I teach at a magnet school.  (if you are unsure about what a magnet is, here is some background ) Because of this, my classroom (as is the entire school) is filled with a great deal of diversity.  Many of my students are the sons or daughters of immigrants to the United States.  Some are immigrants themselves.  So when we came upon our unit discussing Heritage, they each had quite a bit to bring to the table.  During this unit, we did many different projects to get the students thinking about where they came from and their own family roots.   I thought I would take this post to share some of those projects with you. To begin, we talked about what an immigrant was in general.  The students wrote paragraphs about them after we read several articles on the subject.  Now, this was before Common Core so now I can see that we totally could have tied in the close reading idea and pulled in actual evidence from the articles, instead of the basic retelling of the ideas in their own words th...
One thing that I have always instituted in my classroom is a consistent routine when it comes to entering the room.  No matter the time of day, my students know that when they come into the room there is ALWAYS something to be done.  Never do the students come in and sit around, talk to their friends, or wander.  So I wanted to share with you what exactly my kids do when they come in to maybe give you some idea of what you can do (in case you need ideas :) ) In the morning: There is actually quite a lot going on during this time.  Students are moving into small remediation groups with my aide or myself, they are getting homework checked, they unpack their things, they are recording their daily attendance money from our classroom economy into their registers, and they are working on their morning work.  But through all of this, there is not a word to be heard.  Everyone knows where to go and what to do, so they are productively working within 5 minutes of entering the room.  I reall...
Is it really October??  Wow...this year is just flying by.  Since it is the first of the month (ok, the 2nd, but who is counting?) I thought I would link up with Farley at Oh Boy, 4th Grade so you could see what is going on in my world Currently.... Yeah, not much has changed from my last two posts.  Mostly spending time with Cameron, getting to know him and enjoying every minute of my maternity leave.  I really have this itch to start getting ready for when I go back to work after leave is over, but spending time with this little man is far more appealing :)  He is just too cute!  (and for a current picture, head on over to Instagram  ;) ) As for a treat, I have some homework passes that you can use on Halloween.  I actually use these in my room because the thought of giving them more candy on that day, when the students are already hyped up, is rather unappealing to me :)  Plus, this is free for me...and anything I can do that cuts back on a trip to the store is perfect and ...