groups of students so I keep 3 binders for each class. In each binder, I have a pencil pouch with extra supplies and a tab for each student. Behind each tab I have a CAFE menu and Reading and Writing conference forms. I wrote a detailed post here if you are interested in learning more about how I set my binders up.

 

I also have a teacher binder that holds TONS of information. I have a pencil pouch with supplies, our school calendar, and tons of tab dividers. I use my teacher binder almost daily so it is imperative that it stays organized! I wrote a detailed post here if you are interested in learning more about what's inside each tab.

One of my very first teacher purchases after I graduated college was this All-Purpose Teacher's Organizer from Lakeshore Learning. The price has increased since I ordered, but I would still recommend it. I use this to hold all of the materials for the week.

I store supplies in three drawer plastic organizers. To hide the materials, I added scrapbook paper to the front and sides. I love how the paper made the organizers look! I also keep lots of bins and use them to hold a variety of materials. The two pictured here hold mentor texts and other books that I keep aside for certain units.

My teacher toolbox is another organizational tool that helps me organize the office supplies we use so often. I've been desk-less for years now so this has helped tremendously!

Last year when I taught 5th grade in South Carolina, I was responsible for planning Social Studies. I LOVED 5th grade Social Studies standards in SC - Reconstruction --> Present Day. I created a binder per main standard.

In each binder, I created a topic list and printed off the standards within the topic for easy access while planning. This was so helpful as I planned major units of study. Everything I had for that standard went in a page protector behind the standards.

Head over to Blog Hoppin' for more organizational tips!

Blog Hoppin' - Where Tuesday

Today I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' for Back to School week. Today's theme is Where Tuesday - Show us your digs!

This year I am teaching at a new school (new district & new state) so this is my first year in this room. It's a good bit smaller than my previous room so I've had to make adjustments. I didn't bring my two green Adirondack chairs or a book shelf I had, just because I don't have the space for them. This room has a lot of nice qualities, like great storage space, which ironically isn't pictured.

I have three pictures of the room at a glance from three different angles. This view is what you see as soon as you enter the classroom.

This is the view from the back of the classroom, looking towards the board. 

This photo was taken from the front of the room. You can see my large bulletin board.

This is a closer glance at the bulletin board. I divided it into 4 sections which will hold my word wall, CAFE menu, Daily 5 posters, and calendar. 

One of my favorite things about this room is the huge wooden bookshelf in my teacher corner. It is GREAT for storage!

I love my little library area and the view outside the window. Everything is lush and green and just so pretty. It's so hard to get a good picture of this area with the light. 

 

I made this banner last year and have it displayed for Open House or other special events.

Head over to Blog Hoppin' to link up, too!

 

Blog Hoppin' - Who Am I?

It's Back to School Week over at Blog Hoppin'! I love this week because so many awesome teachers link up and share! Here is the Back to School 2014 schedule if you are interested in linking up! 

Today I am going to link up for Who Monday! I wrote a similar post a few days ago, but still wanted to link up with the Blog Hoppin' fun! 

My name is Lana and I blog here at For the Love of Teaching! I am a fifth grade teacher in the state of Georgia. My family moved to Georgia the week before Christmas so we are still somewhat new to the area. We are originally from Tennessee (Go VOLS!), but moved from South Carolina. 

I have been married for 5 years and we have the sweetest 4 year old in the world. As a family, we love to spend time together and enjoy playing sports, playing outside, and just being together.

We have two miniature schnuazers named Maggie and Molly. They are 9 month old sisters. We also have a new Betta fish named Sharky.

 

I love to teach and am entering my 7th year teaching. I've taught 4th and 5th grade all of those years, but would love to teach little ones one day. I love Jesus and absolutely love our new church. I love contemporary Christian music and listen to it daily. I find peace and inspiration listening to praise music.

 

I love going to the beach. St. Augustine is one of my favorite beaches and towns I've ever visited. I love everything about summer: sunny days, family cookout's, beach trips, family time, time to relax and slow down, tank tops, flip flops, country music, etc.

