Currently May

Oh, May!  How I love thee!!!  A few months ago, I never dreamed May would ever arrive, but here she is which means it's time to link up with Farley's Currently.  (Thanks, Farley!!)

Listening:  It has rained EVERY day this week so this is a pretty common sound.  I don't mind this though...I love the sound of the rain.

Loving:  All of a sudden, it seems like my students have blossomed!  We have come a long way this year and I am so proud of all of their hard work.

Thinking:  There is something on the calendar almost every day in May.  Ughhh...I'll need the summer to recover.

Wanting:  I'm itching to get those pots planted.  Garden Center, here I come!

Needing:  Weekends are for napping.  Period.

Surprise:  Have you met Mary at Fit to be Fourth?  She is a fellow dog-rescuer and shares the most amazing mentor texts ever!  (My friends at Amazon thank her every time she posts because I usually end up ordering whatever she wrote about because her posts are awesome!)  Stop by and get to know her!

I hope to see you back on Sunday for my A Peek at My Week linky party.  Have a great weekend!

Positive Thinking Thursday {5-01-14}

Happy May Day!  If turning the calendar over to the beautiful month of May isn't sparking happiness in you, then maybe Positive Thinking Thursday will!  Thank you for visiting today to take in my positive thought of the week and (hopefully) to link up to share your own positive thought.

If you are new to this tradition, here's how it works if you would like to participate {and I hope you will!}:

1. Write a blog post that shares a positive thought, story, video, etc. You don't need to type much else, unless you want to.  The positive message is what's important.
2. Link up below to share your thought with others.

That's it....it's that easy!  So, what are you waiting for??? Everyone has something to share!

Here's my thought for the week:

Source

Yes, attitude is everything.... How's yours  doing?

Even thought I told you above to post one positive thought, I'm in a giving mood this week and will share a few more favorites I found this week on Pinterest.  (You can follow my Inspirations board here if you would like.)

Source

Source

Source

Last week, I also shared a short video about the Coke Friendship Machine and got so much positive feedback that I thought I would share another video this week.  We have been spending a lot of time talking about teamwork in our classroom so I think this will be a fun video to show the kids and see what they have to say about it. (Thanks to Mrs. Spangler in the Middle for this great idea!)

Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful and honest feedback about this linky party.  Ever since I have been practicing Positive Thinking Thursday at school every week, I can honestly say that it has made a huge difference in my life.  I really appreciate you sharing your ideas and enthusiasm for spreading a little positivity in the world...even if it is just one day a week, right?

So are you ready to share?

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a wonderful day!

A Peek at My Week {4-27-14}

It's that time again...Time to get together for another Peek at My Week!  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will link up and share your plans for this week too!

I can't believe that we are winding down to the end of another month and that by this time next week, it will be MAY!!!  April sure flew by...

I'm excited because in  reading, we are going to begin a three week study of Mythology.  I'll admit, when we first started working with Common Core and I found out that I needed to include Mythology vocabulary and allusions in my teaching, I was NOT excited.  I had never read any Mythology and didn't know anything about it, but boy, did my students L.O.V.E. it and now I LOVE teaching it too!

This year, I designed a new product that is based on many of the activities we have been doing in my classroom that my students have enjoyed.  I call it Mythology Museum & More!

If you remember back to the fall, my students did a Native American Museum project to learn about a particular Native American group that lived in Wisconsin in the past.  This was the inspiration for my new Mythology Museum.

This week, students will work in groups of three to learn about a Greek god or goddess.  They will then prepare a poster board to teach the rest of the class about their mythological character.  These posters will be set up in a Mythology Museum for our class and others to visit.  The Mythology Museum displays will include:

A drawing or sketch of their god or goddess

Five fast facts about their god or goddess

A bio poem

Trading cards for museum visitors to fill out and keep after visiting the museum display

Carefully chosen artifacts to represent their god or goddess.

This is a great way for students to be creative and crafty -- 

Bring on the Legos!

After learning about the major players in mythology through this project, we will read different versions of the same myth to compare and contrast them. (This is a Common Core skill for 4th grade.)

We will also discuss allusions.  In the past, I taught the most popular allusions (Midas Touch, Pandora's box, etc.) but they always seemed so disconnected from my student's lives.  So in my Mythology Museum & More unit, students learn about the allusions, but also relate them to their own lives.

If you are gearing up to teach Mythology (or have avoided it in the past because you didn't know what to do), you can win this unit simply by pinning it and leaving the link in a comment below!  Two winners will be chosen on Tuesday.  Or if you can't wait, you can pick up your own Mythology Museum & More in my TPT Store on sale through Monday.

I know my students will be so psyched to begin working on their museums.  I hope to have our museum displays ready on Friday and will share more pictures next week.  This time of year, we need to bring out all the fireworks to keep our students motivated to keep working and learning and projects like this do the trick!

An InLinkz Link-up

I hope you have a great week!  See you back here on Thursday for Positive Thinking Thursday if not sooner.

