September Happenings

Ladies and Gentlemen.

I.am.tired.

Bone tired.

I love September for dozens of reasons, but holy cow!! I am so exhausted.

Back-to-school, prepping a classroom, paperwork, back-to-school night (for my students and my own kids!), beginning of soccer, paperwork, alarm clocks, packing lunches, paperwork, retraining my bladder to only pee twice a day, paperwork, wearing real clothes and shoes every day, laundry, paperwork, forming a PLC and setting an SGO… and all THAT paperwork.

Phew.

Anyway, enough of my whining because I know that I’m preaching right now to the choir!!

Aside from all the crazy, I’ve got some great stuff to share from the busy month. My school kiddos are awesome and we’ve been having the best time getting to know each other.

Like last year, I am starting the year with Writing from Lists in our writer’s notebook and we are tacking Information Text in reading. The struggle is real going from two, 50-minutes periods of ELA last year, to one, 60-minute period this year. I can say that while I’m pretty much sticking to my plan , there is absolutely not one second of down time in my room. We work from the second they sit down, until the second they leave. The pace is hard.

So, without further ado, here is what’s up in Room B208…

Writing:

We’ve got two lists into our notebooks: “Things I Cannot Stand” and “I Can’t Imagine Life Without…”. We’ve only managed one “Fast Five” though. I am hoping to really get into a flow next week.

Reading:

I am starting off the year with studying Informational Text.

Beginning with this unit allows for a much smoother transition into our Article of the Week routine.

I’ve added some great TpT products into my unit this year. While these products are not new, they are new to me, so I wanted to share.

First, I am in love with Hello Literacy’s Short Text for Teaching Text Structure articles.

These are perfect for middle school students when you want to teach a skill and not have their performance be hindered by their reading comprehension. These texts are SHORT, interesting, and come in a variety of reading levels so that when you work on a skill, even your most struggling readers can participate. I’ve been using them like crazy!!

Next, I’m totally digging Deb Hanson’s Summarizing Nonfiction: A Bundle of Activities!

Her PowerPoint is direct and easy to follow and I like the “code” (a.k.a. structure) she gives for writing a short, succinct summary.

And finally, I jumped on the ESCAPE ROOM bandwagon!! I had bought Darlene Anne’s Escape Room ELA Comprehension and Writing Break Out Activity, over the summer.

I didn’t wind up using it the way it was intended, though. Instead, I used their riddles and decoder cards to put together my own breakout activity.

So, after teaching the students how to summarize with Deb Hanson’s PowerPoint and ISN page, I had the kids write summaries for ten of Hello Literacy’s Short Texts. Each time they got a summary correct, they earned a few of the decoder cards from Darlene Anne’s Escape Room resource. After completing all their summaries, and decoding the riddle (which gave them a clue as to where the key was hidden), they got to guess the whereabouts of the key. The “key” unlocked my treasure box (um… shoe box, really) that was full of candy and incentives (like homework passes and “sit anywhere” passes).

It was so much fun. AND more importantly, the kids willingly read and summarized TEN nonfiction articles. I can’t imagine what I would of had to do in the past to get them to be so excited to do that much work!!

I think I’m sold on the Escape Room/Breakout Box activity. They are a lot of work to put together, but if you get yourself some good resources from TpT, the prep time will be cut dramatically.

Reader’s Workshop:

This year, our schedule has a 35-minute period of Reader’s Workshop/STEM for all students. That means that every other day, my students get to independently read their self-selected books for 35 uninterrupted minutes. It.is.GLORIOUS!!

“Yummy” is still my go-to book for reluctant, not-on-grade-level readers. They just LOVE this book.

This makes a great follow-up to “Yummy.”

Also, I bought three Kindle Fires during Prime Day over the summer. They were $30 each. I know that $90 is a lot to spend on materials for your classroom, so if that’s not your jam, I totally get it!! But, for me, it’s been money well spent. I do have an Audible account (and have for a while) because I actually listen to most books now. (It’s how I am able to stay on top of all the great YA literature that comes out at a rapid fire these days!!) So, it’s been perfect because the kids can listen to the books that I’ve purchased. It’s been AMAZING for our struggling readers!

Around the Room:

Ambient lighting. There are no words for how happy it makes me to not turn on those fluorescent lights every day. My Target lamps rock my world.

New anchor posters. Design your poster on the computer. Project onto the board. Trace on to large poster paper and voila! Beautiful new posters! (All my old ones were ratty and looked dated!) Love how my new ones turned out!!

My karaoke microphone. I’ve been wanting a microphone in my classroom for a while now for students to practice public speaking. This one is AMAZING! It’s perfect for getting their attention, sharing important directions, and class discussions… and sometimes a little singing or “spittin’ some bars” as my kids say 🙂

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Whelp, that’s what’s been happening in my room this last month! I know this is a long post, so thanks for sticking around to the end!!

I’d love to hear what’s been happening in your room, so be sure to comment below or drop me a line on FB to share.

On another note, my teacher heart is heavy for so many of our citizens over the last several weeks. Lots of destruction, and chaos, and heart-break. I have several students still waiting to hear from loved ones in Puerto Rico. Healing will take time, but I know that there are so many teachers who will be there giving their all to help our kiddos put their lives back together. To all of my fellow educators who do the hard work every day, even in the face of tragedy, my hat is off to you. Stay strong and be well.

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