I love everything about Tennessee...I love visiting my sweet family. I love watching Tennessee football and love the football atmosphere in the South. We love Rocky Top and all things Tennessee!  

Other random things I love: animals, blue jeans and tank tops, daisies, Chapstick, bubble baths, taking pictures, sweet friends, and children's literature.

 

Go join in on the Blog Hoppin' fun!

 

Five for Friday - Saturday night edition



I am SO happy that it's the weekend! This past week was my third week back at school and let me just tell you...the "honeymoon" is over. Ohmyword. So thankful it's the weekend! :) I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday. I am late linking up and am sharing 5 totally random things from my week.

 

So I just recently received my Erin Condren teacher planner and life planner. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the life planner. I am adding cute washi tape to my planner pages and just saw someone post on Instagram this week that Dollar Tree sold washi tape now. What?!?! Well, I have been to 3 Dollar Tree's and only one had it and they only had 7 rolls. I bought 5 of the 7.

I have LOVED the books my son and I have been reading at night. He loves David and thinks the books are so funny. Pete the Cat is another favorite in our house. I chose The Kissing Hand - it's such a sweet story. Reading them just confirms I'd like to teach little ones one day!

 

We received GREAT news this week about one of our dogs, Maggie. Maggie has been limping on her back right leg and the vet thought she had a cranial cruciate ligament injury. With this type of injury, she would have most likely needed joint repair surgery. Thankfully, the X-rays showed that she had fractured her tibia, so there was no ligament injury. Her fracture is already healing on its own and her physical therapy is just running around and being a dog. We are SO thankful it wasn't more serious.

 

We also added a new pet to our family: a Betta fish named Sharky. We lost our other Betta fish named Matty this past week and that was our first pet death experience for our son. It was sad seeing him cry over Matty. Sharky is a spunky little fish and we've enjoyed seeing him swim all around today!

 

Now for the most EXCITING part of my Five For Friday share...I am beginning to prepare for a trip we will take next Spring...can you guess?!?!

 

We are going to.....DISNEY WORLD....for Spring Break! Whoop whoop! I am SO, SO excited!! In the first picture, everything came from the Dollar Tree. I bought 2 journals, 1 which we will use for an autograph book and 1 to use with Disney stickers and crayons for the plane ride. I also bought a Mickey dry erase board, some goodies we will save for Disney (gifts that Mickey will "bring" to the hotel while we are gone to the parks!), and Disney wash cloths. And yes...I totally bought a Disney tank for myself! I am all about a theme!! :)

 

We haven't booked our room yet because I am having such a hard time deciding where to stay! We are definitely staying on resort, but I can't decide which place to stay! Any tips?!?!

BIC - Fight For Your Write

A few weeks ago I was asked if I would be interested in reviewing some of BIC's new products for their Fight For Your Write campaign. I've used BIC products for years - personally and professionally - so I was SO excited and happy to check out their new BIC Kids Line. The package of goodies definitely did not disappoint!

I loved all of the products and will use them all, but I wanted to highlight a few. These pencils are called BIC Pencil - Ultra Shine. I love how sparkly they are! I can see students really loving them.

Another favorite is the BIC Magic Marker - Dry Erase. These will come in so handy during small groups, individually conferencing, and our breakfast counts. To mark students as receiving breakfast, we have to use a dry erase marker and I was in need of smaller ones. These will be great for that! 

I also love the color of this metallic pen and it has several ink colors! 

BIC's main goal this year is to encourage students to write more often. They have launched a campaign called "Fight For Your Write". On their website you can find information about writing and tips from literacy expert Pam Allyn.

 

How will my class "Fight For Your Write"? As the Reading and Language Arts teacher, writing is obviously a big part of my curriculum. We write every day in class, whether it's working on an essay, a response to a story, or a quick write. These tools will be used at different stages of our writing. I've always found that students enjoy using new writing tools and I allow them to use pens and highlighters during the editing and revising stage.

 

You can learn more about the Fight For Your Write foundation here.

 

*All opinions are my own.