Positive Thinking Thursday {4/24/14}

This week's Positive Thinking Thursday is in honor of Earth Day, which fell earlier this week:

Source

Nope, not a one!  :)

I also wanted to share this video called the Coca Cola Friendship Machine from Youtube.  Coke built a special vending machine that offered two bottles for the price of one...but there was a small catch in order to be able to get the Cokes.  Watch it and see! 

Ahh...the power of working together!

Now's your chance to link up and share a positive thought with your blog readers.

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for stopping by today and for sharing your positive thoughts with us!  Have a great day!!

Tried It Tuesday: Podcasts for PD

I'm excited to link up with my friend Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper today to share something new that I just love!

Like many of you, I do A LOT of self-directed professional development.  I am always reading blogs, reading books, reading journals, reading just-about-anything-I-can-get-my-hands-on to learn more about improving myself as a teacher and lifelong learner.  

Then last week while I perusing blog land, I came across a link to the BAM Radio Network.

If you've never visited this website, I strongly encourage you to check it out.  It is here that I discovered hundreds (if not more) of podcasts that I could download to my iPhone to listen to in the car.  Ahhh..taking my PD and making it mobile!

From this website, I found a link to the K-12 Greatest Hits podcast list.  

These podcasts are cutting-edge conversations about anything and everything that is important in education today.  Some of the speakers are well-known, and some are classroom educators.  Either way, the conversations are always engaging and teach me something.  I kind of think of it as talk radio -- but I get to choose the subject!

Speaking of choosing the subject, start looking for your positive thought of the week for this Thursday's linky party, Positive Thinking Thursday. (Click here for more info about this linky party and how to get involved.) I hope to see you back then!!

A Peek at My Week {4-20-14}

Happy Easter!!  I am posting this week's A Peek at My Week linky party a day early because I will be spending Sunday enjoying the day with my family.  Feel free to link up any time!

I'm also going to link up with the very talented Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching for her Spark Saturday Student Motivation linky because we are having fun, fun, fun with poetry.

Right now, we are in the middle of Poetry Month and my students are loving it! I have discovered a fun way to teach fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and critical thinking skills in just 10 minutes a day using poetry and have put my ideas together into a a new product, Pausing for Poetry.

Each week, I choose a new poem for the class, which students add to their fluency folders so they can practice it throughout the week. I also put a copy on our "Poetry Posts" bulletin board.

Each day of the week, we spend about 10 minutes reading and discussing the week's poem.  Each day has a different focus -- meaning, vocabulary, structure, figurative language, etc. -- so students really get to understand the poem by Friday.  Students then complete the day's response which is photocopied to the back of the week's poem.   As you can see, the responses are short yet very targeted to a specific element.

Our Poetry Posts bulletin board is very interactive.  One day a week, usually toward the end of the week, I have students complete a Poetry Think-Shot to add to our Poetry Posts board.  This is where they get to publicly respond to the poem and rate the poem--thumbs up or thumbs down.  (It is interesting to have students discuss why they like or dislike a poem too!)  They love reading each other's responses and it's very interesting to see which poems are most popular based on their rating.  I was very surprised by last week's poem -- I thought the kids would love it, but most gave it a "thumbs down."  Hmmm....

To get extra fluency practice throughout the week, students read their poems to others and ask for their autograph on a Poetry Pals page.  The student with the most signatures wins a small prize like a pencil or a piece of chocolate from my secret stash.

I have found that teaching poetry this way has helped my students realize a few things:

1. Not all poetry has to rhyme or be silly.  We can learn from poetry too!
2. We can use elements of poetry (imagery, personification, similes, metaphors, etc.) in our own writing to make it stronger.
3. Close reading of a poem reveals more and more meaning each time we read it.  We love to put on certain reading lenses to look for particular elements in a poem as we read it.
4. Reading all kinds of poetry helps us improve our fluency.
5. Poetry can be fun!

If you are interested in seeing more of my new  Pausing for Poetry unit, you can find it ON SALE through Monday in my TPT store.

So, what does your week look like?

An InLinkz Link-up

Don't forget to stop back on Thursday for my other linky party, Positive Thinking Thursday.  Lots of fun inspiration and positive thoughts to carry you through the week are shared by some wonderful bloggers. Start getting your positive thoughts ready!

See you then if not sooner!  

Positive Thinking Thursday {4-17-14}

I hope you have lots to feel positive about today!  If you don't, here are a few things to get you started:

1. You woke up this morning.
2. There's a good chance you have tomorrow off.
3. Spring has arrived.  YAY!
4. It's Positive Thinking Thursday!

Every Thursday, I share a positive thought with the staff at my school that I found on Pinterest. (You can find my Pinterest Inspirations board here if you'd like to see more or follow me.)  I place these thoughts on the table in the staff lounge.  Throughout the day, teachers and staff read and/or take a copy with them.  It has been a great hit this year -- a tradition I'm glad I started.

Through this linky party, many teachers have begun their own Positive Thinking Thursday traditions at their own schools.  I hope you will consider joining in as well!  :)

Here is my positive thought of the week:

Source

Perfect for spring, wouldn't you say?

Want to join in and share some positive thinking with all of us?  Simply grab my button and link back to your post.  

An InLinkz Link-up