New Year, New Grade, New Classroom. . . OH MY!

     This summer has been full of workshops, gardening, riding my bike, and finding out that I'm moving to a new grade level!  This means that not only am I moving classrooms (a lot of work in and of itself), but I get to learn a new curriculum this year.  The same year we're introducing a new technology initiative.  And going further into the Common Core.

     My new fourth grade teammates have been wonderful.  Last year, they did "expert planning," where each person planned one subject for the whole grade level, resulting in each one becoming an expert in her subject.  Because of the changes in the reading and math curriculum this year, our team of six has divided in to two groups of three; one will plan math and the other will plan reading/language arts.  I'm know I'm going to learn so much from them!

     Now, on to my new room...  It's the same size and basic shape as my old room, but I'm going to have more students and bigger desks, so everything will need to be up against a wall in order to give us room to spread out and work in groups around the room.

This lovely super giant piece of furniture will (hopefully) be removed soon!  

 

Standing in the doorway, looking across the room toward the other door leading into another classroom.

My wall o' bulletin boards.  Soon to be a math board, student work wall, and data/daily objectives wall.

Still at the doorway, looking toward the front of the room and the ActivBoard.

Front corner:  teacher books, student coats/backpack hooks

Other end of the student hooks, cabinet and sink, doorway.

     And now for some close-ups!

A super cute wall sticker I got from the dollar store!  I stuck him to my filing cabinet to make it less industrial and office drab-looking.

My new small group area in front of the student work wall.  The red fabric is coming down--I need a new, calming color.

I have at least 8 boxes of books I'll need to sort through and decide how I want to organize them this year.

     I will post pictures as I decorate, arrange, and organize.  Please leave me some feedback and let me know what you like!

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...And the Work Continues

For most people summer means sun, sand, and relaxation.  For me, it means catching up on spring cleaning, yard work, and working on school stuff.  

Gardening is hard work,

 

 Not that it's all work, work, work.  One of my "projects" this summer is to watch as many of the movies and tv shows in my Netflix instant queue as possible.  Luckily, working on items to put on Teachers Pay Teachers is conducive to watching tv at the same time.  Win!

but it's also rewarding.

I've been spending time updating my pennant letters so they're one letter to a page (By popular request).  That way, you can choose which pages to print and not end up with extra, unneeded letters.

I've also been uploading more and more colors of my circle letters.  (HINT:  They make a great addition to your word building center!)

purple circle letters

light blue and black

I'm planning some games to play during small reading groups and center/workstation times.  With the addition of more and more nonfiction into the reading curriculum, I'm finding that I've been looking for more resources.  Most of the reading resources out there deal with fiction.  What are some areas that your students struggle with that you'd like some games and/or practice materials for?  I'd love to hear some suggestions so I can make items that will actually be used.  Thanks!

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A Tech Savvy Summer

Can you imagine 150 teachers in a high school cafeteria tweeting their questions, answers, ideas, and comments during a workshop?  That's what we've been doing this week! 

My friend, Kim, tweeting during our workshop.

 The happy Hounddogs of Halls Elementary school won a technology challenge put forth by our district, and we are one of 11 schools that are working toward integrating more and more technology into our curriculum... hopefully ending with 1:1 tech in each classroom (as of now, elementary classrooms are getting 5 student devices plus a teacher device, not 1:1, but getting there). We've been spending this week working together and learning about constructivist and connectivist educational theories, and learning how to implement them in our classrooms via iPad and Web 2.0 apps.  It's so exciting!   (and a little scary)

Stay tuned as I navigate through using this new shift in teaching philosophies in my classroom {and try to do better in keeping this blog updated!}  

And if you want to follow me on twitter, I've got a professional account @mslmiller123

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